Fellowship Spotlight: CRE Endeavors

Whitney Ward, Founder and General Partner of CRE-Endeavors Multifamily Fund I, is on a mission to invest with strategic ownership to establish a legacy of wealth creation and stewardship. “I started this GP fund to direct impact that spans generations,” she shares. “For me, real estate is more than an investment strategy. It’s building legacy, it’s elevating communities, it’s unlocking ownership at scale.” 

Fund Thesis and Strategy

CRE-Endeavors Multifamily Fund I is a real estate private investment fund based in Atlanta, Georgia. “We invest as the Sponsor/General Partner in lower-middle market multifamily properties across high-growth supply-constrained submarkets within a 4-hour radius of Atlanta, GA,” Ward explains. “Our strategy is focused on existing multifamily properties that are well-occupied and offer a combination of cash flow and value creation.” Ward is setting out with a $10M target raise to invest and own approximately 10-15 properties, valuing approximately $350M in multifamily real estate.

While Ward sees great value and necessity in developing more affordable housing, she sees bigger opportunities with the existing housing supply of multifamily communities. Focusing on well-occupied properties will provide financial returns as well as an opportunity to address existing community needs. "Real estate is more than property—it’s a catalyst for wealth creation and social good. Our strategy builds durable generational wealth, empowers us to deploy impact where it’s needed most, and generates superior long-term returns," says Ward.

Expanding Ownership to Direct Impact

“From an investment standpoint, multifamily is a necessity to our economy,” Ward emphasizes, underscoring how her multifamily focus makes sense from a market perspective. “Multifamily ownership puts investors in a position to always be able to provide housing and to also weather different market cycles.” 

Her fund, which is an extension of her commercial real estate brokerage firm, is offering an alternative to the typical experience of LPs having passive roles with capped returns. “Our structure provides LPs with access to GP-level upside, with flow-through tax advantages, strategic alignment, and a position of ownership to direct impact. In order to achieve impact at scale, we need ownership first. From there, we can "cut through the red tape" and create solutions, at will, that add value to real estate stakeholders (investors, residents, communities, etc.) - financial and impactful alike.” She adds that all of this is being done in the context of also mitigating risk. “When I think about creating something that mitigates risk, the investment strategy is focused on acquisitions of existing housing supply, not ground-up development where there are significant variables to achieving returns and impact.” 

In her experience as a real estate broker and consultant, she has helped her clients build their wealth and long-term business strategies. “I’ve done this work for years, but now it’s time to participate in the equity alongside investors, to create legacy, long-term growth, and impact at scale,” she says. “Without decision-making ownership, we can’t control strategy, protect capital, or align investments with community outcomes. Once we’re in the position of control as a general partner fund, we can direct our strategic partnerships and the impact on communities.” And the time and energy she’s invested in her work in the real estate space has resulted in a formidable network made up of strong relationships.

A Unique Path to Leadership

While Ward gained technical experience through her previous work in corporate sales and marketing and then as a real estate broker and consultant, her upbringing and personal path instilled core characteristics, values, and a distinct capacity for leadership—all of which serve to fortify her effectiveness as a fund manager. 

She grew up in the DMV area, the oldest of four in a working-class family that instilled discipline, integrity, and faith. “I applied these principles earlier in my life when I committed to elite-level basketball at the age of 12,” she explains, “which then earned me a full Division 1 basketball scholarship to George Mason University.” She paid it forward by coaching elite-level basketball at private high schools and within the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). And her dedication to a practice that demands discipline and precision didn’t stop there. 

For the past several years, Ward has also trained and competed in Brazilian jiu jitsu. “If you know anything about martial arts,” she says, “it contributes significantly to personal development and growth.” She underscores that the commitment, perseverance, and discipline required to perform as a high-level athlete are transferable to her work in real estate private equity. “When you think about entrusting someone with your capital, you want someone with unique leadership qualities who’s been in the position to overcome challenges and understands how to execute and hit benchmarks.” 

Learning the Value of Legacy

While her basketball prowess may well have earned Ward a professional contract, some of the decisions she made through her time in undergrad took her away from that path and led to enduring challenges. “When I moved home after college,” she reflects, “I had a good job, saved some money, and was looking to establish my career path.” Her curiosity about home ownership was piqued at this young age. 

She learned that her grandmother had been a house worker for former Mayor of Atlanta, Sam Massell, whose family was three generations deep in real estate ownership, and wondered, “Why can’t we do this? Somebody’s got to change the course of just working without a plan for the future.” 

She decided she would try to buy a house, but needed a cosigner, given that she was still in her 20s and making relatively little money. As she explains it, her parents weren’t ready to support her in this way. Her father was morally supportive, but ultimately concerned about avoiding any unintended impacts that cosigning might have on his own credit.

“I felt defeated that my parents didn’t support me on my journey,” she says. But she sees the bigger picture now. “At the time, it didn’t resonate for me that this was the result of a lack of financial literacy.” When she started to get into real estate several years later, she sought out and gained knowledge that helped her better understand the dynamics of why her parents weren’t willing to take a risk on her decision at the time. 

“My family taught me how to work hard and save money, but they didn’t have the tools to understand how to build a legacy for the next generation so that we can continue to grow as a people.” Ward’s deep passion for building legacy—informed by her own life and career experiences—is the driving force and foundation for her current work.

Prioritizing Collective Well-Being Over Individual Gains

After growing up in a setting where she was in the position—as the first child—to consider the well-being of her family, Ward found herself in a career environment that rewarded competitiveness more than collaboration or concern for the collective. In her years working in corporate roles, prior to real estate, she realized that the industry incentivized high performance with individual rewards, but seemingly had no regard for legacy. This observation motivated Ward to step into a space where legacy could be the motivation at the forefront of her work: real estate.

“I bootstrapped and launched my real estate practice in 2016,” she shares. In order to do so, she invested time and money into mastering business development, operations, and asset and market specialization. Her hard work translated into her ability to execute $362M in real estate transactions across multifamily and residential acquisitions, project management, and dispositions. 

She accomplished all of this as a broker and consultant on behalf of private capital, high net worth investors, and private investment firms. “I’ve done the brokerage, I’ve done consulting, but this is an opportunity to build legacy and really direct impact,” she says of her work to raise a fund. “Especially in assets like real estate, you have to be in a position of control so you can also protect your capital while aligning with community outcomes.” Now with nearly a decade of real estate experience, Ward is helping others take control of their assets in support of self-determined community outcomes.

The Value of Participating in VC Include’s Fellowship

In February, after raising capital for 6 months, Ward ran into a roadblock. She had to walk away from a partnership due to misalignment around values. “That hurt my business,” she acknowledges, “but I had to make that tough decision, and what it taught me was that, no matter what, at the end of the day, my values mean everything to me, and I’m able to make real decisions to sleep well at night.” And as it often goes, there was something to gain on the other side of the risk she took. She was accepted into the fellowship just after parting ways with her former partner. 

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” she says. “The timing of getting accepted into this fellowship was right, and I’ve been able to see how I can build this company now that it’s on me as a solo GP.” She elevates the particular value of the contacts she’s gained and the curriculum—both in terms of content and structure. “They did a good job with the entire curriculum, and I got a mentor out of this! This kind of opportunity has never happened for me. I’m grateful.” 

Ward’s lived experience and personal connection to her fund’s development and thesis were clear to VCI’s program team from the start. She is a proximate leader who knows that problems are best solved by those who have lived through them. We are grateful to be supporting Ward and look forward to seeing how she continues to invest in impact that stands the test of time.