Darrell Cobbins

For Darrell Cobbins, real estate is essentially the family business. His interest in the field bloomed at a young age while he was growing up in Whitehaven with his grandparents. “I grew up around my grandfather’s office in the real estate business and watched him go to work every day, so real estate was in my blood,” says Cobbins. His grandfather, Samuel, became the first African-American employee for the Tennessee Department of Employment Security, where he met Bill Wolfe, who would later become his business partner in real estate.

The two opened Peace Realty and and created the Lakeview Gardens subdivision in Southwest Memphis, notable as the first middle-income neighborhood for black professionals. That trailblazing real estate legacy manifested itself in the younger Cobbins. “My brother and I were among the first African-American students to attend Memphis University School,” he says, “and I believe I was the fifth to graduate.”

After graduating from high school, Cobbins used experience from Rhodes College, a stint at Guardsmark, and other connections to be accepted into Leadership Memphis at only 23 years of age, later landing a job at the Greater Memphis Chamber. Those experiences further helped him build relationships in the business community that led to a job at Commercial Tennessee (now Cushman & Wakefield) in 2001.

“I remember the first event I went to on my first week on the job. There are broker events at different properties to market them,” says Cobbins. “I walked in and saw I was the only black person in the room. I got several questions about what I did at Cushman & Wakefield, and people reacted with surprise when I said I was a broker. No one had ever seen an African-American broker.” According to Cobbins, most women and minorities at the time worked in other facets of the business, such as property management, research, or administrative support roles.

The commercial real estate industry has been slow to embrace the diverse talent pool that Memphis has to offer. “That broker event was in 2001,” says Cobbins. “I don’t think I saw another minority, especially African American, in the industry for at least seven years. There was a time, 50 to 60 years ago, where if your name wasn’t Boyle, Snowden, Belz, Trezevant, Loeb, maybe some others, you wouldn’t be working in commercial real estate.

“It started to become more open and egalitarian in the 1970s and 1980s. Looking at it that way, the industry has evolved only about 40 years,” he continues. “The African-American experience on the commercial side was never really cultivated or developed. It’s better than it was 17 years ago, but nowhere near where it could or should be.”

One of Cobbins’ main concerns is with the economic disparity in Memphis, which deprives youth of positive experiences that can propel them to different career paths. “If you think about Dr. King’s final work, it all centered on economics. The last thing he was working on was the Poor People’s Campaign, and one of his famous quotes was, ‘I can sit at the same counter as another man, but if I don’t have a dollar in my pocket to buy a cup of coffee, it doesn’t matter.’ If you look at Memphis, the disparity is jarring.”

Cobbins says that commercial real estate is based on business growth and expansion. Without it, the industry is unable to grow, which means even fewer opportunities. “What many people don’t get is that commercial real estate is very much an eat-what-you-kill profession: 100 percent commission,” he says.” That scares some people, maybe women and minorities, who don’t have all the connections to just go out and say, ‘I’m fine with not having a check every two weeks.’ Many of our issues are borne of economic deprivation. The hope for Memphis is that the economics can change. If not, all our issues just get bigger and bigger.”

Cobbins points to investment banker and former Memphian Cedric Bobo as an example of how to reduce the gap for impoverished youth. Along with Fred Greene, Bobo founded Project Destined, which puts high school students through an eight-week training program to learn terminology, analysis, property types, and tour properties. With the help of investors, students then invest in a real property. The resulting income helps fund college tuition.

For those already inside the business, Cobbins hopes to form a diverse group that can start having real discussions about positive ways to influence diversity. “A group of people with a degree of staying power can go out and have conversations with some of the the larger companies,” he says, “and we can maybe look at what we can be doing with institutions like the University of Memphis, Rhodes College, and LeMoyne-Owen College.”

Inspiring youth is the final focus for Cobbins, who credits his Leadership Memphis experience at 23 as an eye-opening experience for learning the ins-and-outs of Memphis’ business world. “It really helped me see what the issues are at neighborhood and community level,” he says. “The exposure to individuals, awareness, leaders and players — it’s important if you can get it as young as possible. It’s empowering. We’ve got great organizations doing that right now, and I also think we need more.”

For now, as the head of Universal Commercial Real Estate, Cobbins is the only African-American commercial real estate firm owner in Memphis. With work for FedEx, the City of Memphis, and the Crosstown Concourse project, Cobbins has seen the city’s infrastructure and economy at a micro-level and wants to do right by Memphis. The photo of his grandfather hanging in the office is all the motivation and inspiration he needs to keep striving to create opportunities for others in the commercial real estate field.