Motor City Bulldog

Jun 29, 2023

UGA graduate Marcus Jones sits in front of his restaurant, Detroit Pizza Bar.

DETROIT -- It is no wonder that Marcus Jones owns five companies.

Growing up in Decatur, Georgia, he has long had a knack for business, from selling candy in seventh grade to brokering real estate at the University of Georgia. By his senior year at UGA, he had launched an online clothing boutique with friends.

“I’m an entrepreneur, and it’s all centered around construction and real estate,” Jones, who earned a degree in environmental resource science from the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2009, said. He went on to study at the University of Michigan for its confluence of degree offerings.

“I never thought I’d move to Michigan, but U of M was the only school in the country that would let me study urban planning, environmental science and real estate development, and get dual graduate degrees,” Jones, who earned master’s degrees in science and urban planning and real estate in 2012, said.

Today, he manages residential and commercial projects from acquisition to completion, specializing in historic properties and community renewal in Detroit.

“I loved learning how environmental science and real estate tied together at UGA, like figuring out how to do construction without destroying the wetlands," Jones said. "That’s when I became interested in green building and sustainable construction practices."

A highlight of his undergraduate degree was a CAES study-abroad program.

“We stayed at the UGA campus in Costa Rica and learned how to grow sustainable coffee and how it impacts ecosystems,” Jones said.

He credits the friends and support he had at UGA with helping him succeed.

“They pushed me to be my best self," he said. "I don’t think I would have been ready to go to Michigan if I didn’t go to Georgia first.”

After graduate school, Jones created MJ Realty, dedicating himself to investing in real estate and rehabbing homes in Detroit from 2012 on. The same year, he opened a vocational school, Detroit Training Center, with business partners to increase the skilled trade talent pool for demolition and renovation work.

“It’s hard to start a business when you’re not from an area and you don’t have the informal relationships,” he said. “But I think a lot of people respect that I stayed in Detroit, being from Atlanta, especially at a time when people counted Detroit out. Businesses and nonprofits welcomed me.”

A decade later, Jones and his team redeveloped an abandoned 3,000-square-foot commercial building into a 6,000-square-foot restaurant, Detroit Pizza Bar, complete with a rooftop patio, solar panels and a wood-fired pizza oven.

“We’re the official Georgia game watch spot, serving Bulldog shots with UGA decor,” he said. “We bring Athens to Detroit.”

Located in an area with mostly fast-food restaurant options, the pizzeria uses ingredients from local farmers and employs people within walking distance.

“That’s how you revitalize a neighborhood,” Jones said. “The area hadn’t had a sit-down restaurant in over 40 years. It’s extremely important to hire local and put money in the community.

“Making a difference in somebody’s life, the community and the planet — that’s what really drives me.”

In the decade since Jones founded Detroit Training Center, more than 8,000 people have received training.

“I get calls from my students all the time," he said. "They have been able to buy homes, send their kids to college, and live self-sufficiently doing jobs they never thought they’d be able to do, but now they have the skills and can make $28 an hour with benefits and pensions."

Plans are in the works for another restaurant this year, The Conservatory, a 7,000-square-foot redevelopment into a Southern Creole kitchen and raw bar next to Detroit Pizza Bar.

“It will complete a half city block of development,” he said. “If I can create a district with multiple eateries and other things to do, the whole area starts to thrive.”

Learn more about CAES alumni and regional alumni events at caes.uga.edu/alumni.

Originally published on albanyherald.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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