Building With Compassion: How One For-Profit Developer Is Closing Nashville's Affordable Housing Gap

September 16, 2025 | 11:59 a.m. ET AGB Real Estate Julia Troy, Studio B Editor

Courtesy of AGB Real Estate

A unit at Wallace Studios, a development from AGB Real Estate.

No state in the U.S. has an adequate supply of affordable housing to meet its needs. It is estimated that Tennessee will need to build 120,000 affordable units by 2030 to meet the demand, and 55,000 of those units are needed in Nashville. 

“Building the necessary capital stack, finding property or land, gaining community support — all of these are challenges affordable housing developers face,” AGB Real Estate co-founder Ryan Samuel said. 

Samuel and co-founder Adam Rosenberg are lifelong friends and for-profit developers who share a simple goal: deliver quality homes to people who need them most and operate those homes with uncommon care. Through AGB’s service-enriched model, they have already helped hundreds of Nashville residents and now oversee more than 250 affordable homes with in-house management.

Bisnow sat down with Rosenberg and Samuel to learn more about AGB’s mission — and how their public-private partnerships, adaptive reuse expertise and in-house operations are helping Nashville fill the affordable housing gap while delivering reliable outcomes for investors.

“We don’t look at residents as rent checks,” Rosenberg said. “We design, build and run communities we’d be proud to live in ourselves — then layer in supports that keep people stable. That’s how we do well by doing good for our investors, our community and our residents.” 

Those design features include stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and other details that help people feel proud of their new homes, he said. 

Rosenberg will speak at Bisnow’s Nashville Affordable Housing Summit on Sept. 18 on a panel titled Setting the Stage: Understanding the Policy, Financing and Partnerships Fueling Affordable Housing. Register here for the event. 

Doing Right By Everyone 

Samuel said that structuring a capital stack that works is one of the toughest parts of affordable housing.

“We’re for-profit and mission-driven, which means we welcome capital wherever it aligns — private investors, community development financial institutions and public partners,” Samuel said. “Nashville has been a great place for true public-private collaboration.” 

Another key part of the firm’s “do the right thing” mentality is to provide residents as much support as possible by listening to their real-world needs, which includes providing residents with free annual bus passes and working with them to resolve de minimis missing rent payments rather than going to court or adding punitive and potentially crippling fees. 

Rosenberg added that other major challenges the team has faced include finding acquisition opportunities that are correctly priced for affordable housing developments that take into account the significant renovation costs, such as code and life safety requirements, which can be very expensive. 

“In our motel-to-apartment conversions, where we are able to convert to affordable housing extremely quickly, transforming 120-plus units in under nine months, we are required to put new electrical panels and sprinkler systems in every unit,” he said. 

Working Quickly 

Rosenberg said that one of the core tenets of AGB is that it works quickly for both its tenants and investors. He spoke about the development of Wallace Studios, a former Nashville motel AGB turned into 132 housing units. This was a gut renovation that included new electrical, plumbing, kitchens, bathrooms, fire, life safety and the addition of three apartment units. 

“When we approached the Office of Homeless Services and we said we would have the project done in less than a year, they basically looked at us like we had four heads,” he said. “We ended up delivering even earlier than that, and since then, we have enjoyed a very collaborative and effective partnership housing over 300 individuals.” 

He added that working at this velocity didn’t just help people get the housing they need sooner but also panned out well for investors. 

Bolstering The Community 

On another project, Rosenberg and Samuel partnered with the Barnes Housing Trust Fund and a nonprofit called I Am Next to acquire a 120-unit property. With traditional subsidies in flux, AGB, I Am Next, the Department of Children's Services and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency collaborated to secure a completely new type of housing voucher from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This special purpose voucher for young adults with foster care history had never been used in Nashville before and has been crucial in supporting the project’s mission of housing young adults.

“Together, we brought this subsidy to the city for the first time, and so far we have housed more than 50 young adults,” Samuel said. “As residents stabilized and incomes rose, they contributed more rent, reducing the public subsidy burden — a win for residents who become upwardly mobile and purposeful, a win for the taxpayers and the property’s long-term health.” 

Rosenberg said listening to tenants is another core value of AGB. The company heard that tenants want developers to do more to bolster the community. In response, AGB has partnered with local nonprofits that come on-site to provide medical care, mental health assistance, food, living supplies and more. 

Those supports include on-site peer support specialists, overnight security and transportation partnerships such as sponsored bus passes — practical services that reduce turnover and create calmer, safer communities.

Spreading The Word 

Rosenberg said he was inspired to attend Bisnow’s Nashville Affordable Housing Summit because while so many rewards come with providing housing to those in need, there are many challenges as well. Samuel added that AGB has housed hundreds of people who were previously chronically homeless, and he hopes that through events like this, it can shine a light on the importance of this work and the few who are doing it. 

“We've housed over 300 folks with the most challenging backgrounds, many of whom have not had homes for many years,” Samuel said. “We are a full-stack developer and operator, and we believe that allows us not only to house our people better and more compassionately but also provide attractive returns to our investors.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between AGB Real Estate and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com. 

Contact Julia Troy at julia.troy@bisnow.com