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Name: |
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Mr. Joe Quinones |
Month: |
January 2006 |
Schools: |
Temple Univesity BA 1993
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria 2001
Wharton School, UPenn 2003 |
Organization: |
CityLife Property Development and Management |
Title: |
Managing Partner |
Joe Quinones is the Managing Partner of CityLife Property Development and Management, which is a real estate acquisition, development, and management firm based in Philadelphia. He is a native of Harlem, New York and came to Philadelphia as a non-commissioned officer in the United States Navy in 1985. Mr. Quinones has an MBA in real estate and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude from Temple University with a Bachelor of Business Administration with concentrations in international business administration and accounting.
In spite of the above, Joe's family was quite poor but even at the age of ten he was quite industrious so, he commuted from the South Bronx, where we lived at the time, to Harlem to sell bootlegged 8 track tapes, jewelry, and other such items at an open air stand in front of the Apollo Theater.
In 1980, he joined the US Navy from which he was honorably discharged from in 1989 as a non-commissioned officer. Joe went on to receive a bachelor's degree in both accounting and international business in 1993 from Temple University in Philadelphia. He graduated magna cum laude in the top 8% of his class. In his sophomore year, Joe founded Afrocentricity United, which was a campus-based group that attracted both students and members of the community. It was through his experience with Afrocentricity United that Joe discovered what would become his two passions in life - business and the upliftment of people of African descent, especially Yoruba.
Upon graduation in 1993, Joe started a seven-year career as a corporate sales account executive at AT&T, where he was later ranked top 2 percent of the sales force globally. While at AT&T, Joe founded the Philadelphia chapter of the AT&T Alliance of Black Telecommunications Employees. Under Joe's leadership, the Alliance opened a computer literacy lab called the AT&T Learning Network Academy and also ran a computer contest throughout all of the Philadelphia high schools that awarded computers to the winners.
In 1993, he also formed Three Brothers Enterprises Cultural Travels and Tours, which planned, marketed, and took people on African culture themed trips. Three Brothers Enterprises' mission was to bring people of African descent together through culture and entertainment.
Joe developed his love for travel in The Navy and has traveled extensively internationally and has visited the Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, United Kingdom, France, Korea, Brazil, Philippines, and more.
In 1996, he started CityLife Property Development and Management, which is a real estate acquisition, development, and management company operating 22 units in Philadelphia and New York City. Joe's present development projects include developing a luxury home community in NJ and a mixed retail and residential property near Temple University which will be owned by CityLife and external investors. CityLife is also presently raising a one million dollar real estate investment fund that is open to those interested in having skilled real estate professionals invest their money.
In 2000, Joe resigned from AT&T and departed for Nigeria where he lived for 1.5 years doing graduate work in Yoruba history and religion at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife. Joe's interest in Nigeria is due to being able to trace his lineage to the Yoruba people of Nigeria and a town named Ilesa. Joe became active in the Nigerian village he lived in and organized numerous USA - Nigeria clothing drives and raised disaster relief money for victims of an explosion in Lagos. On the eve of his departure to return to the USA, out of recognition for his activism in the Yoruba Land region of Nigeria, the Yoruba community enstooled Joe as Chief Orisagbemi of ILE IFE.
Most recently, In Philadelphia, Joe formed the Coalition which seeks to reassert the needs of the community in the political process.
Joe's thesis is that talented African-American professionals can be the modern day warriors of their community and use their skill sets to develop economic and political assets for their group that can be used to improve their social conditions and empowerment as a group. Joe aspires to use his skills as a developer and real estate entrepreneur to rebuild and revitalize distressed and emerging neighborhoods in Urban America.
Joe can be reached at jtquinones@clpdm.com and www.clpdm.com.
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