by Mitti Hicks
May 23, 2025
A 2022 Zillow study found that women have access to 18% less of the real estate market than men because of the wage gap. These gaps are wider for Black women.
Natasha Davis is helping Black women build wealth through real estate by laying one brick at a time. She founded The BLOC, a real estate development and investment firm, and The BLOC Foundation, a nonprofit. The BLOC is a 100% female-owned construction and investment firm and a training institute.
There’s no better person to learn from than Davis. She was a nurse at first, but kept her sights on becoming a real estate investor.
“Initially, I got my license as a realtor, thinking that was the way in,” she tells BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I learned early on that was not the case.”
At the beginning of her real estate journey, she had many issues with contractors, so she used her product management skills from nursing to start managing her projects. Davis became hands-on, eventually taking carpentry classes and posting the finished projects on social media.
Her posts consistently went viral. A common theme between comments under posts and DMs was that people wanted to know who was responsible for the work. It was a sign for Davis to take a leap of faith and launch a full construction company, so she did.
“I created a nonprofit organization to mentor girls in 2012. Through that process, I found that women also needed mentorship through the process, ” Davis says. “As I continued to build my own real estate portfolio, I had a lot of women reaching out, asking how they could get more involved.”
How The BLOC Is Creating Wealth For Women Through Real Estate
Wealth resides in real estate. A 2022 Zillow study found that women have access to 18% less of the real estate market than men because of the wage gap. These gaps are wider for Black women.
Davis is bridging that gap with her co-founders, who are also successful in real estate. They put their heads together and created a curriculum-based organization that gives women the tools to build successful real estate and construction careers.
“I heard so many horror stories about women being a part of other educational platforms and programs where they had spent a lot of money, and when they came out on the other side, they could not find success in real estate investing. I did not want that narrative associated with who I was and what I did.”
Davis and her partners have successfully watched women in their program cash checks. Through The BLOC, the program helps women become real estate investors, they have graduated 80 women. Davis and her partners have helped approximately 120 women through the nonprofit, which is mainly focused on workforce development.
The BLOC team has no plans to slow down. While based in New Jersey, the women plan to bring programming and workshops to various cities.
On June 22, The BLOC is also hosting ElevateHERa wealth-building and leadership event for women that will feature signature panels, breakout sessions, and more.
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