Nigerian immigrant Emeka Onwugbenu (pronounced “eh-Meh-ka on-woo-Bay-nu”) arrived in Pittsburgh in 2002, and after graduating from Penn State with a degree in engineering and Carnegie Mellon University with an MBA, has become one of the most innovative developers in town in just four years. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) honored him with a design award in 2012 for his Croghans’ Edge development, a modular four townhome development in Lawrenceville that sold for over $50,000 over projections because of the demand. As MHProNews has learned from post-gazette.com, Scott Seuss with S&T Bank, who made Onwugbenu his very first loan, said, “To sell a townhouse for over $300,000 in Lawrenceville would have been unprecedented 10 years before that.” He is currently preparing to convert a school into condominiums and a church into apartments in the Pittsburgh area. ##

(Photo credit: houzzphotos.com–Croghan’s Edge modular development in Pittsburgh)