About Reframe It

Seth Brown

Seth A. Brown is a real estate investor and social entrepreneur dedicated to rethinking how America's cities, suburbs and rural areas work.

As a real estate investor, he focuses on residential development in New York City's growing neighborhoods, with a particular focus on Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. He specializes in projects where financial, legal, and political issues intersect – for example, developing a contextual building in a historic neighborhood in Brooklyn, or developing a proprietary asset management model for a national firm's 13,000-unit rent-regulated apartment portfolio. He is also a strong proponent of green building, and incorporates green technologies into all Aspen Equities LLC projects.

In 2002, he co-founded The Next American City Inc., a not-for-profit organization that promotes socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth in America's cities. Described by The New York Times as a "subtle plan to change the world," the organization's quarterly magazine has examined everything from new ideas in affordable housing finance to the role religion has played in saving New York City's neighborhoods. Under Seth's leadership, the organization has grown from a volunteer-led startup into a not-for-profit with national impact.

Seth was born in Toronto and grew up in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Yale College, where he studied history, and later received an MBA from the Yale School of Management, where he concentrated in finance.