Joel Dixon is Co-Principal of Urban Oasis Development, a real estate company focused on residential and commercial development on Atlanta's south and westside, where he oversees Community Development, Business Development, and Investor Relations. Born and raised on the westside, Joel is dedicated to building secure, inclusive neighborhoods in the community that raised him.
Growing up in a neglected neighborhood during the war on drugs, Joel witnessed predominantly African American communities suffer from disinvestment. This experience shaped his commitment to ensuring that as Atlanta progresses, development remains inclusive to all. He holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University and a Certificate in Mandarin Chinese from Beijing Language and Culture University. After beginning his career in tech, Joel shifted to real estate in 2011 as widespread gentrification began reshaping Atlanta, determined to create neighborhoods that better accommodate growth and diversity.
In 2017, Joel graduated from the Urban Land Institute's Center for Leadership and discovered the Incremental Development Alliance. "That solidified it. This was exactly the type of work we wanted to do and exactly the way we wanted to do it," he recalls. Working with his business partner and in-house construction partner Sims REG, Joel has developed multiple for-sale single-family homes while securing numerous investors. He joined the Alliance's Atlanta mentorship cohort and later became Alliance faculty, embodying the organization's core philosophy: from the neighborhood, for the neighborhood.
Joel believes in living within the communities he develops. "We wanted to create a model where we were actively living in the community so there was more intimacy," he explains. "We're eating our own dog food. We're going to be impacted as much as anyone else." Currently, Urban Oasis Development is renovating and building seventeen properties—including duplexes, ADUs, and single-family homes—that will be permanently affordable and encourage community diversity.
As faculty, Joel brings his deep experience working in disadvantaged, gentrifying neighborhoods to the Alliance, staying connected to developments nationwide while motivating others to take action in their own communities.
Areas of expertise: single-family, mixed-use, multi-family, creative financing, adaptive reuse
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