Commercial real estate involves more than building owners, brokers and agents -- it also involves other professionals such as developers, architects and what are known as corporate facilities managers. And while these are still pretty much a white person's world, there are exceptions.

Developer Irvin E. Williams, founder and chief executive officer of 10-year-old Ebony Development LLC, in the Hill District, said he and his wife "promised that if we ever got two nickels to rub together, we were going to come back and invest in our own neighborhood" in the Hill.

And in 1995, he and his wife, Denise, did just that, constructing Williams Square, a 15,000-square-foot office building on Centre Avenue near Crawford Square housing, making Williams the first African-American owner-developer of a commercial office building in Pittsburgh.

Williams followed up the first project by developing One Hope Square, a 33,000-square-foot commercial/retail complex about three blocks further east on Centre Avenue. The building is home to Ebony Development, and Williams continues to work on additional developments..

Michael Polite, president of Ralph A. Falbo Inc., a Downtown-based development firm, became concerned with urban issues after the collapse of the steel industry devastated his native Buffalo. "How can you remake cities? That's what I wanted to do," he said.

A former director of economic development for the Urban Redevelopment Authority, Polite became president of Falbo in 2003 and is in line to become head of the firm when founder Ralph A. Falbo retires. The pair recently broke ground on a condominium project on the First Side, 151 Fort Pitt Blvd.

Both Falbo and Polite believe that a major shift is occurring in commercial real estate, marked by a return to urban neighborhoods and the redevelopment of storefront properties with upper-level apartments. This shift, they say, could provide new investment opportunities for African-Americans.

When Howard Graves was growing up on the Hill, he and a childhood friend built shacks on vacant lots. For Graves, it proved something of a predictor, as he went on to head the only black-owned architectural firm in the city.

Formed in 1988, Howard Graves and Associates moved to Homewood in 1990, where for seven years it was the firm of choice for projects developed by the Homewood Brushton Revitalization Development Corporation, including a retail/office complex, housing and a community market.

Now the firm is Downtown, and Graves has entered into an agreement with URS Corp., a multinational architectural and engineering conglomerate that provides him with opportunities outside Pennsylvania. "It's been a long haul," Graves said, but he is concerned with the question, "After I'm gone, what's going to be here? I see no one coming up behind me."

Maybe Graves, 55, should look a little harder. A generation behind him is Arthur Sheffield, 33, a graduate architect with North Shore-based WTW Architects, where his recent work has focused on student centers for universities.

Sheffield is associate representative for the American Institute of Architects' Pittsburgh chapter, a position in which he represents those in the field who have not yet been licensed. He said he was one of nearly three dozen young African-American architects in the city, most of them still working to get their licenses, which requires a three-year internship.

"The talent base is here," Sheffield said. "The only question becomes: Will Pittsburgh support black architects?"

Terrell Jefferson is director of facilities administration for Allegheny General Hospital, but does not view himself "as a real estate professional. It's just one of the things that I do."

As Jefferson tells it, his entry into facilities administration happened in accidental increments. Starting at Allegheny General as a materials manager, he found himself reviewing contracts for the construction department.

Then, as the hospital expanded and began to outgrow its facilities, a vice president "gave a bunch of leases to the assistant vice president, who gave them to me and said, 'Here, you keep them.' "

That was in 1994, and he has been involved in aspects of property management ever since -- quite a stretch for someone with degrees in political science and elementary education.