Baye Adofo-Wilson
Of Counsel

Baye Adofo-Wilson is a lawyer, consultant and real estate developer with expertise in arts and cultural districts, sustainability and mixed-income housing. He focuses his law practice on New Jersey Redevelopment Law and Opportunity Zones.

Baye has a real estate development and consulting firm, BAW Development LLC, which focuses on developing transformative, residential and mixed-use projects in urban communities. Currently, BAW Development, LLC is in partnership with RPM Development to preserve and rehabilitate Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, NJ, a historic Negro League baseball Stadium. They will also develop a restaurant, exhibition space, housing and a parking structure. BAW Development is also designated developer of the West Lake Redevelopment Area in Neptune, New Jersey, a historic African-American Community and they are planning to develop 124 units of mixed-income housing, 10,000 square feet retail, commercial and a restaurant. BAW Development, LLC is also working in Jackson, Mississippi, helping to revitalize Farish Street, the historic African American entertainment district, and the development of the city’s Opportunity Zones. 

Baye was formerly Deputy Mayor/Director of Economic and Housing Development (EHD) for Newark, NJ. While he was at EHD’s helm, Newark had an unprecedented $2+ billion of development, including annually 2,000 units of housing built, three million square feet of commercial development and three million square feet of industrial development. Baye managed the development of two significant parks in Newark: Mulberry Commons, a three-acre park in the city’s downtown, and three-mile-long Riverfront Park, along the Passaic River. As the Director of EHD, Baye managed the departments of housing, property management, real estate, economic development, planning, zoning and the office of sustainability. 

Baye was a 2014-2015 Urban Design Critic at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a member of the 2013-2014 Loeb Fellows class at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. While at Harvard, he examined strategies and opportunities for reimagining and rebuilding low-income communities using sustainability, culture and real estate development as a model to spur economic development and increase local participation. 

Before Harvard, he co-founded the Lincoln Park/Coast Cultural District, an organization redeveloping the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the City of Newark. He led a comprehensive effort to transform a low-income Newark neighborhood into a sustainable cultural district that included affordable housing and mixed-use developments, urban agriculture, music festivals, historic restoration and workforce development projects.

Baye is a decorated US Army veteran.