Dekoda Watson in his NFL days

Erica-Nicole Harris, Project REAP vice chair

Dekoda Watson

A first-of-its-kind program is launching its 2026 cohort of current and retired NBA, NFL and WNBA athletes who want to pursue careers as commercial real estate investors, developers and decision-makers.

Called the Pro Players Property or 3P, the program launched through Project REAP, a nonprofit organization that develops underrepresented talent in commercial real estate.

Built on the success of Project REAP’s Academy model, the 3P program is tailored to meet the wealth-building and career-transition needs of athletes.

It also will combine hands-on mentorship from industry leaders with rigorous training on real estate development, finance and ownership.

The 3P program will feature three, two-week intensive courses throughout the year, designed to accommodate the demanding seasonal schedules of active athletes.

Taneshia Nash Laird, executive director of Project REAP, talked about what the courses will entail for the first official cohort.

“It’s essentially the same curriculum that we have in our legacy program but just delivered in a different way. We’re going to be substantially heavier in the case study approach. It’s all aspects of commercial real estate…introducing them to asset classes…the development and construction process of real estate, finance and investment… leasing and brokerage strategies,” she said.

The cohort will also be getting into more emerging trends in the commercial real estate field, such as industrial real estate and property technology.

Nash Laird also talked about why this new program is important to roll out, as many professional athletes are already going into real estate.

“A lot of them end up not only losing money because of other reasons, but also because they’re entering into a space without a lot of knowledge. … The goal here is to provide the knowledge and permit them to build wealth. They’re getting a lot of money in a short amount of time, but without the education, they’re not really building wealth for their families. That’s what we want to help them with,” she said.

Erica-Nicole Harris, Project REAP’s vice chair, is also the real estate development and asset management leader.

She shared what she hopes the first cohort will take away from this new program.

“One of the things that I hope to see our participants get out of this is just a broader perspective and understanding of the impact that commercial real estate has on our society, as well as our economy. When you think about commercial real estate and all the different tenets of what we touch, it’s over a trillion dollars of our GDP. We’re talking about anything from brokerage to aspects of insurance construction, so just having an increased understanding and awareness around commercial real estate,” she said.

She also hopes that the cohorts will gain a greater confidence of knowledge when getting involved in this industry.

“The second piece is that many athletes are asked to invest into real estate. I would hope that participants will gain greater confidence, but also…at least understand the financials and not just doing it because one of their teammates has said, ‘Hey, you should invest’ or their managers said, ‘You should invest in this,’ but they have the confidence and the understanding of what this deal looks like,” she said.

She hopes that the cohort will become willing to invest and pursue collaborative projects with other athletes and gain exposure to other high-profile individuals who are practitioners in the commercial real estate industry that they may otherwise not have access to.

Dekoda Watson, a former professional NFL linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, became involved in the real estate industry in 2018 when he was approached to create a fund for his life after football. He was one of the applicants for the newly launched 3P program.

“Long story short, [I] took a chance, did an investment, got a huge return on it and in the midst of all that, I was being taught about commercial [real estate] and told that maybe I should go into real estate. Fought it for a number of years, finally gave in, got my real estate license a few months ago. Then, I actually just dove into the residential side and somehow ended up in the commercial side,” he said.

While completing his mentorship, Watson heard about the new 3P program through the Vibe brokerage in Dallas, Texas. He became curious and thought that enrolling in this program would be a way to better himself as a person and an agent in everything outside of football.

Watson shares what he hopes the 3P program will help him with as a real estate professional.

“Just confidence, overall. You want to be just a master at what you’re doing — being able to explain things fluently (and) understand it fluidly. …Programs like this, it takes time, it takes studying, it takes a true commitment.

So that’s really what I want to continue to do … build confidence and awareness about what I’m doing,” he said.

He shared why it is important to have programs like this for professional athletes to have access to.

“It’s just another way of just being able to have a plan outside of football. A lot of times we as football players, athletes — I won’t speak for everybody, but I can say that our people just in general don’t know much about real estate, the benefits of it and learning more and more about the ins and outs of what a triple net lease is and what it can do, how important it is to invest. Ultimately, having a plan after football is just paramount,” he said.