Britnie Turner

Keane (then Britnie Turner) was born in North Augusta, South Carolina, in 1988. She was the second of six children. Her father, William Turner was a mechanical engineer and entrepreneur, and her mother, Deborah Turner, was a schoolteacher. Keane was homeschooled until the 9th grade, after which she joined North Augusta public school, from where she graduated in 2006.

As a student, Keane developed an interest in philanthropy and was part of an informal, social group called Bringing U My Savior (BUMS), which she created with her friends. Through this group, Keane supported in fixing up homes for the elderly. She then joined Special Forces, a leadership and survival program conducted by the MorningStar University, a ministry school in South Carolina started by Rick Joyner, to learn the skills of surviving in extreme situations. In 2007, she went to Costa Rica on a missions trip along with a survival team called Special Forces, where she decided that philanthropy would be her line of service.

Keane's experience in the real estate field started from her MorningStar days when she attended a speaking session with Gene Strite, a real estate investor who is also currently her mentor. Strite inspired Keane to look at real estate as an option to build money for her mission. Her first real estate investment was her first house that she bought during the 2007 recession. 

Early Struggle Period

Keane underestimated the crippling effect of the recession period and soon had to work multiple jobs simultaneously to pay back the almost $150,000 loan she had taken to buy the house. During this period she also read books on real estate investment to learn about the profession.

She had moved to Nashville the same year to work for two real estate investors without any pay. Through this 9-month stint, she learned how the real estate business works and soon started flipping houses independently. She built expertise in identifying properties, and then refurbishing and reselling them. After her first experience of flipping a house in 2011, she moved on to flip more than 100 houses until 2013. She also took up infill and mixed-use development projects, focusing on urban localities.

Early Criticism

Keane worked by focusing on houses occupied by squatters, refurbish the homes, and revamp the neighborhood before resale. Initially, this approach was viewed with skepticism and apprehension, even by the banks that she approached for investment. The concept of developing blighted urban neighborhoods deemed commonly as unsafe was not a popular opinion when Keane embarked on this approach.

Aerial Development Group

Keane founded the Aerial Development Group in 2009, during her initial struggle phase. A Nashville-based group, Aerial focuses on revitalizing urban neighborhoods - both residential and commercial - in Tennessee through infill and renovation projects. With their declared mission of empowering people, sustaining the planet, and utilizing capitalism as a force for good, Aerial now owns five other companies under their brand name, recording a 2000+% growth across 5 years and generating a revenue of about $23 million in 2015.

Aerial is known in Nashville's real estate market for converting neighborhoods on the fringe zone of development into fast-growing and livable localities. They rebuild the rundown homes in these localities and associate with businesses who are willing to invest commercially in these neighborhoods, thus increasing the market value of these areas.

Their headquarters is also a rehabbed structure - Nashville's historic Workmen's Circle Hall.    

Aerial's five other companies

Aerial Builders

Aerial Builders is the in-house builders for the Aerial Group and specialize in taking up residential projects.

Aerial by Design

Aerial by Design is the design house of the Aerial Group and they also sell home plans online.

AerialBnB

Aerial BnB takes care of managing permitted and short-term rentals in Nashville in association with Airbnb.

Aerial Properties

Aerial Properties has expertise in renovating multi-family apartment complexes.

Aerial Produced

Aerial Produced is a creative media agency focusing on managing the branding and marketing of single-family homes and mixed-use developments.

Keane also in parallel pursues philanthropic activities through Aerial by associating with local groups and by contributing a percentage of their profits to sponsor orphans in Africa.

After every home is sold, Aerial sponsors an orphan in the name of the home's buyer for a year. After this period, it's the homeowner's decision to continue the sponsorship. This work is done in association with Horizon Initiative, a non-profit organization.

Through Aerial Development Group, Keane is also associated with other organizations for its philanthropic activities such as World Vision, REIN (Real Estate Investors of Nashville), ULI (Urban Land Institute), Nashville Greenway, Habitat for Humanity, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Civic Design Center, YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association), Hands on Nashville, Social Venture Network, and The Well Coffeehouse.

At the 2015 Global Diversity Leadership Exchange program on Millennials Making Global Impact leadership session at the United Nations Headquarters, Keane confirmed that her organization would seek differently abled people and provide employment opportunities at Aerial Development Group.

In 2017, Turner married Carroll Keane.