We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jasmine Michaels. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jasmine below.

Alright, Jasmine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

OASES is a Sanctuarii (TM) Development and Regenerative Investment Firm. We envision, design and build transformative spaces that merge integrative wellness with entrepreneurship, in order to support human beings in realizing their potential for abundance. We aspire to transform the built environment in a way that centers economic enhancement, while also supporting the creation a full, balanced, and joyful ecosystem. With nature as our guide, we operate under the motto that “Inner Oasis” creates “Outer Sanctuary,.” At OASES, we understand that realestate development, architecture, business development and fundamentally urban planning, can be utilized as practices towards the cultivation of Self. We take the revolutionary perspective that even realestate can be done in alignment with one’s own highest purpose. This approach to business is centered around empowering individuals and communities to pursue their full potential— what Author Paulo Coelho called living out your “personal legend” what Meditation teacher Mooji calls “Realizing the Self” and what cultures all around the world aim for when creating healthy social structures. At OASES, there is no fundamental difference between being successful in business and living a “spiritual” like, or living what the Greek Stoics may have called a principled life. Quantum Entanglement teaches us that everything is everything. The way we treat ourselves, and one another, is a direct reflection of the quality of the physical, built spaces we launch in partnership with community.

My mission of creating a “Sanctuary in Every Space and an Oasis in Every Person” was inspired by my childhood spent primarily in nature, my love of philosophy and my belief that we can create paradise on Earth when we learn to work together. However, when I was diagnosed with Lupus at age 25 as the result of stress and past trauma, I had to take a complete rehaul of my life. Drawing on my dual passions for business ( I hold an MS in marketing from Florida International University) and my passion for spirituality (I hold a second Master’s in Women’s Spirituality from the California institute for Integral Studies) I began to cultivate practice of development that would be regenerative—a sharp distinction from the approach to extractive development that often leads to unbridled gentrification of communities of color. OASES’ Sanctuariis are multifaceted, wellness centered, nature focused, urban renewal spaces that emphasize community gathering, connection and holistic wellbeing, designed to spur community health and enhance neighborhood economic vitality.

Jasmine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Jasmine Michaels. I am a regenerative developer, and Founder/CEO of the Sanctuarii Development and Regenerative Investment firm OASES. I build and design sanctuary spaces and coined the term Sanctuarii Development to describe both: 1. the particular kind of physical spaces that I curate, and 2. my approach the the art of development, which centers integrity, dignity, harmony and the pursuit of peace. I partner with communities and organizations to envision spaces that create pivotal transformation in places ready to cultivate their existing resources for the betterment of their entire community.

I work with an incredible team of partners, including Studio Barnes (architecture), Nation Builders (construction/generalcontracting), Sesenergi Eco Solutions (eco-sustainability), and Tara Rodrigues Interiors (interior design), Anu Breath Systems (wellness planning) and Marquan Jones consulting (branding/marketing). Through these partnerships, OASES launches spaces that embody creative excellence, using ann innovative mode that allows lasting profit to flows back into the communities I love.

I primarily center Chicago’s South and West Sides. I tell people that London Birthed me, and Miami raised me, but Chicago gave me life! I am currently cultivating a farm-to-table diner in West Garfield Park with Bethel New Life Inc., developing a community center in Bronzeville with the nonprofit ITAV (It Takes a Village), and working with seven partner organizations as part of the Austin Food Ecosystem Initiative to help recenter wellness and food justice in Austin. These efforts build on my earlier work co-founding the South Side Sanctuary in Bronzeville and reflect my commitment to designing spaces that nourish, restore, and transform.

The sanctuaries I develop extend far beyond physical space. In collaboration with Isaiah Frandsen, and his company Anu Breath, OASES works to incorporate full integrative programming into our operational strategies, allowing us to merge holistic well-being with profitability. We take projects from inception through operations, using a leadership model that does not emphasize burnout—particularly for BIPOC entrepreneurs—but instead prioritizes sustainable practices of collaborative, ecosystem-forward development.

Our work spans the full arc of development: high-level project management and visioning, capital stack development and resource acquisition, regenerative investment, integrative programming, architecture and construction, design management, branding, and creative direction. We also offer multiple pathways for collaboration. In some projects, we join as partners or collaborative investors, offering services in exchange for fair equity. In others, we develop projects for a service fee—or, we collaborate internally as a team and launch our own projects.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our reputation was not something OASES set out to manufacture—it grew organically from the way we live and work. From the beginning, we’ve been rooted in the principles of Creative Excellence, Integrity, and Harmony. These are not abstract values for us; they are the measures by which we design, collaborate, and commit to every project.

For me, the vision of Sanctuarii is deeply personal. As an entrepreneur diagnosed with Lupus, and actively on the journey towards complete remission, I was forced to restructure my own life around what it truly means to center wellness while still remaining profitable. That journey taught me that profitability and wellbeing are not opposites—they can be held together if you design with intention. I can’t afford not to walk the walk, and that authenticity has become the foundation of how OASES operates.

My path has also been shaped by both rigorous academic study and spiritual practice: two Master’s degrees—one in Marketing and one in Women’s Spirituality—alongside years of immersive, in-person study in regenerative practices, and a foundation in Advaita Vedanta under Mooji, and being part of a family that has always prioritized having a relationship with a higher power informs everything I do. This integration of scholarship, lived healing, and contemplative tradition informs how I approach development not just as building, but as sanctuary-making.

Our reputation is continuously reinforced through consistency: showing up for communities with honesty, listening deeply before acting, and creating spaces that honor both inner life and the built environment. Over time, partners, neighbors, and institutions began to recognize that OASES is not the typical developer. We’ve collaborated with partners across Chicago to cultivate projects that regenerate rather than extract. We emphasize cultivation, sustainable wealth generation, community regeneration, and organized collaboration over extraction and a limited perspective of the bottom line. We’ve earned trust by demonstrating an alignment between what we say and how we live.

Perhaps the biggest indication of our consistency comes from partnerships I choose. By collaborating with Anita Andrews Hutchinson and Nakisha Hobbs from organizations like It Takes a Village Family of Schools, reaching beyond the private sector into partnerships with the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and staying rooted in community with Sharif Walker from Bethel New Life Inc. and Jim “Mjenzi” Webb, of The K, we are held to a standard of excellence. Our partners both challenge and inspire us to be our best.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

At OASES, I had to unlearn the idea that conflict and competition are the only avenues through which we address injustice and create change. True sanctuaries are spaces where the entire ecosystem is thriving in balance. Any time spent in unnecessary conflict works against that mission.

This philosophy extends beyond our work into my life. I continually check in with myself: Am I being an oasis for myself? Am I moving with integrity—in business and in life? Am I holding strong boundaries while cultivating beauty and harmony, or am I creating discord? How can I create a sanctuarii in this moment?

As both a design practice and a business, OASES approaches development with diversity and flexibility, honoring the lessons Mother Earth models for us. The keys to success, I’ve learned, are all found in nature, hidden in plain sight. Nature is regenerative, adaptable, and sustainable; it moves with the seasons and teaches us to honor one another.

In my traditional Igbo culture, that whole ecosystem, or highest spirit—is a conscious unity we call Chukwu. This is my raison d’être: to advance Sanctuarii Development as a model where the whole system operated in a flow of abundance, sustainability. Where people are empowered to generate and enjoy wealth, both individually and as community. I often say, we don’t chase wealth, abundance finds us! To me, abundance is not accumulation—it is a reciprocal relationship with Earth and the whole, where the pursuit of happiness is rooted in the wellbeing of everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.beoases.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasminetheoasis/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminetheoasis/
• Other: South Side Sanctuary Website – https://southsidesanctuary.org/

Image Credits

Dante Davidson
Kory Powell
Myles Wright
Joshua Ruan