In the common shorthand of the street and business world, Roberto Young has cred.

A college football player (University of Memphis), the Sumner High School alum graduated on time in 2002 with a degree in computer and electrical engineering.

His next stop: the MBA program at Harvard Business School.

Young was on summer break, working as an intern at Boeing, when he negotiated his first business transaction, borrowing against a credit card to buy a distressed property near his childhood home in north St. Louis.

Using the same formula, Young and his partner and brother, Darrick, have since purchased six other homes in disrepair at a reduced price, renovated the structures and then leased the property through the housing authority to low-income residents.

It's a model Young hopes to replicate time and again in the future.

Make no mistake, profit certainly enters into the equation (remember, this is an entrepreneur with a Harvard MBA on the wall).

Of equal importance to Young is the chance to play a part in the renaissance of his hometown.

St. Louis is "the fabric that makes up who I am," the unabashed Young said in a telephone interview from his office, more than 550 miles away in Atlanta.

It's talent like Young that regional leaders have in mind when they bemoan the loss of homegrown intellect to New York, Chicago and .... Atlanta.

"There are lots of young people who want to stay or who have left and want to come back," said Rick Sullivan, the former CEO of McBride and Son Homes, currently serving as chairman of the Special Administrative Board overseeing the St. Louis Public Schools.

"I'd love to see this kid come back. He's bright, articulate and experienced with a great entrepreneurial attitude. He could be a real asset for St. Louis."

Sullivan gets no argument on that count from the self-confident Young.

As it now stands, the 29-year-old continues to draw his primary income from a position as a financial adviser with the Atlanta branch of a major investment firm.

But his heart, clearly, lies in One Touch Real Estate Management, the company he formed with Darrick.

Five of the One Touch properties are in Atlanta, where Darrick, a middle-school teacher, also lives.

The other two are in St. Louis.

Roberto Young comes across countless opportunities to transform other properties in north St. Louis from an "eyesore into an operation" every time he returns to St. Louis and the Cote Brilliante Avenue home where he grew up and his parents still live.

With the exception of the two St. Louis properties One Touch has already rehabbed, those opportunities have gone wanting.

The reason, Young says, is the hesitance of local rainmakers — investors — to risk capital on "community-focused" ideas such as those embedded in the business plan of One Touch Real Estate.

That reluctance, Young adds, is what differentiates St. Louis from the city where he and his brother have rehabbed five debilitated properties. A city with a 'significant capital market presence." A city like Atlanta.

For all of Atlanta's virtues as a distribution hub and the financial capital of the New South, Young contends there is another metropolitan area with an even greater upside.

"One with three rivers running into it that is literally in the center of the country, so it's perfect for transportation," he said.

St. Louis.

Young dreams often of making good in his hometown.

The dream runs counter to reality the moment Young takes the objective step back to view it from a "professional perspective."

In that context, he says simply, "I just don't see it."

But Sullivan does and is quietly starting to spread word about Young and his business acumen to associates in the business community. He's doing it because he believes in what Young hopes to accomplish as well as to prove a point.

"The idea that young people leave here and don't want to come back here is just wrong," he said.

Roberto Young, meanwhile, will continue returning to St. Louis as a visitor, not a resident — a status he promises will change the moment an investor steps forward.

Coming home for good, he says, is a "no-brainer ... it's a personal thing with me. That's where my heart is."

And one day, perhaps, his business as well.