In Texas and across the country, Aaron works with public-sector, private-sector, and nonprofit clients to shape equitable and implementable real estate projects, policies, strategies, and public space investments. Aaron’s expertise in real estate, public finance, parks and open space, public policy, economic development, and organizational strategy helps clients develop strong visions and plans and the structures, resources, and processes to implement them. Aaron leads HR&A’s Texas office in Dallas. 

On behalf of public and private landowners, Aaron has managed some of HR&A’s largest district pre-development advisory projects. Aaron has been a strategic partner and development advisor to Rice Management Company, which manages the Rice University Endowment, for both the 300,000 square foot Ion innovation hub and broader 16-acre Ion District, overseeing real estate and programmatic development of the project with the goals of creating a thriving and inclusive tech ecosystem in Houston. This work included the development and adoption of a robust Community Benefits Agreement guiding over $15M in commitments to workforce inclusion, entrepreneurship, and housing affordability. In Denver, Aaron helped guide the owners of the 40-acre Broadway Station project through a market-supportable master plan and a public financing strategy to develop one of Denver’s largest and most complex transit-oriented development sites. In Fort Worth, Aaron manages the team developing an updated Strategic Vision for Panther Island, a 400+ acre site adjacent to Downtown with great economic and real estate development potential associated with upcoming transformation of the Fort Worth Central City waterfront through major flood control investment.  

Aaron works with cities, nonprofit organizations, and civic partnerships to craft policies and strategic plans that reflect and advance clients’ missions and aspirations. Since 2021, Aaron has served as an advisor to the City of Dallas in policy development and implementation for the City’s Economic Development Policy that for the first time prioritizes Southern Dallas and communities of color, including crafting updates to economic development incentives, historic preservation policies, and community development functions. Aaron guided Downtown Dallas, Inc., the nonprofit responsible for championing Downtown Dallas and managing the downtown Public Improvement District, through the organization’s first strategic planning process, culminating in a new mission and focused priorities for the organization. In Cleveland, Aaron advised the Greater Cleveland Partnership and its public and private sector partners on the development model and governance strategy for the transformation of the Cleveland North Coast Lakefront, resulting in the creation of a new Waterfront Development Authority to steward the project. Aaron also developed a new five-year strategic plan for the Tulsa’s Future Initiative, the public-private regional economic development plan led by the Tulsa Regional Chamber, as the organization navigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Aaron has provided analysis and implementation planning for transformative urban parks and public spaces. Aaron worked closely with the Buffalo Bayou Partnership on the investment strategy and master plan for Buffalo Bayou East, a four mile extension of the waterfront park system including park, trail, and community development. For the Trinity Park Conservancy, which is driving a vision for Harold Simmons Park in Dallas, HR&A prepared an Equitable Development Toolkit and real estate impact study to help guide planning and implementation. Aaron’s work includes impact analysis and implementation strategies for other clients and projects including the Dallas Park & Recreation Department, Klyde Warren Park, the Texas Trees Foundation, Kansas City Washington Square Park, and Shaker Square in Cleveland. 

Aaron joined HR&A in 2013 in New York City and moved to Dallas in 2015 to launch the Texas office. Prior to HR&A, Aaron spent two years working in Southeast Asia. As a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Aaron coordinated fundraising efforts for the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, an NGO working to reduce road traffic injuries and fatalities in the developing world. He later joined Intel in Bangkok, Thailand, where he supported the regional Corporate Social Responsibility team. Previously, Aaron worked for Slavic Village Development, a community development organization in Cleveland, and for the Supportive Housing Network of New York. 

Aaron holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University, where he also received a certificate in Urban Studies. 

Amitabh brings over 20 years of national and international experience and a deep understanding of public private partnerships (P3s) and value capture strategies to support a wide range of public infrastructure investments and economic development. Amitabh combines rigorous diagnosis, robust policy testing, and diverse stakeholder input to craft implementation strategies for complex public private partnerships.

Amitabh helps implement real estate leveraged P3s in a way that optimizes public real estate value and creates broader community benefits. With analytical acumen and multidisciplinary thinking, Amitabh designs credible P3 solutions that effectively balances public and private sector objectives. He helped negotiate the development agreement between the City of San Jose and Google, where Google has committed to deliver a $200 Million community benefits package related to their planned Downtown West project in San Jose. For the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, he developed a joint development strategy for station-adjacent sites along the BART Silicon Valley Extension, which helped VTA secure one of the first allocations under the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Expedited Project Delivery (EPD) program. He is also supporting the San Diego Association of Government (SANDAG) on the P3 implementation of it’s Central Mobility Hub project.

Amitabh designs creative value capture strategies to support infrastructure and community benefits. His work is particularly focused on ‘Restorative Infrastructure’ that seek to redress previous disinvestment and create broad economic and environmental benefits. Utilizing tools ranging from impact fees, assessment districts, and tax increment financing, transfer of development rights and incentive zoning, Amitabh creates funding strategies for infrastructure. He worked with the City of Los Angeles to analyze the funding capacity of an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) to support the restoration of the Los Angeles River, for the City of Seattle he developed a financial plan for the I-5 freeway lid proposed in downtown Seattle, which would stitch together historically disconnected neighborhoods, and he evaluated value capture strategies to support the extension of the Crenshaw/LAX Line between LAX and Hollywood, connecting some of the region’s historically disinvested neighborhoods to its major employment centers.

Amitabh leads strategies supporting transit-oriented development (TOD), repositioning transportation assets to align community priorities with market opportunities. As an industry leader in TOD, he has advised on planning and implementation for TOD projects across all forms of transportation systems ranging from Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to High Speed Rail. He worked with LA Metro to develop a TOD implementation framework along the planned West Santa Ana Branch light rail line, formulated land use vision and strategy for the ARRIVE Corridor, a commuter rail along six municipalities in San Bernardino County, and supported development concepts leveraging the Ultimate Urban Connector, a future autonomous vehicle shuttle transit system in Jacksonville, Florida. Amitabh’s work also includes station area planning for future California High Speed Rail stations in Bakersfield and Palmdale.

Amitabh helps cities frame their long-term planning with a focus on fiscal sustainability and economic development. He has shaped more than a dozen general plans, specific plans, and economic development strategies that do not simply “check the box,” but truly define community values and trade-offs. For the City of Los Angeles, he helped develop a citywide economic development strategy that sets long-term goals of equitable and sustainable economic growth, accompanied by an organizational structure that can most effectively deliver the vision. He is working on the general plan update for Culver City, along with strategies around increasing the resilience of retail and encouraging economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amitabh brings a wealth of global experience. He has worked on the regional development strategy for the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, a high sped freight rail corridor connecting Delhi and Mumbai in India. He has advised governments, private entities, and institutions like the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and Asian Development Bank on developing public private partnership and value capture strategies. His projects have spanned more than fifteen countries across the Americas, Caribbean, Asia, and the Middle East.

Prior to HR&A, Amitabh was a Vice President with AECOM and Regional Director for Planning, Design, and Development for AECOM in India. Prior to this, he led AECOM’s Economics practice in the US-West region and served as the Global Practice leader for the firm’s Economic Planning and Real Estate sector. Amitabh was a Principal with Economics Research Associates until the two firms merged in 2007. Amitabh holds a Masters in Urban Planning and a Masters in Building Science from the University of Southern California. He also holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, India.

A native Angeleno and Managing Partner for HR&A’s Los Angeles office, Connie brings an interdisciplinary lens to her work in California and across the country, leveraging her expertise in planning, public realm development and governance, climate strategy, equitable funding, business planning, and public-private partnerships to help clients improve the urban fabric and the lives of their communities. 

Over the course of Connie’s career, she has acted as a catalyst and connector for various disciplines to come together and tackle complicated challenges at the urban scale. Connie helps clients and project teams make data-informed decisions about design, planning, development, and programming. Alongside this analytical rigor, she is also a creative problem-solver who challenges multi-disciplinary teams to create solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts. She understands placemaking and how to develop culturally resonant, economically sound built environments and open spaces that serve their community. Whether it’s envisioning a new park that will transform an underserved community, helping a client understand the economic impact of building affordable housing on their land, or studying the climate and equity impacts of the urban tree canopy in a city as large and diverse as Los Angeles — it’s Connie’s collaborative, interdisciplinary thinking that consistently delivers results for her clients.   

Connie advises public, private, and nonprofit landowners on planning and development issues, with an approach that combines rigorous analysis and a talent for collaborating in multidisciplinary environments. Her recent work with museums, community college districts, and nonprofit land owners has focused on helping these clients understand various development scenarios. Clients often come to her with questions like: “We have land we want to build on, but we don’t know what kind of development will be most successful in our neighborhood,” or “Should we build affordable rental housing on our parking lot?” Connie helps these clients answer these questions through rigorous analysis and make informed decisions that will serve their long-term goals as well as the surrounding community.

As a recognized leader in open space, parks, and public realm development, Connie has led programming, business planning, and governance strategies for major park projects across the country. This work includes award-winning projects like the Atlanta BeltLine, Seattle Waterfront, Silver Lake Reservoir, and the Lawn on D where she often guided clients through initial visioning phases, funding and governance strategy, design and construction, and finally helping oversee the launch of programming and management.  

Deeply committed to climate resiliency and public green space, Connie’s work includes thinking about natural resources and sustainability at the macro scale. She works with municipal and nonprofit clients like the Atlanta Parks Department, LA County Parks, and the LA Urban Forest to develop funding and financing strategies for investment in green infrastructure and municipal agencies.  

Prior to joining HR&A in 2013, Connie was Director of Planning at the Alliance for Downtown New York, the business improvement district for New York City’s Lower Manhattan neighborhood. There, she managed the Downtown Alliance’s planning efforts districtwide, including leading placemaking, policy, and other implementation projects for its Water Street corridor plan.  

Connie holds a Master in City Planning with a Certificate of Urban Design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a minor in French from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Connie serves as Managing Partner in our Los Angeles office, where she is also based. 

Bret helps shape and execute complex projects that revitalize neighborhoods, drive economic growth, and support economic mobility.

With a background in the public and private sectors spanning community development, real estate, policy, and communications, Bret works on a broad range of projects that require:

1. Rigorous economic or financial analysis;
2. Meaningful stakeholder engagement and partnership development;
3. A careful alignment of private, public, and community interests.

His work includes neighborhood investment strategies, citywide plans, public-private development strategies, and public and nonprofit programming to support economic opportunity. He has worked in all corners of New York City and State, and in markets ranging from New Orleans to Detroit to Chattanooga, TN.

• Project-managed New York City’s long-term plan, OneNYC 2050, released in 2019 as a blueprint to tackle the city’s most significant challenges, including economic inequality, rising unaffordability, and climate change.
• Through the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative, developed investment strategies with projects totaling $140 million in value across four communities – Downtown Brooklyn, the South Bronx, Jamaica, Queens, and Jamestown, NY
• Led a multidisciplinary vision plan for the reuse of the Rikers Island jail complex as part of a citywide effort to reform New York City incarceration. After the City announced plans to close the jail by 2027, supported planning for a $10 billion effort to construct safer, more humane jails in the five boroughs.
• Supported the creation of a new Health & Wellness District in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the potential to create more than 8,000 jobs and spur nearly $1 billion in investment over 30 years.
• Led a developer solicitation process to transform a 47-acre waterfront site adjacent to the New Orleans Convention Center into a mixed-use community anchored by a convention hotel, visitor-serving retail, cultural destinations, waterfront open space, and mixed-income housing.
• Partnered with the Markle Foundation’s Skillful Initiative to develop the Governor’s Coaching Corps, a first-in-the-nation leadership and service program for frontline coaches in the Colorado workforce system, which has since become a national model.
• Supported The New York Public Library’s long-term strategic plan through a physical analysis and valuation of its more than 90 real estate assets, and a partnership strategy to maximize the use and value of those assets, including through the creation of affordable housing.
• Developed a strategic plan to position CUNY LaGuardia Community College as a leader in tech workforce development.
• Designed and managed NYC BigApps, a globally recognized civic technology competition that has seeded more than 550+ products and awarded more than $500,000 in prizes.

Prior to joining HR&A, Bret was a senior aide at the New York City Council, and previously was a community journalist in the Bronx. He holds an M.B.A. from Cornell University and a B.A. from New York University. He is a proud Bronx native.

Shuprotim Bhaumik has over two decades of experience in the fields of real estate, economic development, and public policy consulting.

His practice focuses on market and economic analysis, strategic planning, and development advisory services for real estate investors and developers, public agencies, financial institutions, and non-profit organizations. Shuprotim is currently working with a variety of clients across the United States and abroad.

Recently, Shuprotim led the implementation effort for the first phase of the proposed Konza Technology City in Kenya and advised the MTA in structuring a public-private-partnership to manage and operate the $1.4 billion Fulton Transit Center. In partnership with Enterprise Community Partners, Shuprotim developed an affordable housing strategy for the City of Atlanta. He also leads the firm’s brownfields redevelopment work, and has completed projects in places as diverse as Ranson, West Virginia, Farmingdale, Long Island, and Syracuse in New York.

Over the past few years, Shuprotim’s projects have included: advising the Omaha Community Center for Sustainability, a philanthropic foundation, in developing sustainability initiatives for the greater Omaha region; crafting an economic development strategy for Research Triangle Park in North Carolina; advising on a master plan and infrastructure financing strategy for a new Great City Development Strategy in Chengdu, China; producing a revitalization plan for Park Hill, an economically challenged industrial neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky; advising the development of an urban regeneration strategy in Cheongju, South Korea; and leading the creation of an Industrial Retention and Growth Strategy for the City of Philadelphia.

Prior to joining HR&A, Shuprotim was a Senior Vice President at AECOM, where he led the firm’s Economics practice (formerly Economics Research Associates) in North America, and was responsible for managing real estate and economic development projects throughout the country. While with AECOM and ERA, Shuprotim advised the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Development Corporation in India on an economic development strategy for a proposed 900-mile transportation corridor linking Mumbai to Delhi. He also led numerous projects for public and private sector clients throughout the country, including the City and State of New York, the City of Philadelphia, the State of New Jersey, Metro Louisville, Metro North Railroad, the Georgia Bioscience Authority, the Rockefeller Group, and the National Basketball Association.

Kate Collignon helps communities implement inclusive economic growth and development strategies. Drawing on over 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors, she provides the economic insights and builds the partnerships needed to deliver community goals.

Kate’s career has spanned management of some of the most complex public and private development initiatives in New York City, to cultivation of economic turnarounds in small and mid-sized cities across the Midwest and beyond. Throughout, her work has paired physical investment strategies with public policies, programs and processes that promote equitable participation in economic growth.

INCLUSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Kate shapes and implements neighborhood, downtown, and waterfront investment strategies that revitalize communities across the United States.

• Worked with local planning committees to target investment of $70 million in seven downtowns through New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, leveraging substantial additional private and public capital.
• Shaped Detroit neighborhood and TOD plans at the East Riverfront, the Villages, Jefferson Chalmers, East Jefferson Avenue, and Corktown — the latter securing $30M in HUD funding for affordable housing with HR&A’s support.
• Identified sustainable funding and governance strategies – tied to public policies that fuel economic opportunity and prevent displacement — for open spaces like Detroit’s Joe Louis Greenway, Seattle’s Central Waterfront, Grand Rapids’ Grand River, and Philadelphia’s Love Park.
• Supported multiple phases of implementation planning for redevelopment of Philadelphia’s Penn’s Landing, culminating in an 11-acre Park and developer designation for the 45-acre site in 2020.
• Helped create targeted strategies and new governance entities to drive investment in small cities like Erie PA, North Adams MA, Sandusky OH, and Columbus IN, and a grant program for small Western PA cities with academic anchors on behalf of the RK Mellon Foundation.
• Guided formation of community-led climate resilience investments under the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program, and contributed to innovative strategies on behalf of the Bay Area Resilient by Design Challenge.

Mission-Driven Development Support

Kate manages creation of development strategies that help public, institutional, non-profit and for-profit owners achieve their mission-based and financial goals, and leads public/private partnership negotiations to realize these strategies.

• Selected by the Association of Bay Area Governments to assist their member jurisdictions in redeveloping underperforming malls and office parks into vibrant mixed-use districts with a mix of residential and other community serving amenities.
• Assisted the City of Charleston, SC and the Medical University of South Carolina to prepare an infrastructure financing strategy and to select and negotiate an agreement with a master development partner for the 48-acre WestEdge district, now home to nearly 1 million sf, of residential, retail, and innovation office uses.
• Supported innovation campus planning and developer negotiations for reinvestment in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, as well as a phasing and financing strategy for creation of UPenn’s Pennovation campus.
• Supports cultural organizations like Houston’s Menil Collection to unlock value that sustains operations and expands programming.
• Works with non-profits like Brooklyn Community Services to monetize assets and continue to provide essential services within suitable space.

EQUITABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH STRATEGIES

Kate designs economic strategies grounded in rigorous analysis; prioritization of equitable outcomes and the tools that achieve them; and attention to the distinct capacities that exist within economic development ecosystems.

• On behalf of America Achieves, led a team to help eight cities apply for Phase 1 of the 2021 US EDA Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Fifty per cent of the communities that HR&A supported to craft sector-specific, equitable economic and workforce development strategies advanced to the second phase of the highly competitive challenge.
• In 2019, led support for the City of New York’s preparation of OneNYC 2050 – NYC’s long-term citywide strategic plan – as well as its predecessor OneNYC 2015, the first to add equity to the City’s core focus on growth, sustainability and resilience.
• Prepared a citywide Equitable Economic Development and Mobility Plan for Grand Rapids, MI, and a Strategic Plan for the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership.

Kate served as HR&A’s first Managing Partner for its New York headquarters, overseeing staff and institutionalizing new systems to promote quality and culture during a period of rapid growth. Prior to joining HR&A, Kate managed pre-development for Manhattan West and other mixed-use projects as Development Director with Brookfield Properties, and led large-scale planning and development initiatives in Downtown Brooklyn, Coney Island, at Brooklyn Bridge Park, and across New York City as Senior Vice President for Development at the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

Kate has served on the faculty of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and as an advisor with the ULI/National League of Cities’ Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use. She is a graduate of Columbia University, and holds a Master’s in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Cary Hirschstein specializes in the management of transformative urban development and the structuring of effective policies supporting inclusive economic growth, environmental sustainability, and resilience.

Cary guides cities in the transformation of their economic development policies and tools to achieve more equitable outcomes, enhance competitiveness, and improve public return on investment. He is a national expert in economic incentive structuring, evaluation, and deployment, and his work has helped reshape economic development policy in cities such as Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. Cary guided a repositioning of Columbus’ tax abatement policy to promote equitable growth, which is now driving the creation of new affordable housing in high opportunity neighborhoods and helping to revitalize persistently underinvested neighborhoods. His work in Indianapolis is helping to steer more inclusive outcomes for the City’s economic incentive programs, which now prioritize a higher minimum wages, benefits, and workforce training, as well as the launch of a community impact network, a pioneering new shared-values approach.

Cary has helped to shape bold visions and actionable implementation strategies for transformative urban development projects across the country. As project leader for some of the firm’s most complex pre-development work, Cary directs multidisciplinary teams through technical review, master planning, negotiations and pre-approvals processes for large-scale urban projects. His work includes the management of master plans for signature open spaces, including the development of a next-generation plan for Houston’s Buffalo Bayou East, a four-mile extension of the Buffalo Bayou Park network, and a vision and business framework for Miami’s Underdeck, a planned 33-acre open space to be built underneath a major downtown highway reconstruction. He has helped guide the entitlement of urban development in cities big and small, including a major mixed-use development on the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront in New York City, projected to bring more than 5 million square feet of new development, and the blueprint for a new 50-acre waterfront park and mixed-use development to revitalize downtown Clearwater, FL. He has contributed to visionary plans for major sports and entertainment assets and districts, including directing two Major League Soccer franchises in their efforts to locate and develop new stadiums in New York City and Miami, and planning and private negotiations around MLB, NFL and NHL facilities.

Cary also serves as a trusted development advisor to a diverse range of nonprofit institutional clients across education, healthcare, art and culture. Cary has led the development of long-term real estate strategies for organizations such as the New York Public Library, the University of Minnesota Foundation, the New York Blood Center, the 92nd Street Y, Houston’s Astrodome Conservancy, San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, and the Isamu Noguchi Foundation, among others. His work has helped institutions re-envision their physical spaces, optimize their real estate holdings, and lay the groundwork for future redevelopment opportunities.

Cary brings a diversity of experiences in climate strategy, merging expertise in resilience planning, greenhouse gas mitigation, and energy efficiency. He has guided long-term resilience strategies for critical urban hubs, including co-leading the Lower Manhattan Climate Resilience Study, a comprehensive long-term strategy for Lower Manhattan through 2100; the management of a master plan to protect the Financial District and South Street Seaport; and the development of a community-based plan for improving the resiliency of Lower Manhattan through CDBG-DR funding under the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program. Cary also advises clients on the economics of sustainability, including a focus on policy and program design for improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings. He is currently co-leading a first-of-its-kind study of a large-scale carbon trading marketplace for private buildings in New York City. He has served as an advisor to the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation, and the Urban Green Council, and has managed the design and implementation of large-scale residential and commercial energy efficiency initiatives for the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority.

Cary holds a Bachelors degree from Cornell University, and a Masters of Urban Planning from New York University.

Eric is a nationally-renowned expert in public-private real estate advisory, transit-oriented development, transportation planning, and economic development.

Eric’s professional experience spans more than three decades at HR&A and previous service as a senior public transit agency manager. In his consulting practice, Eric provides his clients with expertise in public-private partnerships, financial and economic analysis for real estate and infrastructure projects, strategic planning, transportation planning and development, economic development, capital-program management, financial management, program implementation, and organizational strategy. He works nationally and internationally with transit agencies, municipalities, large-scale institutions, private companies, and non-profits.

Transit-Oriented Development

Eric has worked extensively in transportation planning and transit-oriented development. He leads the firm’s work creating transit-oriented development strategies anchored by station redevelopment across the United States, including Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station for Amtrak in partnership with Drexel University and Brandywine Properties; Union Station in Washington D.C. on behalf of the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation; Moynihan Station for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and  Union Depot in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, for the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority. Additional transportation-sector clients include NJ Transit, Transport for London, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Metropolitan Council in Minnesota, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Public-Private Real Estate Development

Eric led a development advisory team and worked with master planners for the redevelopment of 67.5 acres of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. on behalf of the District of Columbia. He also advised on re-use planning and public-private partnership strategies for the former Fort Monmouth (NJ), Fort Monroe (VA), and Willow Grove Naval Air Station (PA). He served as development advisor for The College of New Jersey to structure a public-private partnership for their award-winning Campus Town mixed-use project on the edge of their campus and for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark to advise them on the selection of a development partner for their 12-acre Arts and Culture District. His experience with complex public-private real estate development projects led him to be named a “40 under 40” in New Jersey real estate and later to his service as Chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Public-Private Partnership product council.

Environmentally Sustainable Transportation Planning

Eric is passionate about environmentally sustainable transportation solutions that support economic growth and equitable development of cities. During his tenure at Transport for London (TfL) from 2001 to 2004, Eric led the creation of TfL’s first 5-year business plan, which resulted in transformation of London’s bus network, the implementation of Central London Congestion Charging, and expansion of walking and cycling initiatives across London. From 2006 to 2007, Eric served as a strategic consultant and project manager for the City of New York on the transportation elements of the groundbreaking PlaNYC sustainability plan for 2030. He has advised clients on innovative new mobility solutions including urban aerial rapid transit, autonomous vehicles, micromobility services such as electric scooters, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. He has also provided strategies to improve the operational efficiency and to build the case for public investment in the capital improvement programs of the regional transportation authorities of Boston, Los Angeles, and New York.

Economic Development

Eric’s practice includes broad economic development advisory work for clients and communities across the country. Eric led the strategic development and implementation of  NYC BigApps, New York City’s civic technology competition on behalf of the New York City Economic Development Corporation in 2014 and 2015. Previously, he managed “Take the HELM”: Hire and Expand in Lower Manhattan, an economic development competition that received over 600 applications from diverse companies seeking to relocate to lower Manhattan. He also led an evaluation of a new Economic Development Department and related non-profit organization for the City of Los Angeles and the Chief Legislative Analyst, and has led or supported economic development strategies for Atlantic City, Newark, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC.

Eric served as CEO of HR&A from 2020 to 2024 and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors. Prior to joining HR&A, Eric worked as Head of Business Planning for Transport for London where he created and directed the business planning process to invest $7.5 billion in annual funding in London’s transportation network and led the integration of 15 predecessor organizations into a unified transportation agency under the Mayor of London. He began his career as a capital planning analyst at the New York City Transit Authority.

Eric holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University.

Paul J. Silvern draws on over 30 years of non-profit, public, and private professional experience, including serving as the Partner in charge of HR&A’s Los Angeles area office between 2007 and 2020, and a member of the firm’s Board of Directors 2007-2022.

In his time with HR&A, he has directed the analysis of major regional airport expansion plans, military base conversions, television and film studio expansions, hotels, office parks, high-rise office buildings, industrial developments, shopping centers, hospital complexes, university campus expansions, urban residential developments, mixed-use developments, and a wide range of planning initiatives. His work includes:

• A 5.2 million square foot Specific Plan to guide future academic facility, housing and commercial development at the University of Southern California’s University Park campus;
• Redevelopment of the Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood into a major mixed-use development including 3,000 housing units, regional retail, office and public uses;
• Two iterations of $3 billion Specific Plans to redevelop the NBC Universal entertainment studio, office, retail, theme park and hotel complex in Los Angeles;
• The addition of two new theme parks at Disneyland in Anaheim, California;
• 2.4 million sf hotel, office and retail redevelopment of the Wilshire Grand, the first new high-rise office building to be built in downtown Los Angeles in over 20 years;
• The Keck Graduate School for Applied Life Sciences, the seventh member of the Consortium of The Claremont Colleges;
• Reconstruction of Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, in the wake of severe building damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake;
• Three new high-rise office buildings, and a 400-unit high-rise multi-family residential development in Century City, one of the most prestigious commercial office locations in Los Angeles;
• 10 million square feet of new commercial and residential development around Union Station in the City of Los Angeles;
• The Red Building (400,000 sf), the final phase of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood;
• The 6.6 million s.f. Coyote Valley Research Park in San Jose, on behalf of a developer and business consortium including Cisco Systems, Inc.; and
• Master Plans and redevelopment alternatives for Los Angeles International Airport, O’Hare International Airport, and San Diego International Airport.

Paul also has extensive experience in all aspects of housing policy and housing development, ranging from design of municipal regulatory programs to design and administration of affordable housing production programs and real estate advisory work on major private housing developments.

Paul’s clients include major development organizations as well as numerous local governments, redevelopment agencies, institutions and metropolitan planning organizations.

Paul earned a Masters Degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and received a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies, with Honors from the University of Illinois, Urbana.