Jon draws on his experience in public-private partnerships, real estate development strategy, and climate adaptation planning to create more productive, inspiring, and resilient urban spaces.

Jon works with interdisciplinary teams to address complex urban challenges that demand economic, design, public policy, and scientific analyses. At HR&A, his work has included project management, financial analysis, and economic impact analysis for several large real estate projects in New York City, including the Anable Basin redevelopment plan. He has advised the Trustees of Reservations in their efforts to create a new world-class park on the Boston waterfront, as well as organizations in New York and Toronto seeking to transform the public realm. Jon has played a major role in citywide climate adaptation plans in New York, Boston, and Miami-Dade County, and has managed or contributed to economic analyses for the flood control infrastructure plans in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Prior to joining HR&A, Jon worked at SiteCompli, a real estate technology company whose software helps New York City owners and managers stay on top of building code compliance. He also interned at the New York City Department of City Planning’s Waterfront Division, guiding City policy related to sea-level rise; researched public-private partnerships at New Yorkers for Parks; and provided management and policy support at the Times Square Alliance during the Broadway pedestrianization project.

Jon holds a master’s in Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he concentrated in Real Estate & Urban Development and Environmental Planning. At Harvard, Jon won the urban planning Academic Excellence award and participated in teams that achieved the following: first place in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Affordable Housing Development Competition; semi-finalist in the Boston Living with Water competition; and a Student Project Award from the American Institute of Certified Planners. Jon also holds a B.A. with Honors in Psychology from Yale, where he wrote, directed, and produced a musical comedy.

• Forefront Fellow, Urban Design Forum
• Member, American Planning Association

Thomas Jansen is an experienced urban strategist providing real-estate, policy, financial and economic advisory to municipalities, institutions, and developers. Thomas helps clients and stakeholders navigate complexity to advance the implementation of real-estate and planning projects that produce wide-ranging public benefits.

Thomas’s experience includes developing market-aligned visions for large-scale development projects, navigating fraught entitlement processes, and designing creative financing strategies.

Working at the intersection of the public and private sectors, Thomas advances complex development projects. These projects require close partnerships to move beyond market or financial challenges to deliver jobs, affordable housing and vital urban environments. Frequently, Thomas also works with public agencies and institutions to maximize the potential of public assets and transportation investments. Thomas has:

• Advised the City of San Jose in negotiations with Google for a development agreement for the 80-acre Downtown West mixed-use neighborhood, which will include 1,000 affordable units, a $155 million community-directed stabilization and opportunity pathways fund, 15 acres of parks and open space, and other benefits.
• Shaped a streamlined entitlement framework for Downtown Los Angeles on behalf of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning that will produce tens of millions of dollars of affordable housing and community benefits through incentive zoning structures which will be replicated in similar benefit programs in other Los Angeles community plan updates.
• Analyzed the Los Angeles Unified School District’s portfolio of over 6,400 acres of facilities and identified top opportunities for revenue generation and affordable housing production. In this assignment, Thomas managed the creation of a live tool incorporating property data to inform ongoing decision-making by senior executives.
• Worked closely with planning and design teams to create market-aligned land use programs for dozens of large public and private properties. Project locations have ranged from the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas to Austin, Cape Town, Dallas, Denver, Hong Kong, Santa Fe, and Seattle-Tacoma, among others.

Thomas also manages analysis and strategy development for important policy initiatives. Thomas’s work focuses on growing access to economic opportunity, in part by aligning public-sector and business interests to invest in multi-benefit solutions. Thomas:

• Developed the City of Los Angeles’ first citywide economic developments strategy. The strategy included a 5-year strategic plan with organizational recommendations to better deliver economic development services, programs to address economic inequities and empower Angelenos, programs to strengthen city businesses, and place-based programs to grow local economies.
• Determined the necessity of expanding the California State University System by constructing a 24th campus, as directed by the California State Legislature, through analysis of long-term enrollment demand and workforce/occupational needs. This effort identified more cost-effective strategies to invest in the system’s capacity and better serve first-generation, underrepresented minority and low-income students.
• Surveyed the Urban Land Institute’s membership to analyze adoption of real estate development progressive practices that support social equity, health equity and individual health outcomes. This first-of-its kind survey also included recommendations for ULI to advance member awareness and adoption of such practices.

Prior to joining the firm, Thomas worked as an owner’s representative in New York City and as an urban designer for mixed-use development projects in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Thomas received his Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and pursued coursework in Real Estate Design and Development at both the Wharton School and Penn’s School of Design. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Erin leverages her experience in urban planning, economic analysis, and real estate to support public and private sector clients.

Erin’s work includes market, financial feasibility, and economic and fiscal impact analyses as well as master planning and placemaking strategies. Erin has managed a variety of projects throughout Minnesota and the broader Midwest aimed at the creation of new open spaces, transit-oriented development, and economic development. Erin supported the design of the new Commons Park in Downtown Minneapolis, which opened in July of 2016 and the Wayzata Lake Effect Signature Project through the development of funding and programming strategies for these parks. On behalf of the Destination Medical Center, a public-private partnership that includes the City of Rochester and the Mayo Clinic, Erin supported the redesign of the Heart of the City in downtown Rochester. Erin supported the firm’s work as an economic development advisor for the West Broadway Transit Study in Minneapolis on behalf of the Metropolitan Council, evaluating the potential for economic development to be spurred by transit improvements in the area. Erin also developed case studies of policy tools used to incentivize mixed-use redevelopment surrounding stadia in the U.S. for a study for the City of Minneapolis’s Department of Community Planning & Economic Development of its own stadium district in downtown Minneapolis.

To support the preservation and development of affordable housing, jobs, and businesses, Erin is currently identifying the market potential and developing affordability strategies in two districts in Milwaukee slated for streetcar investment. HR&A’s market analysis is driving a set of policy recommendations that will ensure that current residents and employees will benefit from future transit investment.

Erin provided technical analysis for the joint Philadelphia 30th Street Station District Plan on behalf of Amtrak, Brandywine Realty Trust, Drexel University, SEPTA, PennDOT, and a coordinating committee composed of key stakeholders. Erin also conducted research and analysis of the economic benefits of the City of Rochester, New York’s successful $17.7 million TIGER Grant application for the removal of a portion of the Inner Loop East Highway.

Prior to joining HR&A, Erin worked for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Division of Financial Practices. There, she conducted extensive investigative research for litigation and investigations involving mortgage servicing, debt collection, and debt relief companies.

Erin holds a Master in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College.

Ignacio Montojo serves infrastructure and real estate developers and investors, international finance institutions, and public agencies in planning and delivering complex transportation, broadband, climate, and large-scale urban development projects globally.

Ignacio brings deep analytical rigor and a strong quantitative background to support the delivery of capital projects, through market analyses, funding and financing plans, public-private partnerships, and economic and fiscal impact studies. Ignacio’s work in the United States has ranged from supporting transit agencies such as the MTA, GoTriangle, and WMATA devise and execute partnerships for joint development, to working alongside two dozen municipalities and states to define actionable funding, financing, and delivery strategies for their capital plans. More recently, Ignacio has supported HR&A’s emerging work in distributed energy resources and electrification, including co-leading an assessment of New York City’s state of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.  

Abroad, Ignacio’s work for the World Bank Group and the Inter-American Development Bank in more than a dozen countries has positioned him as a torchbearer of HR&A’s growing international practice. His prolific work on value capture funding and financing in Brazil, Colombia, and Costa Rica has resulted in substantial legal and regulatory changes and accelerated the adoption of tools such as tax increment financing and the sale and transfer of development air rights by municipalities and transit agencies such as Metro de Medellin. More recently, he has led the firm’s efforts to measure and illustrate the benefits of climate adaptation and mitigation investments in several cities in South Africa and Egypt.  

At HR&A, Ignacio is a mentor to several colleagues, including those who share an international background and an interest in the built environment. At the firm, he is an active member of the Technical Advisory Group that develops internal tools, models, and templates and trains new staff in advanced quantitative analyses. Internally, he has also spearheaded the development of HR&A’s digital tools, including the Infrastructure Funding Navigator that helps governments and communities identify and assess their readiness for pursuing federal infrastructure funds.  

Prior to joining HR&A in 2015, Ignacio worked for Hotusa Hotels in Barcelona, where he supported the renovation and opening of the group’s properties in Europe and Latin America. Ignacio holds a master’s degree in Real Estate Development from Columbia University and obtained the 1st Thesis Award for his global comparative Real Estate Investment Trust study. Ignacio also holds graduate studies in finance and accounting. Previously, he obtained a Degree in Architecture from UPC BarcelonaTech. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute New York Infrastructure Council and the Young Professionals in Infrastructure and has been a guest lecturer to urban planning and real estate students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Stuart Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Alex Stokes is a firm leader in real estate financial modeling and strategic planning for economic development and urban revitalization.

Since joining HR&A in 2010, Alex has assessed the financial feasibility of numerous large-scale, mixed use redevelopment projects and crafted strategies to guide the use of public incentives and public financing, the provision of affordable housing and high-quality open space, waterfront redevelopment, developer engagement and university campus redevelopment. His analysis has supported over $1.5 billion in successful public-private financing.

Alex serves as HR&A’s in-house advisor for real estate finance, economic impact modeling and other diverse analysis and strategy assignments and leads a team of analytic experts across the firm’s five offices.  Alex has also taught a seminar on redevelopment feasibility at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design with HR&A Vice-Chairman Candace Damon since 2015.

Recent projects Alex has directed include the Southern Manhattan Coastal Protection Study, a major public initiative to foster economic development and flood protection in New York, as well as a Kendall Square redevelopment study sponsored by MIT and equitable redevelopment strategies for several neighborhoods in Detroit and Flint, Michigan. Alex supported successful transactions and partnership agreements for the American Dream retail-entertainment destination in New Jersey, mixed-use districts in Denver, Nashville and Charleston.  Alex was previously the lead analyst for a strategic growth and modernization plan for the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, a tax-increment financing strategy for the City of Atlanta and an award-winning master plan for a seven mile stretch of waterfront on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Alex is currently overseeing implementation planning for a large-scale waterfront master plan in his hometown of Sarasota, Florida.

Prior to joining HR&A, Alex served as a financial advisor to state and local housing finance agencies at Caine Mitter and interned with GE Capital Real Estate in Paris.

Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College and a Master of Real Estate Management from the Université Paris-Dauphine, which he attended as part of a Harvard-sponsored Williams-Lodge Scholarship.