We sat down with Partner Erin Lonoff to discuss why housing affordability is driving Midwest growth, the role of millennials in the future of mission-driven real estate, and her path from Intern to Partner at HR&A. Erin also shares how her diverse work focusing on the intersection of real estate and public policy helps her anticipate what’s next for cities and communities across the country.

What new opportunities are you most excited to take on in this next chapter as a Partner?

Over the past 12 years, I’ve worked with cities and states across the country to deliver economic development and real estate solutions. In this new role, I’m excited to help Midwestern cities leverage innovations from across the country and tailor them to the unique economics, real estate dynamics, and local community goals here. There’s incredible ingenuity happening in the Midwest that other regions can benefit from. The Twin Cities, in particular is currently and has been the epicenter for cultural movements in recent years, but what doesn’t get as much press are the policy innovations that have been shaping outcomes in this region for decades and that offer key lessons for other regions across the country. For example, the Twin Cities region is one of the few metros in the entire country that has taxing authority. They also consistently rank high for their parks systems and affordability. The Midwest broadly is also ahead of the curve on issues like leveraging manufactured housing solutions to speed up production and lower building costs as well as forward-thinking solutions to population decline.

What trends or changes have you seen in your work over the last few years?

We’re at a pivotal moment in cities where we have a generational transfer of land ownership and leadership that’s already starting to shake up the status quo. We have a new generation of millennials taking the reins and becoming land stewards in our cities. As I’ve written about previously, the way that urban millennials see their world outlook, based on how they were raised, is really going to shape how we see our cities get developed. I think that’s one of the biggest trends we’re going to be seeing.

Cities are getting ready to think about their land differently. My optimism comes from believing that with fresh faces and diverse perspectives, real estate is going to have a bigger mission and public policy alignment, and create greater impacts and benefits for our communities.

Midwest cities have infrastructure and often housing stock—all the things you need for living—and the cost is just much lower. This is why I think we’re going to continue to see people moving to and choosing to live in cities like these, and that will come with its own set of opportunities and challenges. While there are unifying themes across the region that are distinct from coastal counterparts, there’s also tremendous variation across the Midwest. There won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution, but that’s an exciting challenge.

Can you describe your practice and the types of projects you work on?

What keeps me energized is seeing the impact of my work come to life as built reality. I worked on the early funding strategies for parks that I take my kids to now. Discovery Square in Rochester is one of my favorite projects—two innovation buildings I worked on back in 2016 that are now operating full-time and viewed as a successful model for other innovation districts. Being part of the visioning stage and then seeing these projects exist in the world, serving communities for years to come, is incredibly rewarding.

What I’ve also really enjoyed about my career so far is that I work with all kinds of communities. I think it’s so important to work across the urban-rural spectrum and understand what’s actually driving growth in different contexts. Take HR&A’s Southeast Minnesota Regional Impact Study, for example. It’s an eight-county region with Rochester at its heart and very rural farmland surrounding it. We found that the regional economies of many of these rural areas are being driven by vitally important immigrant communities who are helping to curb population decline and sustain the workforce. I’ve also worked on the municipal side, leading Saint Paul’s citywide anti-displacement strategy to ensure development outcomes that will benefit all of the city’s residents.

Years ago, you joined HR&A as an Intern, and now you’re stepping into this new Partner role as HR&A marks its 50-year anniversary. What do you think makes this company unique, and what’s in store over the next 50 years?

It’s rare to find a company with this much female leadership and mentorship. In a male-dominated industry like real estate, it’s been incredible to work alongside and learn from women who are leaders and experts. I think that’s directly connected to where our company and this industry are headed. We’re about to see a monumental shift in how real estate gets done and who’s doing it—with more emphasis on emerging and BIPOC developers and women-owned businesses. Our staff composition already reflects that future and the creativity that comes with this. I think HR&A is uniquely positioned to work with this next generation of real estate leaders who are going to shape the industry.

Learn more about Erin here.

With a history of leading transit-oriented development, resilience, and public-private partnership projects, new HR&A Partner Ignacio Montojo sat down with us to discuss America’s infrastructure delivery crisis, the changing landscape of public-private partnerships, and how HR&A bridges the gap between financial models and the complex realities of building large-scale projects.

If you had unlimited resources to solve one challenge facing cities and communities, what would it be?

If I had unlimited resources, I wouldn’t just pour more concrete; I would fix the ‘operating system’ of how we deliver infrastructure. We have a crisis of delivery in this country. It often takes us twice as long to build a mile of transit here compared to our peers abroad. If I could solve one thing, it would be modernizing the governance and delivery frameworks that allow public agencies to execute. We need to bridge the gap between 20-year capital needs and 4-year political cycles. The goal isn’t just spending money; it is to respect the public trust by getting projects done on time and on budget.

What trends or changes are you seeing in your work?

The tides are changing after an era of ‘abundance’ with low interest rates and federal stimulus. The trend I’m seeing now is a realization among agencies that they cannot deliver on their pipelines alone. Public-private partnerships (P3s) are becoming essential for delivering the infrastructure projects we critically need in our cities.

Clients are looking for ways to mobilize private capital, but often don’t know how to bridge that gap. HR&A is uniquely positioned here because we understand how investors and developers think. We don’t just write policy; we know how to structure deals that actually pencil out for the private sector while protecting the public interest. Whether it’s using data to predict maintenance needs or structuring a P3 for a new rail station, we act as the translators who can get the private sector to the table.

As someone who works on projects around the world, what lessons learned feel global?

There’s a lot to learn from European countries in the way they’ve handled the construction of rail, bridges, and other critical infrastructure. They have a longer history and track record of relying on concessions with private developers and effectively transferring some of the risk to private parties. U.S. agencies can continue to learn from that.

Looking ahead, what types of projects or clients are you hoping to work with in this new role?

I’m working closely with transit agencies and state governments in the Northeast and California, markets that are mature and highly complex. Looking ahead, I’m eager to collaborate more closely with my Partners in Texas, Florida, and the broader Southeast.

They are doing incredible work in regions that are seeing explosive population growth. I think we can add value by sharing lessons learned from our work in New York and California to help fast-growing states deliver infrastructure sustainably, so they don’t face the same retrofit challenges we’re helping our clients tackle in these other regions.

How has your work evolved during your tenure at HR&A? What projects are you most proud of, and why?

Early in my career, I was completely immersed in the technical details—spending my days and nights with proformas, Census tracts, and IMPLAN models. I really valued, and still do, that rigorous grounding. But the pivot point was working with the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank on projects across two dozen countries. That experience awakened my interest in large-scale infrastructure delivery and showed me that the best financial model in the world fails if the delivery system is broken.

As for a favorite project, it’s hard to choose because my top priority is serving our clients well, regardless of the scale. I have the same dedication to a small fiscal impact study as I do for a multi-billion-dollar rail line. There is always a special satisfaction in seeing the physical result. Right now, I’m helping the MTA plan the Interborough Express. It’s a transformative project connecting Brooklyn and Queens, reusing existing infrastructure to change millions of lives. It involves nearly every discipline we have at the firm, and it’s exactly the kind of puzzle I love solving. Ask me this question again in five years—hopefully, I can answer it by showing you a picture of me riding the train.

Why does HR&A feel like the best place for you to step into this new role as a Partner?

I’ve always felt that HR&A had the structure, size, knowledge, and resources to offer ever-expanding room for growth. There’s also an entrepreneurial culture here that’s really special. I’ve always balanced being available for projects with encouragement and support from the firm to explore new clients, new geographies, and new types of projects. I’ve been able to bring clients and perspectives to the firm that weren’t here before. That opportunity to create my own path has been a great joy.

Learn more about Ignacio here.

With over 16 years working at the intersection of criminal justice reform, mental health access, and local governance, new HR&A Partner Sarah Solon sat down with us to discuss how cities can do a better job of directing the resources they already have to addressing homelessness, what keeps mayors up at night, and how her work across New York, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, and beyond has shaped her approach to building government capacity to solve enduring challenges.

How has your work evolved since you joined the firm, and what opportunities are you most excited to take on in this next chapter as a Partner?

When I joined HR&A four and a half years ago, I had spent 12 years focused on criminal legal system reform and mental health access in New York City. I had gone really deep on a complicated set of issues, but only in one place. What attracted me to HR&A was the opportunity to work with colleagues who had tackled completely different challenges, in new places, and to learn how I could be helpful on the issues that matter to me in places around the country.

The evolution of my work has been about discovering how issues affecting people’s access to safety, justice, economic stability, and housing are layered into communities everywhere, but each city approaches them differently. I’ve supported government transitions in cities across the country and in Allegheny County. I spent almost two years supporting La Liga in Puerto Rico, learning about local governance challenges there. I feel very grateful to have met and learned from committed public servants and impressive community leaders in each place, all working toward a future in which local government does a better job of serving those who have been historically harmed, left out, or left behind.

Over the last two years, the firm has encouraged me to focus on ending homelessness, and that’s become my primary work. It builds on the same foundation — how governments can deliver the right services and sustained policy effort to help people who’ve been left out and left behind. HR&A is the perfect organization to tackle this challenge because almost everything we do touches on how much money people make and how expensive it is to find housing.

What resources do you think cities need most right now?

Of course, cities need more affordable housing, and that will take resources. But there is also a lot of work that local governments can do to get better at directing their resources effectively.

I’m focused right now on helping local governments build their capacity to address the homelessness crisis. It’s something that doesn’t need to exist. When governments think proactively and restructure how they direct available resources toward the most impactful interventions, we can make real change. I’ve seen governments do things better and differently, and that’s what drives me. It’s possible.

What trends or changes are you seeing in your work?

There’s profound distrust in government right now.  And, in many cases I think they’re right. Everywhere I work, I see structural ways in which local government has failed to address challenges in people’s lives. But I also believe local government can and should play a positive role in people’s lives.

I’m particularly inspired by community groups, elected leaders, public servants, foundations, and nonprofit leaders who are thinking about stronger approaches. I’ve seen and been part of moments when government has done things significantly better and differently. The entire motivation for my career is to stand up systems change within local government so that we’re solving problems in people’s lives in better ways. There are challenges, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t navigate those and get to a better place again.

What types of projects and clients are you hoping to work with in your role as a Partner?

I have spent the past year providing intensive support to the City of Los Angeles, helping them to develop a performance oversight system to track and improve the impact of the over $900 million the City invests in homelessness response every year. I’m incredibly inspired by everything we’ve been building together. I want to continue working with local government leaders who want to build capacity to do things differently on homelessness or other big, complex challenges impacting people who’ve been left out and left behind. I’m also interested in working with community groups and governments excited about ending homelessness for specific populations—like disrupting the foster care to homelessness pipeline.

In general, I’m committed to building HR&A’s work across inclusive cities, equitable governance, and effective governance. Homelessness sits at the intersection of so many difficult issues in cities and is one of the things keeping mayors up at night. Any time city leaders face an enduring challenge and want to deliver better for everybody who lives in the city, that’s something I want to be doing.

What projects over the course of your career at HR&A are you most proud of, and why?

I loved supporting Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato’s transition into office, which set, in my opinion, the national bar for what it means to govern in partnership with community. In the first three months of her administration, we helped her to engage 19,000 residents to understand their priorities. Just six months later, her administration had delivered on 91% of the community’s action items, addressing issues such as housing affordability, expanding voting access, and enhancing health-focused crisis response. This is quick, decisive action to deliver changes that residents can see and feel. Very inspiring local governance.

I’m also really proud of our work with Fountain House on their mental health crisis response policy roadmap. We partnered with them, supported by Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies, to develop recommendations based on insights from more than 100 Fountain House members, all of whom live with serious mental illness. Their roadmap calls for New York City to leverage historic levels of state and federal 988 funding to rebuild our approach to mental health emergencies and reduce reliance on 911.

And, I am grateful to have supported the City of Austin, LifeWorks, and Travis County, helping them build a landmark 10-point plan to dismantle the foster care to homelessness pipeline in their region in response to a significant increase in youth homelessness in Austin over the past five years.

Learn more about Sarah here.

Written by Ignacio Montojo and Hannah Glosser

Climate change is rapidly becoming a fiscal crisis for cities. Rising infrastructure costs, strained operating budgets, shifting insurance markets, and growing pressure on debt capacity are converging in ways that most municipal balance sheets are not built to absorb.

Addressing this challenge requires significant, sustained investment in adaptation and resilience, often at a scale that far exceeds existing capital plans or municipal revenue streams. At the same time, the sources to pay for resilience are fragmented, insecure, and unevenly distributed across public and private actors.

HR&A has been working with local government clients to develop new approaches to estimate climate-driven fiscal risk across government balance sheets and budgets and design the funding and financing strategies to act on those findings. In the second installment of our Climate Salon series, we convened New York City area leaders working at the intersection of climate risk, municipal finance, and urban resilience on this topic. Several clear themes emerged:

• Broaden the Fiscal Risk and Responsibility Frame. Climate risk does not respect jurisdictional boundaries or balance sheets. Flood damage strains a city’s capital budget, but it also impacts the utility that runs the wastewater system, the transit authority that operates the subway, the employers whose workers can’t get to the office, and the insurers repricing coverage across the region. Understanding how risk is distributed across these connected balance sheets — and how the benefits of protection flow back to each — is the foundation for mobilizing collective solutions and unlocking durable funding and political support.
• Use Credible Numbers Carefully to Drive Action. There is strong interest in quantifying climate-driven fiscal risk, including potential implications for municipal bond ratings and borrowing costs. At the same time, cities face real concerns about how and when to disclose this information. It’s important to pair rigorous numbers with a clear strategy for how they will be used to mobilize partners, capital, and action.
• Learn from Precedents but Design Locally. Cities are not starting from scratch. Across the world, cities are experimenting with flood districts, congestion pricing, green/tourism fees, and other new resilience-focused revenue streams. Each model reflects local political, economic, and governance realities, which underscores that replication requires customizing to the local context, not copy-and-paste solutions.
• Engage the Private Sector as a Partner. The private sector — major employers, developers, landowners, investors, insurers — has major exposure to climate risk and stands to benefit directly from resilient systems. There are not enough public resources to fund and finance the full scale of infrastructure and protective investments cities need. Funding and financing tools that pair public investment with private capital, risk-sharing, and revenue participation are not optional; they are essential to closing the gap. Structuring these tools requires understanding what each party stands to lose and gain and designing mechanisms that reflect that reality.
• Anchor Resilience Investments in a Larger Vision for the City. Ultimately, resilience funding decisions are political and cultural as much as they are financial. Investments are most compelling when tied to a shared vision of a city’s future — protecting livelihoods, neighborhoods, and long-term competitiveness — not just avoiding losses from the next disaster.

The discussion benefitted from the work of many of our guests, including NYC DEP’s “Securing a Resilient New York City: Funding and Financing Shoreline Protection,” as well as our own work for the City and County of Honolulu, where we are modeling the fiscal impact of climate across government budgets to inform resilience investment strategy. We look forward to continued collaboration to build the analytical tools and cross-sector expertise to help cities quantify climate-driven fiscal exposure, structure equitable funding frameworks, and mobilize public and private capital for resilience.

Last week, HR&A’s Andrea Batista Schlesinger joined mayors from across the country at the Mayors Innovation Project winter meeting—a gathering that served as both an antidote to the current moment and a reminder of the real, tangible work happening in cities across America.

The dual nature of cities has never been more apparent. They are simultaneously bastions of democracy—places of refuge, diversity, and innovation—and the proving grounds where leaders must deliver solutions to persistent challenges like housing affordability, climate resilience, and economic opportunity. This tension animated every conversation at the convening.

Safety as a Prerequisite for Governance

One theme that emerged centered on mayoral and staff safety. In an increasingly polarized political environment, threats against local officials have escalated dramatically. Mayors shared stories of security concerns that pull focus from governing and policy development. The takeaway was clear: democratic institutions can only function when leaders have adequate resources and protection to do their jobs without fear. This has implications for how we think about mayoral transitions, city administration capacity, and even the future pipeline of public servants willing to step into these roles.

Climate Financing is Urgent

The panel on public financing underscored an urgent need: quantifying the fiscal impact of climate change and developing innovative financing structures for resilient infrastructure. This isn’t abstract policy. It’s about keeping businesses open, protecting workforces, and preserving tax bases.

Mount Vernon’s flood wall exemplified this perfectly. By investing in resilient infrastructure, the city prevented downtown flooding, enabled businesses to remain operational during severe weather events, and removed areas from FEMA’s 100-year floodplain designation. That last achievement alone lowered homeownership insurance costs for residents, a tangible household benefit from smart infrastructure investment. It’s precisely the kind of multiplier effect HR&A analyzes in infrastructure financing and climate practice work.

Innovation at the Local Level

Perhaps most inspiring were the innovation showcases, where mayors shared new initiatives proving that local government can be genuinely innovative. From Beaverton’s nonprofit incubator building organizational capacity, to Brooklyn Park’s Community Intervention Unit successfully reducing youth violence and improving police-community relations, to Frederick’s groundbreaking municipal returnship program providing pathways back to work, these weren’t theoretical proposals. They were live programs delivering results.

Other highlights included Rochester partnering with the National Civic League to redesign public meetings for better accessibility and participation, Sterling finally implementing a rental inspection program after two decades by leveraging incentives rather than mandates, and Columbia deploying Community Connectors to reach residents often missed by traditional government outreach.

The Path Forward

What ties these initiatives together is their recognition that cities can’t wait for federal or state action. They need to build their own capacity and develop their own solutions—whether that’s municipal banks, public grocery stores, or innovative financing mechanisms.

At HR&A, we presented on exactly this: helping cities develop public options that create sustainable alternatives to market failures. The enthusiastic response from mayors confirmed what we’re seeing in our practice: there’s both appetite and need for bold, financially viable approaches to longstanding challenges.

The Mayor’s Innovation Project gathering reminded us why this work matters. Democracy isn’t preserved through rhetoric alone—it’s sustained by delivering tangible improvements in people’s lives. Cities are where that delivery happens, and mayors are the ones making it real, every single day.

The City of East Palo Alto has officially adopted its Economic Development Strategic Plan, a milestone in efforts to support homegrown businesses, attract new investment, and position the City as “investment ready,” as stated in Palo Alto Online.  

Over the past year, HR&A and engagement partners, Kearns & West,  st, conducted in‑depth economic development research and connected with local stakeholders and more than 100 community members to shape strategies that build on East Palo Alto’s strengths — its central Silicon Valley location, affordability, and vibrant youth population — while addressing barriers to business growth. 

As the foundation for the plan’s strategies and actions, the Economic Development Strategic Plan evaluated opportunity sectors for the city, identified and built a framework for development of key opportunity sites in East Palo Alto, and provided recommendations to bolster the workforce development landscape, infrastructure funding, and public realm investments. 

We’re proud to support the city on this economic development plan and look forward to helping turn these strategies into action, fostering a future where economic opportunity and community identity thrive together.

Read the full article here.

HR&A is pleased to announce that Partner and HR&A Board of Directors Chair Candace Damon has been elected to the GBCI Board of Directors!

A leader in HR&A’s work across climate adaptation and decarbonization, Candace brings four decades of experience managing complex public-private real estate and economic development activity. She works across the breadth of HR&A’s practice areas and has developed expertise in large-scale revitalizations, including work on downtowns and waterfronts, ensuring the long-term viability of urban open space, and organizational planning for nonprofits and institutions.

We’re eager to see the GBCI’s continued impact with Candace and fellow Board member, Vance Merolla, supporting their critical mission.

Read the announcement from the GBCI here.

In a recent Seattle Times op-ed, leaders from Amazon (David Zapolsky) and Microsoft (Brad Smith) called for regulatory reforms to reduce barriers to new housing construction in Puget Sound. Their message reflects a shared reality across high-cost regions: without faster approvals, clearer rules, and more land available for housing, affordability will continue to erode.

HR&A Advisors is proud to have helped Amazon launch the $3.6B Housing Fund, a commitment to produce and preserve 35,000 affordable homes across Puget Sound, greater Washington, D.C., and Nashville. Extending this effort, HR&A’s recently co-authored a white paper with Imagine Housing showing how regulatory reforms paired with low-cost capital could enable mixed-income housing on land owned by faith communities in King County’s Eastside.

Addressing the housing shortage requires coordinated action, expanded access to land, and sustained commitment to implementation. HR&A remains committed to supporting partners advancing solutions that help communities build more homes and strengthen long-term affordability.

Read the full op-ed here.

Explore HR&A’s Imagine Housing Soft Sites Analysis here.