We’re excited to share that HR&A Advisors’ Managing Partner Bret Collazzi and Partner José Serrano-McClain have been recognized among City & State’s inaugural Trailblazers in Economic Development, highlighting 100 New Yorkers who are shaping the future of the state’s economy. 

Bret’s transformative work has propelled key initiatives like OneNYC 2050, the future of Rikers Island, and efforts to grow New York’s semiconductor industry, including a housing growth strategy for Central New York. José has championed climate-focused economic development, authored a policy playbook for New York’s creative economy, and supported clean energy integration in New York, California, and Pittsburgh. 

Congratulations to Bret and José for this well-deserved recognition! Your contributions are creating meaningful, lasting impact across New York and beyond. 

This press release was originally issued by Plantizen. 

How an integrated approach to redevelopment is transforming a formerly isolated medical campus into a valuable community amenity.

Like many large institutions across the country, New York City’s Montefiore Einstein Hospital and medical school has functioned as a community anchor for decades, providing employment, education, and vital healthcare services for residents of the Bronx. At the same time, the physical setting of the institution’s Morris Park campus – disconnected from the surrounding neighborhood, with unclear boundaries and branding and no existing transit link – has also limited its potential as a community asset and a true regional hub. Could a more integrated planning approach help close these gaps and offer lessons for other sites and cities?

A new planning study offers a path forward for the Montefiore Einstein Morris Park campus and a timely model for similar institutions and municipalities. Called “Reimagining Montefiore Einstein-Morris Park as a Transit-Connected Campus,” this report was led by the member-driven land use organization Urban Land Institute New York (ULI NY) and resulted from an interdisciplinary technical assistance panel (TAP) on which this article’s authors both served. Here are a few key aspects of the study, along with takeaways that resonate well beyond the Bronx for any planning professional looking to uncover new opportunities for supporting liveability, economic development, and community benefit.

Plan ahead: Act quickly but thoughtfully to get in front of major policy and infrastructure changes

The Montefiore campus may be relatively disconnected now, but that context is rapidly changing. In this case, the Montefiore team sought to address two specific and transformative changes coming down the pipeline: a likely rezoning of the surrounding Morris Park district (which was ultimately passed by the New York City Council in summer 2024), and the planned 2027 opening of a dedicated Metro-North commuter rail station at Morris Park.

Taken together, these two actions have the potential to add six to nine million square feet of new real estate development to the area, attract 6,000 new residents, and create an estimated 15,000 new jobs around the station. Montefiore leaders recognized they had a new urgency in kickstarting a master-planning effort, and collaborated closely with city government and with the local real estate and planning community to help shape a pre-master-plan framework that could 1) outline core opportunities for responsibly and effectively accommodating and channelling anticipated growth and 2) be well underway by the time the new station and other new developments were in place.

Focusing on identity, activation, and connectivity

With the TAP planning team in place, Montefiore now had an opportunity to achieve decades-old goals to grow and expand intentionally, serve the community responsibly, and improve the quality of life on campus for all who visit, work, or seek care there. What does this look like from a planning perspective? Institutional leaders had several ideas. They asked the planning team to improve pedestrian connections and circulation across the campus, explore additional zoning changes to better support new development on the campus and adjacent sites, and provide planning recommendations to integrate the campus with the new train station.

To prioritize and give focus to these goals, the planning team identified a three-pronged framework that it felt must be in place to guide long-term decision-making about the campus. Many of these considerations are familiar to planners working with institutions, and the recommendations offer replicable and transferable ideas:

1. Refine and clarify the campus’s identity. Montefiore Einstein is a pillar of the community with an excellent reputation, but many residents and visitors don’t know where the campus begins or ends or the full range of services available across its numerous buildings. Growth in the district will make distinguishing the Montefiore buildings more important and more challenging. The planning team recommended several ways to better communicate the campus’ identity to the public through consistent signage and wayfinding markers set at campus gateways, sidewalks, and buildings, as well as at the new train station to help direct rail commuters to the campus.
2. Increase campus activation. As with many institutional campuses, Montefiore has several scattered, disconnected, and underused open spaces. It also holds numerous opportunities for redevelopment and facility renovations that more effectively activate the campus and its edges. The planning team recommended incorporating a variety of active and passive open spaces, including repositioning some of the existing open spaces as a blend of internal- and external-facing courtyards, lawns, and gardens. This would allow users from the university and community beyond to find spaces suited to their needs.

In a related vein, the campus is bisected by a central corridor, Morris Park Avenue. The planning team recommended reimagining this artery to continue accommodating cars, but also to reconfigure travel lanes and parking, create expansive and shaded sidewalks, introduce Montefiore branding and signage, incorporate protected bike lanes, and add a planted median with bioswales. This redesign would benefit visitors to the campus and the community at large by slowing traffic, improving non-vehicular access to and through campus, and creating opportunities to add tree canopy and green infrastructure that mitigate localized flooding, an increasingly serious issue in New York City and around the country.

3. Improve connections. This third prong is in many ways the most complex and significant. Montefiore’s leadership identified connectivity, particularly for pedestrians, as one of its key areas for improvement. This goal touches directly on the impact and opportunities of rezoning and enhanced transit access. On the campus’s eastern edge, the train station will create a new front door. Here, the planning team recommended improving upon the original station design to create a more vibrant and memorable public space with a larger plaza to facilitate a wide array of events and community gatherings.

Similarly, because the rezoning creates opportunities for new mixed-use development abutting the plaza, the planning team encouraged Montefiore to work with development partners to shape key sites to complement the health system and serve the community. This strategy can also help improve connections to and facilitate a transition from the more residential neighborhood on the campus’s western edge. Again, the rezoning opens opportunities to better define the campus and strengthen its relationship to Morris Park, for instance, with potential urgent care clinics and community centers that hold office and administrative space above. Similarly, renovating and upgrading existing campus facilities in this area can make them more welcoming and engaging for the public, for example by recladding buildings with glass at pedestrian level.

Think quickly, but act in phases

Another key to this approach is that it offers ideas for implementing the three-pronged approach in strategic phases – for the immediate future, on a two– to-five-year time scale, and beyond. The idea is to identify what is most important to accomplish first, and what may take more time or can wait and to do this quickly before the master plan is complete. Strategic decision-making unfolds over time, but the baseline needs to be established right away so community engagement and other essential processes can start.

• • Short-term planning (first year). To begin, the study offers strategies to make better use of open space. Benches and moveable tables and chairs, for instance, give students, staff, and visitors places to linger and make the campus their own. Regular programming also activates open areas, such as with yoga or tai chi classes.

   

  A few other ideas include exploring opportunities to create a short-term plaza space by the future train station prior to permanent improvements, potentially by engaging with the New York City Department of Transportation and its Plaza Program. Another strategy is to investigate joint development opportunities for the sites closest to the transit station. Prioritizing regular community engagement and outreach meetings as campus planning evolves also is beneficial, including continued conversations with city leadership, transit agencies, and local stakeholders to explore potential value-capture strategies.

• • Mid-term (second through fifth years). At this stage, the planning team anticipates the broader Montefiore master plan will be approaching completion with substantial community engagement. A key next step would be for the institution to prepare for implementation and establish development action plans for specific campus-edge capital projects, with designated timelines. For instance, the Montefiore team could initiate partnerships with an appropriate developer to have the two campus sites located closest to the new station shovel-ready for development.

   

  The study also recommends other strategic partnerships that could play a role at this stage. Montefiore’s campus planners are encouraged to help shape the transit station’s new plaza well in advance of the 2027 opening, for example, by offering to partner with Metro-North on the station’s design, maintenance, and programming.

   

  Finally, within this timescale, the plan recommends establishing a dedicated district governing strategy to help Montefiore manage the campus public spaces in a strategic and cohesive manner. Depending on preferred practices, this management could be achieved by Montefiore’s team or via a newly established district entity, similar to a Business Improvement District.

• • Long-term (fifth year and beyond). Looking well into the future, the study and its planning team recommend this broader timeframe for large-scale capital projects such as major new hospital or research facilities. These mission-critical works demonstrate the health system’s commitment to and investment in the neighborhood, but they are of a scale (e.g., a high-acuity tower) that typically requires several years of consistent community engagement and lengthy entitlement processes.

   

  With this study offering transformative infrastructure plans and action steps for the immediate, near-term, and long-range growth of the Montefiore Einstein Morris Park campus and its soon-to-open transit station, area residents and visitors can anticipate the revitalization of the community’s anchor campus into a major regional wellness, healthcare, and employment hub with a vibrant public realm – and hopefully, the process will form a model for others to follow.

   

  Mike Aziz, AIA, LEED AP is a partner for architecture and urban design firm Cooper Robertson where he directs large, long-range, and interdisciplinary efforts for multiple developments.

   

  Bret Collazzi is a partner at the real estate advisory firm HR&A Advisors where he focuses on neighborhood and regional Investments that produce quality housing, jobs, and public assets.

   

  Both Aziz and Collazzi are members of ULI’s Technical Assistance Panel that was involved in developing ULI’s “Reimagining Montefiore Einstein-Morris Park as a Transit-Connected Campus” report. 

This press release was originally issued by RISE Resilience.

~Funding empowers five projects to implement advanced flood warning systems and innovative insurance solutions for Southwest Virginia~ 

Norfolk, VA – In an effort to strengthen flood resilience in Southwest Virginia, RISE, a Virginia-based nonprofit focused on climate adaptation, has awarded $1.2 million in funding to five winners of the Riverine Community Resilience Challenge. The funding, provided by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), will support projects aimed at developing advanced flood warning systems and community-driven insurance solutions to protect vulnerable communities.

Inspired by the massive devastation left behind by September’s Hurricane Helene, along with two catastrophic floods in Hurley and Whitewood, Virginia, in 2021 and 2022, five winners, including several multi-team integrated solutions, were selected to receive up to $375,000 to pilot their cutting-edge ideas through 2025. Beyond financial support, RISE is providing Challenge winners technical, government and business mentoring, investor matchmaking, customized accelerator programs and more. The winners will discuss details about their solutions during a panel session at the 2024 Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference on  Thursday, Nov. 14 in Virginia Beach.

“Hurricane Helene is a powerful and vivid reminder that our riverine communities in Southwest Virginia are increasingly vulnerable to catastrophic flood events that can change lives in an instant,” said RISE Executive Director Paul Robinson, Ph.D. “As these threats become more severe and frequent, we know the development of new advanced warning systems and community-based insurance programs can make a difference here in Southwest Virginia and, ultimately, vulnerable communities worldwide.”

“All of our Challenge winners have the unique opportunity to pilot their solutions in Southwest Virginia,” said Chief Strategy and Communications Officer Betsy Hnath. “As they test and refine their innovations in real-world environments, the community gets to contribute to the development and benefit from these cutting-edge advancements.”

2024 RISE Riverine Community Resilience Challenge winners include:

Floodbase & Raincoat

Leverages Floodbase’s deep learning framework and Raincoat’s parametric insurance solution to develop a community-based insurance program. This program sets measurable, data-driven thresholds to trigger immediate riverine flood payouts, providing crucial financial support to vulnerable households and businesses in Southwest Virginia.

FloodMapp, The Warn Room, Green Stream

Offers a comprehensive, localized flood warning system that integrates real-time flood mapping technology, hydrologic gauging from Green Stream, and expert emergency advice from The Warn Room. Their solution delivers accurate and timely flood warnings to communities in Southwest Virginia.

InnSure, HR&A Advisors, Stantec

Creates a Total Cost of Risk (TCOR) Simulator for riverine flooding-related risks. This minimum viable product is designed to model and mitigate flood risks, enhancing preparedness and resilience for a pilot community in Southwest Virginia.

Merak Labs, PRAM

Enhances flood monitoring and early warning systems with resilience and impact analytics, providing actionable information to manage flood risks effectively to empower communities and responders.

Ric Platform Services

Provides a transformative approach to flood insurance, emphasizing affordability, rapid response, and community resilience.

This press release was originally issued by Fair Futures’ Youth Advisory Board on PR Newswire. 

The Fair Futures’ Youth Advisory Board (YAB) – comprised of 19 young adults impacted by the child welfare system – is engaged in an ambitious effort to ensure all youth exiting foster care in New York City have access to safe, high-quality, and integrated housing located in desirable communities.

Roughly 500 young adults exit foster care every year in New York City, on their own, not having been adopted or reunified with their birth families. Thrust into one of the most competitive housing markets in the world, studies have found that one fifth of the City’s foster youth experience homelessness within six years of leaving care.

With many of the YAB’s members struggling to find high quality housing themselves, the group decided to make the issue a top policy priority in 2024.

“Last year, our advocacy won more than $30 million in the City’s annual budget so that all foster youth have Coaches to help them thrive,” said YAB Director Anthony Turner. “This year we are focused on building on our success, and ensuring foster youth have access to the housing they deserve.”

This summer, the YAB, its parent organization The Center for Fair Futures, The Children’s Village, Good River Partners, and HR&A Advisors launched a research process aimed at delivering solutions on how to finance foster youth housing at scale.

HR&A Advisors, one of the nation’s preeminent real estate development and public policy consulting firms, is conducting an analysis focused on how to blend public and private capital and existing rental and service subsidies to provide youth with quality housing. Ten youth leaders engaged in a housing design fellowship to guide housing recommendations that they want to see. The final report will be released in early 2025 with the dual goals of driving policy change and serving as a blueprint for impact investing opportunities to develop foster youth housing. The effort is being supported by The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and an anonymous funder.

The Children’s Village, a key partner, has pioneered mixed income housing development for NYC’s youth and families. Earlier this year, the nonprofit opened the doors of the Eliza, a 14-story, deeply affordable housing development in the desirable, racially integrated community of Inwood, Manhattan.

“Where you live and where your children go to school is the most dependable predictor of second-generation success in the United States,” said The Children’s Village’s President and CEO Jeremy Kohomban. “NYC’s children separated from family and now exiting foster care alone as young adults deserve to live in a location where I would live, nothing less.”

Good River Partners, a public benefit firm, is leading a national effort to scale housing for transition-aged foster youth.