John Alschuler will speak on Monday October 29, 2018, at 7:00 pm at Rice Architecture’s Farish Gallery in Anderson Hall on the Rice University campus. Admission is free and open to the public. For guaranteed seating please register for each lecture here.
How can the public and private sectors join to create shared collaborative spaces that engage people and strengthen communities? An expert on this issue, John Alschuler, Chairman of HR&A Advisors, will give the third and final lecture of the Rice Design Alliance Fall 2018 Lecture series on the topic of sharing, organized in collaboration with PLAT Journal and Rice Architecture.
As a consultant and real estate advisor focusing on urban developments, Alschuler brings his knowledge base to various clients and civic entities to aid in the realization of projects that will revitalize an area. Alschuler is the Emeritus Chair of Friends of the High Line and sits on the Board of Directors of the Center for an Urban Future.
In Houston, HR&A has been integral in the preservation and development of the Menil neighborhood and Buffalo Bayou Park. Alschuler has been involved in master planning for the legacy of the 2012 London Olympic Parklands, now Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, to ensure its future as a civic space. Other HR&A projects have focused on resiliency after natural disasters, strategic planning for revitalization of downtown and waterfront neighborhoods, affordable housing, and a report on the economic impact of Airbnb.
Building transit with neighborhoods in mind
Originally published in the October 2018 issue of MyLiveableCity. Written by Amitabh Barthakur and Ignacio Montojo
Cities in developing countries are experiencing an astonishing pace of urbanization and rapid growth with an unprecedented increase in transportation infrastructure investment. Around the world, almost 1,500 urban rail infrastructure projects are under construction, amounting to a total of 140,000 kms of new rail lines.
The growth of urban transit presents an opportunity to improve the standard of living for countless people, connecting them to economic opportunities and jobs. However, if transportation infrastructure is delivered without thoughtful consideration of the communities it serves, or the critical issue of focusing urban density, cities will be unable to fully leverage these significant investments and miss a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods through increased transit usage and access.
Transit development
is more than just infrastructure
Transportation agencies are typically incentivized to deliver transit projects at a fast pace. Most capital funding sources for transit usually have strings attached, and fast delivery ensures mitigating against cost escalations. In highly urbanized cities, land acquisition for transit alignments is another key challenge and transportation developers typically want to keep land acquisition requirements to a minimum. As a result, transit projects are often thought of as pure infrastructure, meaning they are planned in isolation from the greater social and physical environment.
This strategy follows the path of least resistance. But, if transit lines and stations are planned with the long-term goal of creating dense, walkable, well-connected nodes, the impacts on the use and value of the land surrounding will be remarkably beneficial. Increased job opportunities, knowledge spillovers, and efficient land use leading to higher transit usage are among the many benefits associated with high density, transit-oriented communities. The largest share of this value manifests in the form of private investment, particularly real estate development around station areas and along transit corridors.
While transit and associated development is an economic developer’s dream, it can also be a large factor in the gentrification of neighborhoods and displacement of residents who could benefit from transit the most. What some academics have dubbed ‘transit-oriented gentrification’ is occurring in cities around the world. There’s enough evidence showing that transit proximity, in conjunction with an insufficient housing stock, will often increase housing costs and decrease the number of low-income households.
Linking Value capture with
transit-oriented development
Under the right conditions, the public sector can capture the value transit creates, and create funding streams that use different ‘value capture’ mechanisms to not only fund infrastructure and public realm improvements, but also support equity initiatives like affordable housing and workforce development. Doing this requires big-picture thinking and proactive collaboration among city planners, economic development advocates, the private sector, community stakeholders, and infrastructure agencies at the earliest stage of planning.
Urban transit is particularly well-suited for value capture because it sparks development and revitalization. In Hong Kong, the rail property model unlocked development potential for over 600,000 public housing units. The success of the Mass Transit Railway system hinged on the proactive strategy of focusing all the city’s urban growth within proximity to its transit infrastructure. The system benefits directly from the private investment on transit-adjacent publicly-owned properties or from the sale and use of air rights above stations. The system also successfully generates ancillary revenues from retail and advertising within stations. With these streams of revenue, the system can invest in transit and other community benefits, completing a virtuous cycle of investments and benefits.
Value capture can be a critical element for cities looking to fully leverage their public investment in transit infrastructure in a manner that is economically sustainable and creates transit-oriented communities. But the ability to create value from transit investments in the first place depends largely on better integrating transit infrastructure with its physical surroundings. By integrating planning and value capture strategies early in the process before alignments are set, transit agencies can identify areas where transit is most urgently needed, urban designers and planners can design an interface that optimizes access and adds most value, economic development professionals can design appropriate value capture tools and, most importantly, transit developers can engage with community stakeholders to determine which services and community benefits are most desired.
Case Study | Metro de Medellin
A holistic approach to transit-oriented urbanism
In Medellin, Colombia’s second largest city with almost 4 million people, the public transportation agency Metro de Medellin, co-owned by the City of Medellin and the State of Antioquia, has played a significant role in driving an urban renaissance through a series of public investments in elevated rail, light rail, gondolas, and bus rapid transit. A foundational principle of Metro de Medellin was building the Cultura Metro, or the cultural identity and shared purpose for public good, to help develop marginalized sectors of the metropolitan area through transit investment.
Today, areas managed by Metro are perhaps some of the best cared for public assets in the region. While part of this is related to the operational efficiency of Metro as an organization, for the most part it is a manifestation of Cultura Metro. Metro’s goal, as an urban infrastructure provider and city-builder, is to ensure that Cultura Metro permeates the entire urban realm, not just within the transit system, but starting with the station areas and surrounding neighborhoods. To do this, Metro has taken steps to proactively think about integrating transit with its surrounding communities using a range of strategies, but three of them stand out in particular:
1. Bring everyone to the table to start thinking about land use from the very beginning.
Develop close collaboration and coordination between transit agencies, city planning and land-use authorities. If a broad range of stakeholders is not communicating prior to implementation of complex infrastructure projects, you cannot leverage your investments. A variety of people must be involved in implementation to ensure that transit infrastructure will be integrated rather than disruptive.
Collaboration between several public institutions was a key factor of Metro’s success in completing complex projects that complement its core transportation initiatives. Over time, Metro has also built internal capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration. Its urban development team of more than 30 planners, architects, real estate and financial analysts work closely with the transportation planning team and the City of Medellin’s department of city planning, to deliver integrated projects.
The agency is expanding its system, and for each line like the new Ayacucho Tram and H-Line Cable Car, they have started to define influence and intervention areas around stations and alignment. Intervention areas are immediately adjacent to transit stations and slated for physical interventions by Metro, particularly in terms of public realm, signage and access improvements. Influence areas, within the larger surrounding neighborhood, are planning areas that will directly benefit from new transit investments, generate ridership and present value capture opportunities.
2. Give transit agencies greater control on land-use along alignments.
The City of Medellín is in the process of granting Metro formal status as an urban development corporation, which will give the agency greater jurisdiction over land use issues, proximate to transit. Beyond defining design guidelines, open space projects and pushing transit supportive zoning, Metro will have the jurisdiction to apply eminent domain, collect revenues from certain value capture mechanisms in special financing districts, and manage the open space and public realm within intervention and influence areas. While empowering transportation agencies to implement station area development may not work everywhere, Metro’s demonstrated commitment towards a better urban environment combined with their intellectual and technical capacity to accomplish their goal of integrated transit use, can be very effective.
This approach ensures that planning for station areas happens early on and mitigates any conflicts between transit infrastructure delivery, operation, and the surrounding environment, in turn supporting greater ridership and enhanced economic benefits.
3. Strategically acquire land for alignments to support better integration of transit stations with the surrounding station area.
Trying to integrate surrounding land uses with transit infrastructure, once the infrastructure is already built, can be a challenging if not an impossible task. Metro’s approach to transit planning includes proactive strategies to acquire land, particularly around stations, that have the scale and capacity to be developed later. As transit stations are the primary interface between the transit system and the rest of the Metropolitan Area, this approach ensures station areas can support transit-oriented development, as well as safe and easy access to stations. The end goal is to have active station areas and higher ridership. Planning around Medellin’s Metro system also involved developing land in areas with little or non-existent public investment, with a focus on improving public infrastructure and amenities such as parks, libraries and streets.
Seeing the benefits
Medellín’s integrative planning process has helped the city harness the value of transit not just in dollars, but also in improved quality of life and transformed the city for many generations to come.
Medellin is a narrow valley and Metro operates a range of interconnected modes to maximize transit access to all communities. This includes heavy rail that forms the backbone, connected by trams to the edge of the valley, which are further connected to cable cars that provide access to dense neighborhoods on the hillsides. People living in mountain areas surrounding Medellin have benefited by having their travel time to the city center reduced from an hour to less than ten minutes – improving their access to employment opportunities and other resources in the formal city.
The MetroCable planning exemplifies how transit can be used to benefit those who have low access to transportation in the first place. Public safety is another aspect of quality of life that has been improved for countless people in Medellín – the murder rate in the city has fallen by more than 80% since 1991, the decade before many of the integrative planning projects were introduced.
The new stations themselves have also transformed neighborhoods into resource-laden cultural and social hubs, with many libraries, schools and sports facilities built around transit stations. Investment in holistic transportation planning that accounts for improved connectivity and quality of life has worked to transform the social fabric of Medellin into one of Colombia’s most livable cities.
How can this work in my city?
Urban planning and design professionals have a responsibility to advocate that their respective cities build capacity around inclusive and integrative planning by engaging public, private and civic actors. Lack of cooperation and communication are major roadblocks to creating plans for transit that will encourage efficient, dense and inclusive growth, which in turn can support the long-term economic sustainability of cities.
We need to recognize that transit infrastructure development, economic development, community development and real estate development are not discrete activities that contribute to city building. They are interrelated processes that have symbiotic relationships with one another. While there may be a set of private and public actors who appear to have discrete roles in these activities, the lines between them need to dissolve if we are to create livable cities.
Amitabh Barthakur is a leading land-use expert and development economist. He’s worked with cities and transit agencies around the world to design value capture opportunities through real estate development and land use for transit systems and cities.
Ignacio Montojo advises cities and transit systems on public-private partnerships and innovative financing strategies for real estate and urban infrastructure projects in the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean.
HR&A’s Raleigh office, established in 2016, hosted a discussion in July with leading transportation and urban development experts in the North Carolina Research Triangle Region on the impacts that new urban mobility options and autonomous vehicles will have on regional development. The conversation was animated by a focus on how autonomous vehicles can complement current and future transit investments underway in the Region to be a positive force for city building. These experts identified that autonomous vehicles will reduce the need for dedicated parking, helping free up developable land for more productive uses and reducing the burden of parking costs on future development. They also identified strategies to proactively leverage new mobility options and autonomous vehicles to enhance city building efforts in the Triangle Region.
SHARED MOBILITY TECHNOLOGIES ARE FORCING CITIES IN THE TRIANGLE TO RETHINK THEIR STREETS
Across the nation, technological advancements in transportation are reshaping how streets are used. Shared mobility platforms—carsharing, ride-hailing, bikesharing, scootersharing—offer convenient ways to get around and engage with cities. The Shared Use Mobility Center reports that the creation of robust mobility networks helps reduce car ownership and increases use of public transit. As detailed in HR&A’s 2017 report, Driverless Future, autonomous vehicle technologies are advancing rapidly. The state of North Carolina is already investing in infrastructure improvements and policy measures in anticipation of their widespread deployment that could arrive as early as next year. The Triangle must prepare itself for how these changes will affect city-making. Conversations about the ultimate impact of autonomous vehicles on our built environment are an important next step for policymakers.
SCENARIOS FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
The Shared Use Mobility Center contends that autonomous vehicles will build on current trends of shared mobility platforms and use of public transit to further supplant private car ownership, a position that potentially offers several advantages for city building. A vehicle fleet that transitions from traditional to autonomous would experience cost-savings in maintenance and operation. While the loss of jobs due to vehicle automation is a significant concern, one potential benefit is lowered fares for public transportation and private ride-hailing platforms that can both increase mobility and further incentivize car-light lifestyles. Reducing dependency on personally-owned vehicles can offer reduced congestion and a cleaner, safer environment.
Autonomous vehicles that move continually to pick up and drop off passengers would decrease demand for parking spaces. Parking spaces, lots, and decks currently located in central business districts can be located further away as autonomous vehicles add to the list of “first/last mile” solutions. Cities and real estate developers stand to benefit from the reduced need for parking, as existing and future parking space can be repurposed in ways that enhance the local urban context. Moreover, once lenders and regulators have confidence that autonomous vehicles can alleviate the need for the quantity of parking typically provided in the market today, the feasibility of delivering denser urban development in the Triangle will improve as the need for expensive structured parking is reduced.
While the above scenario represents one possibility, an alternate scenario must also be considered – that autonomous vehicles purchased for personal use could inhibit ridership of shared mobility platforms and public transit. According to a 2016 report by the Rocky Mountain Institute, by 2030 travelers could save an estimated $4,000 per year if they eschewed car ownership for shared mobility platforms. Still, many drivers could be inclined to pursue ownership of an autonomous vehicle to preserve privacy, avoid sharing, and ensure flexibility in where and when you travel. Only an estimated 2% of residents in the Triangle Region took public transit to work in 2016. In an area where public transportation options are not as robust as in other growing areas, and where driving is the established norm of transportation, the possibility of autonomous vehicle technology further entrenching car ownership must be acknowledged. If this comes to fruition it could mean more traffic congestion and more scattered development.
Monica Barrow, the Southeast Transit Planning Practice Leader at STV, Inc., stresses the importance of cities being proactive in planning for autonomous disruption and not adopting a “wait and see” approach. Development of robust transit infrastructure has a long timeline due to funding and permitting requirements and waiting to see how autonomy changes transit can be a recipe for frustration and inaction. The Triangle Region can prepare itself for the inevitable driverless future today, and it is already taking steps to do so. Legislators and public authorities are wrestling with the safety, infrastructure, and legal implications of autonomous vehicles to prepare for their widespread introduction. However, less focus has been placed on how autonomous vehicles will affect our built environment and interface with public transit systems. Faced with the uncertain impacts of autonomous vehicles on the ability to create healthy and sustainable built environments, HR&A’s Raleigh Office looks forward to supporting the Triangle Region in developing strategies to leverage autonomous vehicles as a positive force for progressive city-building and inclusive economic development.
TO CAPITALIZE ON THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OFFERED BY AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES, GOVERNMENTS IN THE RESEARCH TRIANGLE REGION SHOULD ADOPT THE FOLLOWING STRATEGIES
#1 Update zoning ordinances to take advantage of autonomous vehicles reducing dependence on parking
In Triangle Region cities, like many throughout the country, there are minimum parking space requirements on a per square foot or per unit basis. These parking requirements are driven not only by local ordinances but also by investors and lenders who underwrite development projects. Parking is seen as necessary to attract tenants and make retail spaces viable. In Charlotte, the city has created flexible TOD zoning districts that reduce or eliminate parking needed for development along the Rail Trail, a 3.5-mile pedestrian trail and light rail line. However, few developers have taken the city up on the reduced parking requirements. This issue takes on new dimensions in the Triangle with the arrival of autonomous vehicles and implementation of regional public transit projects.
The advent of autonomous vehicles has potential to weaken the relationship between parking and retail, opening the door for new types of retail less dependent on dedicated parking. According to HR&A Partner Bob Geolas, autonomous vehicles may help re-focus the emphasis of retail centers on creating a great experience and quality of place for patrons, rather than providing a convenient place to park. Localities can then better support the goals of transit-oriented development by reducing parking requirements and even enacting parking maximums in transit-rich nodes to accompany potential density bonuses. The decreased construction costs that would have gone into providing additional parking could open up new development possibilities.
#2 Make strategic investments in complete streets in urban nodes and corridors
Rather than becoming denser, development in the Triangle Region has spread out. The design of our roads exemplifies this. Raleigh Planning Director Ken Bowers expressed that transit works best where it’s comfortable to be a pedestrian, and the key opportunity in the Region is to re-imagine commercial corridors and centers as more dynamic and walkable places. Recent trends in developing at a more compact and pedestrian-friendly urban scale have brought renewed interest in multimodal infrastructure that can accommodate new mobility options. In Raleigh, ride-hailing platforms as well as dockless bikes and scooters are transforming the way sidewalks and streets are used. The Triangle must prepare for the increased prevalence of new mobility modes in designing and planning for future right of ways, for example by:
- Designing rights of way to include better lighting and continuous sidewalks to encourage walkability, and support bike and scooter usage
- Providing convenient curb space for pick-up and drop-off to accommodate the rise of ride-hailing and ridesharing platforms as well as autonomous vehicles
- Piloting the introduction of designated lanes funded by ridesharing platforms (and future autonomous vehicle fleets) that can be adapted over time based on usage and demand.
Intentional investments in place-making or the provision of incentives to encourage public realm improvements can make transit-oriented developments that appeal to residents seeking a car-light lifestyle more viable.
#3 Rethink existing transit operations and future transit investments
The Triangle Region is investing to improve accessibility and mobility, including a bus rapid transit system in Wake County, a light rail system connecting Durham and Orange Counties, and the completion of the I-540 loop in southern Wake County. In this time of immense opportunity, local transit agencies in the Triangle must also reimagine their operations. GoTriangle’s current pilot program in Research Triangle Park that replaces existing fixed-route shuttles with free on-demand service within the Park accessible via a mobile phone app, while met with positive feedback, has actually led to decreased ridership. Barriers to ridership for the service include 1) the lack of true destinations within RTP with potential to draw significant patronage from within the Park, and 2) the disincentive to using public transit when one has a private vehicle available and there is ample free parking. A similar on-demand service could function well in a more urban geography that does connect desirable destinations and has less readily-available parking. However, the geometrics of high transit ridership – density, walkability, linearity, and proximity – cannot be overcome with technology alone.
Overall, transportation authorities will have to rethink all transit routes and infrastructure to improve service. Transit stations and stops must be capable of accommodating the constant pick-up and drop-off of users in a way that is safe, welcoming, and maintains a steady flow of traffic. Autonomous vehicles can further improve connectivity by allowing transit stops to function as a feeder point for autonomous, shared, and on-demand services. Underperforming routes with low ridership could be replaced with more flexible public or private on-demand services. As autonomous vehicles are introduced into the market, these services can be scaled up and amplified, acting as complementary services that positively impact planned LRT and BRT investments for the Region.
HR&A’s Raleigh office is excited to be working in The Research Triangle during this time when great strides are being made with investments in transportation and urban development. However, these plans need to consider the impacts of the mobility revolution that is rapidly unfolding. We can unlock latent development potential confined in parking spaces to build more densely in urban nodes and do so more affordably. We can prioritize designing flexible and multimodal streets and sidewalks to concentrate development. We can rethink our transit systems and partnerships with private actors to provide better services.
To achieve these goals our governmental authorities, residents, and the business community must work collaboratively. Throughout the years the Triangle Region has developed a national reputation and strong track record of regional collaboration through endeavors involving economic development, education and job creation, and transportation. The Triangle should draw on this tradition of innovation and partnerships to the benefit of the Region’s residents as we prepare for a driverless future.
This paper was co-authored by the following individuals:
- Richard Adams, Kimley-Horn
- Summer Alston, City of Durham
- Monica Barrow, STV, Inc.
- Ken Bowers, City of Raleigh
- Bob Geolas, HR&A Advisors
- Peter Gorman, HR&A Advisors
- James Kendall, HR&A Advisors
- Michael Landguth, Raleigh-Durham International Airport
- Jeff Mann, GoTriangle
- Beau Memory, NCDOT
- Ernest Muñoz, Gensler
- Elizabeth Packer, HR&A Advisors
- Julie Paul, Formerly of ULI
- Allen Pratt, Perkins+Will
- Eric Rothman, HR&A Advisors
- Perry Safran, Safran Law
- Kyle Vangel, HR&A Advisors
Southeast Minnesota offers a high quality of life to its residents and has tremendous economic growth potential. HR&A’s newly released study for the Southeastern Minnesota League of Municipalities calls for several major policy shifts to achieve this potential over the next 25 years. Among the recommendations are zoning changes to support greater housing production, expanded transportation networks, a regional tourism strategy, immigrant support resources, and programs to increase access to childcare – all designed to grow the region’s economy.
READ THE FULL STUDY
HR&A’s Guiding Principles for Investment
Opportunity Zones are part of a new federal initiative to direct much-needed capital to low-income communities by allowing investors to defer and reduce capital gains taxes by reinvesting gains. To participate, an investor can direct capital gains to businesses and properties located within nearly 8,700 designated census tracts.
For investors, this program allows them to reduce their taxable basis on their original gains and forgo taxes on gains from new investments (with benefits increasing the longer the investment is held). For cities, developers, and businesses, this opens up a potentially significant source of equity capital to stimulate growth in low-income and historically disinvested communities. This program has the potential to be a game-changer in steering a portion of approximately $6 trillion in unrealized capital gains to communities that need quality jobs, safe and affordable housing, and amenities for their residents.
Since the announcement of Opportunity Zone designations earlier this spring, potential investors, project sponsors, and policymakers have awaited clarification from the federal government about how to leverage this new tool and to understand the potential impact on local communities. The federal government will release additional guidance as soon as late October, which is expected to address questions on project eligibility, registration requirements, and the timeline of when capital must be deployed. This guidance is important both because many communities are eager to attract Opportunity Fund capital to jumpstart long-planned projects, and because still other communities are concerned that concentrated investment in certain distressed communities could exacerbate the risks of displacement.
Over the past six months, we’ve spoken with clients and colleagues interested in Opportunity Zones to develop a set of principles for investors, funds, cities, and neighborhoods. These guiding principles are meant to help direct and attract investments in a manner that strengthens local economies and promotes community-serving growth to achieve the promised impact of Opportunity Zones.
Guiding Principles for Opportunity Zone Investment:
- Deploy capital to realize competitive returns and tangible community benefits. Opportunity Zones were designed not merely as a tax benefit but as a means of spurring economic growth and opportunity in communities that have struggled to attract capital. Investors should perform rigorous market analyses to understand the local development and community contexts, and partner with cities and local stakeholders to balance investor objectives with comprehensive, community-based strategies.
- Link Opportunity Zone investments to human capital and small business growth strategies. Align investments to provide benefits to low-income residents and local businesses, and to help mitigate displacement pressures. Where possible, business and employment opportunities created by investments should be accessible to, and promoted among, local businesses and residents through established channels and partnerships.
- Combine Opportunity Zone investments with other incentives to maximize impact and stretch public dollars. Such incentives could include New Markets Tax Credits, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, Brownfield Opportunity Area funds, Community Development Block Grants, HOME funds, and property tax abatements. States and cities should also reassess existing economic development incentives to maximize public benefits in light of capital available through Opportunity Funds. States should also consider whether to align their tax treatment of capital gains with federal tax law.
- Favor investments that support sustainable, equitable, and community-serving economic growth. Opportunity Funds should avoid investing in projects that reduce the supply of affordable housing, displace important cultural or civic assets, or worsen environmental quality. Cities should reexamine land use, tax, and other regulations to encourage or fast-track investments that achieve public policy goals, and to discourage investments that would undermine local goals.
- Prioritize accountability through transparent reporting. The next round of federal guidelines is unlikely to require detailed impact reporting, but investors still have the option to self-report and hold themselves to meaningful standards. Outcomes should detail benefits such as the number of new living-wage jobs created, affordable housing units constructed, and increases in incomes (per capita and household).
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As we await further guidance from Washington, cities and development districts have begun to outline investment opportunities and community goals; investors have begun to catalog opportunities and outline their investment goals; and foundations have defined conditions for matching investments. We encourage interested parties to apply these and other principles to position themselves for impactful investment. Just like pending regulations, these actions will help to define the early successes and long-term impact of this potentially transformative new program.
Have more questions about Opportunity Zones or Funds? For more information, contact Eric Rothman or Bret Collazzi in HR&A’s New York office or Paul Silvern in HR&A’s Los Angeles office.
“Phillip applies creativity and an unparalleled knowledge of federal policy to serve clients in our resilience and affordable housing practices, two issues of seminal importance to the future of American cities. We welcome him to the Partnership. ”
– John Alschuler, Chairman
We are thrilled to announce that Phillip Kash has been promoted to Partner. As a leading expert on urban policy, Phillip works across the country to develop and implement strategies and programs that address two of the most pressing challenges facing cities today: resilient climate adaptation and housing affordability. He joins fellow partner Stan Wall as a leader in HR&A’s growing Washington, D.C. office.
Phillip began his career adapting cities to changing climate conditions in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Since joining HR&A in 2015, he has led some of the firm’s largest resiliency work, including the delivery of technical assistance to states and local governments throughout the country as part of the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC); the development of Climate Ready Boston; and the financing, development, and governance strategies for the Ohio Creek Watershed Transformation project in Norfolk, VA, the Gentilly Resilience District in New Orleans, and the Ilse de Jean Resettlement Project effort in Southern Louisiana.
As a leader of HR&A’s affordable housing practice, Phillip works closely with local governments and stakeholders to establish comprehensive approaches that revise land use regulation, leverage public subsidy, and strengthen tenants’ rights. He has supported the creation of numerous plans that improve affordability and meet community goals, including helping the City of Detroit design and implement a Multifamily Affordable Housing Strategy; facilitating the approval of the first annual allocation plan by Pittsburgh’s Housing Opportunity Fund; and creating a housing plan for Wake County, NC, which dedicated $75M to affordable housing and added 1,400 affordable housing units to its development pipeline in 2018.
Prior to joining HR&A, Phillip advised on affordable housing, nonprofit business planning, neighborhood revitalization, and resilient recovery programs at Enterprise Community Partners. Several of his engagements were in part of HUD’s One Community Planning and Development program and the National Resource Network.
Phillip can be reached at PKash@hraadvisors.com.
As our cities become more dynamic, the growth of an inclusive innovation ecosystem is essential to ensuring that all residents are able to access a better economic future.
In cities across the country, innovation ecosystems are coalescing in places with large employment bases, strong institutional anchors, and diverse mix of uses that prioritize a high quality of life.
New York City is home to several of these clusters – including Flatiron, Lower Manhattan, downtown Brooklyn, and Long Island City. Across the city, over 322,000 people are directly enabling, producing, and facilitating the technologies that drive the industries at the city’s core – advertising, media, finance, fashion.
HR&A worked with the Queens Borough President’s Office to develop a roadmap for growing in inclusive innovation ecosystem in Western Queens.
With this plan, Western Queens, which employs 8,400 people, is well-positioned to transform into a full-fledged tech district. By commissioning a strategic plan, the Borough President aimed to keep Western Queens competitive while ensuring that the growth of the local innovation ecosystem could generate meaningful economic mobility for all local residents, including the 20% who live below the poverty line today.
In developing strategic recommendations for Western Queens, HR&A utilized a planning framework structured around People, Place and Programs to support inclusive growth of the local innovation ecosystem. The framework focuses on providing educational and employment opportunities, creating tech-friendly places, and promoting programs and incentives that make tech-supportive investments and job creation possible.
An imperative for growing any successful place is to ensure that people can learn, create and innovate. In Western Queens, this means working with educational institutions and existing tech employers to create a stronger pipeline for connecting disadvantaged residents to tech training and jobs in a sector that is ripe for growth.
Communities looking to grow their tech ecosystems should also consider making place-based investments to create a physical environment that promotes and supports growth. Indeed, a successful tech district must be attractive to tech talent, employers, and residents. Density of activity is essential for generating interest among companies, as it encourages the informal, serendipitous connections that are the linchpin of collaboration and innovation. Additionally, tech companies, drawn to places by presence of talent, also seek affordable office and production spaces with digital connectivity. In Western Queens, we recommended strategic place-based investments designed to leverage existing concentrations of tech ecosystem assets – education institutions, production zones, and buildings desired by tech companies.
Finally, the development of tech-supportive programs is essential to support an innovation district. A district’s organizational infrastructure, tailored to address the area’s specific opportunities and challenges, represents the connective tissue that makes a district more than just a place. With its wealth of tech talent and existing tech activity, Western Queens would benefit from strategic actions and activities to help differentiate it from other New York City tech districts and better engage the community to build a more robust homegrown tech workforce.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Our work with Western Queens resulted in a plan with 21 specific actions to grow an inclusive innovation economy in Western Queens. As a first step, HR&A’s Roadmap recommended that a group of key stakeholders form a Western Queens Tech Council charged with creating a strong, tech-focused brand for the neighborhood, and coordinating events, networks, and resources to increase the district’s visibility and attractiveness to the tech ecosystem. The Council, whose creation was announced on June 28, 2018, will strategize to create and tech-supportive incentives tied to performance metrics to ensure that the growth of Western Queens tech economy directly funds local, high-mobility jobs and workforce development efforts.
As the area’s leaders come together to grow the local tech ecosystem, they must do so with an eye towards ensuring that the 20 percent of local residents who live below the poverty line are given every possible opportunity to participate in and benefit from this growth. Implemented holistically, the strategic initiatives in the roadmap can meaningfully shape Western Queens’ growth and secure its future as one of New York City’s most desirable tech districts.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can attract tech investment to your city -reach out to our urban tech practice leads Kate Wittels, Danny Fuchs and Bob Geolas.
On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico. Electricity was knocked out across the island and the accumulated damage was widespread and unprecedented. Already burdened with weak physical and economic infrastructure, the island is still struggling to restore basic services and recover from the staggering storm-related death toll, which is in excess of 4,600 lives.
To support those on the front lines of recovery, HR&A has partnered with the Open Society Foundations to design, manage, and execute the Mayor Exchange, a peer exchange and technical assistance program to improve the capacity of and resources available to Puerto Rico’s mayors. Through the exchange, we have matched 14 mayors from the US mainland with 14 Puerto Rican mayors to create a network of support through knowledge sharing and a series of reciprocal visits.
The Exchange also facilitated two day-long technical assistance workshops to build the capacity of Puerto Rico’s mayors and municipal staff on topics such as resiliency planning, fiscal health, and economic development.
HR&A’s is honored to be leading the charge on this work. “We are already making an impact,” says partner and lead of the Inclusive Cities practice, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, “influencing the ways Puerto Rican cities think about resilience, bringing mayors across party lines together for the first time to advocate for their interests, and offering technical assistance that would otherwise be unavailable. It’s work to be proud of, but the needs are so profound that we are but scratching the surface.”
The Exchange is co-chaired Mayor Pedro García Figueroa of Hormigueros, Mayor Javier Jiménez Pérez of San Sebastián, and former Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, whose deep understanding of the important role that mayors play in leading their cities through recoveries from disaster has been an invaluable resource to this program. See below for the list of mayors matched to date.
| Puerto Rico | Mainland US |
|---|---|
| José Santiago Rivera, Comerío | Rahm Emanuel, Chicago, IL |
| Roberto Ramírez Kurtz, Cabo Rojo | Gary McCarthy, Schenectady, NY |
| Nelson Torres Yordán, Guayanilla | Jorge Elorza, Providence, RI |
| Ángel Pérez Otero, Guaynabo | Tom Tait, Anaheim, CA |
| Pedro García Figueroa, Hormigueros | Mike Duggan, Detroit, MI |
| Carlos Delgado Altieri, Isabela | Stephen Hagerty, Evanston, IL |
| Julia Nazario, Loíza | Rahm Emanuel, Chicago, IL |
| Jesús Márquez Rodríguez, Luquillo | Chris Cabaldon, West Sacramento, CA |
| Jorge Márquez Pérez, Maunabo | Catherine Pugh, Baltimore, MD |
| María Eloisa Meléndez Altieri, Ponce | Mitch Landrieu, New Orleans, LA |
| Carmen Yulín Cruz, San Juan | Jim Kenney, Philadelphia, PA |
| Javier D. Jiménez Pérez, San Sebastián | Mark Stodola, Little Rock, AR |
| Bernardo Márquez García, Toa Baja | Paul Soglin, Madison, WI |
| Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz, Villalba | Ravinder Bhalla, Hoboken, NJ |
Interested in learning more about the program? Contact Partner Andrea Batista Schlesinger.
“Martha’s exceptional career as a civic change-maker and her wide range of interdisciplinary skills are unique and perfectly complement our work to bring large, complex transformative projects to life. HR&A gives her an international platform to continue to shape the character of urban life in Los Angeles and beyond.”
– John Alschuler, Chairman
We are delighted to welcome Martha Welborne to HR&A as a Senior Advisor to the firm and our clients. For over 30 years, Martha’s impressive career has spanned the country, with a focus on complex development and mobility management in Los Angeles. Martha will join Partners Paul Silvern, Amitabh Barthakur, and Judith Taylor in HR&A’s Los Angeles office, advancing our mission to improve quality of life in one of the world’s great cities.
“HR&A is an amazing firm that takes on the most complicated, seemingly impossible, urban problems and always finds winning solutions. I am delighted to take on the role of Senior Advisor with this incredible team as our goals are perfectly aligned. “
– Martha Welborne
With experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, Martha has spearheaded some of Los Angeles’ most innovative public transportation and revitalization projects in recent history—including the installation of the county’s first rapid bus lines and the redevelopment of the Grand Avenue corridor. Most recently, Martha was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Real Estate for the Walt Disney Company and served as the Chief Planning Officer at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where she was responsible for planning the long-range mobility future of the county.
Martha began her career as an architect and planner, working on both individual building design and large-scale projects at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and Sasaki Associates, Inc. She has served on the board of the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority and as President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Martha is a former member of MIT’s Visiting Committee for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the Board of the Community Foundation Land Trust, and the Board of Councilors for USC’s School of Architecture and for KUSC.
In addition to her role as Senior Advisor at HR&A, Martha will also serve as Project Director of LA Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies, LLC, the first permanent public transit link to Dodger’s Stadium since it was built nearly 60 years ago.
Please reach out to welcome Martha to the firm at MWelborne@hraadvisors.com.
For transit agencies, joint-development projects can look like an easy win. Agencies can extract value from their incredible real estate assets, enliven station areas, and boost farebox revenues from new riders. Developers also have much to gain – incredible locations, built-in foot traffic, unique uses, etc. – but the complexity of partnering with a transit agency through joint-development agreements can leave them slightly wary.
These concerns usually stem from the increased difficulty, time, and costs typically associated with joint-development. But, transit agencies can offset these risks and increase value by building greater confidence with developers – establishing clear expectations, minimizing delay from process, and sharing an appropriate amount of risk for necessary improvements.
Earlier this year, we sat down with the Washington Metropolitan Transit Agency (WMATA) and a group of local real estate developers to discuss how each party could create better opportunities for successful joint-development agreements. The agency is a leader in advancing joint-development since it began rail service in 1976. Now, under the leadership of Nina Albert, Director of Real Estate and Parking, WMATA is continuing to push innovative approaches toward leveraging its real property to build ridership and create value for the agency.
Our conversation was enlightening and productive, revealing concerns and seven practical solutions that can increase confidence and create better outcomes for both parties.
1. Signaling: Policies and Support for a Feasible Concept
To attract development partners, transit agencies can start by defining their expectations and requirements through a set of clear policies, procedures, and development guidelines. This reduces uncertainty and helps developers understand the costs of requirements like transit infrastructure, parking, and affordable housing.
Understanding the real estate market conditions and gaining support from the local community and municipality is paramount before pursuing development. This step is crucial for decreasing the risk of project derailment – especially where there are community pressures and concerns about density, gentrification, displacement, and congestion. This involves identifying a range of feasible development concepts through a market analysis, along with generating support from local communities and authorities through well-thought out, community-driven planning.
2. Procuring Better Odds
An ideal procurement process allows developers to deliver higher-quality responses with strong financing proposals. To get the most out of a procurement, agencies can increase the number and quality of respondents by reducing the difficulty and cost burden of the solicitation process.
One strategy includes employing a two-step solicitation process – a request for qualifications followed by a request for proposals – that narrows the field of respondents to a small group of well-qualified candidates. Rather than developing detailed proposals against an unknown and/or large field of competitors, respondents can better justify investing the time and resources to respond to a much more rigorous Request for Proposals with a unique offer that is truly the right fit.
3. Empowering Teams to Work at the Speed of Development
Once an agency selects a development partner, the development team must be empowered to “work at the speed of development.” To reduce the risk of missing a favorable property market, transit agencies must enable their development staff to make routine decisions along an established timeline that is responsive to private sector. Also, teams should be positioned to address unexpected obstacles without delay by bringing key transit agency decision-makers (real estate, rail operations, bus operations, safety, etc.) to the table when meeting with development partners.
4. Leveraging Outside Real Estate Capacity and Support
To execute tasks confidently and quickly and inform key decisions, transit agencies need reliable information and analysis. While transit agencies regularly communicate and work with private developers to increase ridership and promote transit-oriented development, a trusted real estate advisor can provide support, capacity, and expertise to pursue more advance real estate tasks including the negotiation and structuring of complex public-private partnerships. When transit agencies can rapidly increase capacity and make data-based decisions in partnership with a real estate advisor, development partners trust that a fair and timely deal can be made.
5. Increasing Demand Through Placemaking
In WMATA’s case, many of its remaining development sites don’t attract enough foot-traffic or activity – think stations surrounded by huge surface parking lots in suburban locations. To increase the desirability of dormant sites to potential users and developers, WMATA and other transit agencies can direct resources into placemaking. A particularly innovative approach could involve sponsoring a Business Improvement District focused on site activation and branding during the initial years of a new development.
6. Sharing Risks: A Partnership for the Necessary Infrastructure
Many large sites with development potential often require a significant infrastructure investment to support new development. These costly up-front investments are a large financial risk for developers, however transit agencies – in partnership with local municipalities– can help address this risk and cost burden. Solutions might involve working with the municipality to provide the infrastructure financing for and creating a tax increment finance or special assessment district by which the eventual development reimburses the costs. Alternatively, transit agencies themselves can explore strategies for establishing a revolving TOD infrastructure fund to enable co-investing in projects that create value and ridership for the agency.
7. Creating a Toolkit for Success – Structuring the Deal
Ground leases for joint-development are complex documents that must address numerous uncertainties about the future real estate market. Ensuring that the terms and conditions are reasonable for both sides can be a drawn-out affair, and mistakes can be very costly. By creating a familiar, financeable ground lease template from a particularly successful joint-development, transit agencies can create a replicable and market-tested toolkit that reduces uncertainty for development partners, expedites the negotiation period, and enables a fair allocation of risk and value.
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Executing a successful joint-development project is inherently challenging as agencies balance the needs of transit riders while also creating commercial development opportunities to attract new riders and revenue. But, getting this balance right can reap considerable rewards and an opportunity to provide incredible benefits for agencies, developers, neighbors, and riders.
As transit agencies look to build more transit-oriented developments through joint-development agreements, it’s important to consider best practices for minimizing risk for themselves and their development partners. By ensuring internal process are well-communicated and designed to reduce obstacles and delays, transit agencies can use joint-development as a tool to maximize value from their real estate assets and achieve shared development and policy goals.
Thanks for reading! If you’re interest in learning more about our joint-development and transit-oriented development advisory services, contact Stan Wall to discuss how HR&A can help your organization navigate the joint-development process.