The Government of Kenya in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), recently retained HR&A to create an implementation plan for the first phase of an exciting new technology industry hub and mixed-use community called Konza Technology City. Konza will be located on a 5,000 acre site in the Nairobi metropolitan area, along the A109 highway to Mombasa. When fully developed, Konza will help Kenya become a world-class center for the technology industry and achieve middle-income country status, and improve the quality of life for Kenyans.

HR&A is leading an international team across many disciplines including architecture, planning, and strategy consulting. We are producing a business plan both to guide the Kenyan government through Konza’s development and to attract potential project developers, investors, and tenants. HR&A is currently identifying market opportunities that can be advanced in the first phase and strategies for financing upfront infrastructure costs.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking proposals for a long-term master lease of the Fulton Center. This signature development will include approximately 65,000 sq. ft. of retail/commercial space and over 50 revenue-generating multimedia displays at one of Lower Manhattan’s most prominent retail sites.

When completed in June 2014 the Fulton Center will link 9 subway lines, PATH service, and the World Trade Center Site, serving as a gateway for approximately 300,000 people daily.

The RFP, which may be downloaded here, covers three parts of the $1.4 billion Fulton Center:

• The Fulton Building: a prominent new glass pavilion with 5 floors of retail surrounding a distinctive light-filled atrium lined by a light sculpture by Jamie Carpenter.
• The Corbin Building: a fully-restored national historic landmark that offers eight floors of commercial development opportunity with a signature retail space along Broadway.
• The Dey Street Headhouse and Concourse: a pavilion across Broadway from the Corbin Building that contains a retail storefront and large-format video wall facing Broadway and leads to a concourse that connects the entire Fulton Center complex to the World Trade Center site.

The RFP is due November 2. The MTA will hold a pre-proposal conference on September 21st to describe the opportunity in greater detail.

The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) recently released HR&A’s study of the economic impacts of affordable housing in New York State. The report showed that affordable housing spurs significant statewide economic activity, creates jobs, and helps revitalize communities. HR&A found that every dollar in public investment leverages over a dollar in private investment. Annually, affordable housing development generates $1.3 billion in public investment and $1.5 billion in private investment, which supports 31,800 construction-related jobs across New York State.

The report also includes case studies of key affordable projects in the Bradhurst neighborhood of Harlem, and in the Plymouth Exchange area of Rochester. In a NYSAFAH press release, Don Capoccia, president of NYSAFAH’s board of directors, stated that, “This report demonstrates the extraordinary impact and fundamental need for affordable housing in New York State. Our industry clearly plays a key role towards economic recovery.”

HR&A’s full report, entitled “Economic Impacts of Affordable Housing on New York State’s Economy,” is available here.

HR&A Advisors, Inc. congratulates Trinity Choice Communities, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, and St. Peter’s College on their New Jersey Future 2012 Smart Growth Award for the McGinley Square Revitalization Plan. Once a key neighborhood business center, McGinley Square experienced decades of decline as businesses moved away from urban areas. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designated it as a “Choice Neighborhood” and provided a grant to support revitalization planning efforts. As a result of this grant, the group created a redevelopment plan to transform the area into a mixed use community that would cater to St. Peter’s students, faculty, and staff as well as neighborhood residents. The McGinley Square Redevelopment Plan calls for the revitalization of the Montgomery Street corridor between West Side Avenue and The Beacon, anchored by the construction of a new student center for St. Peters and the construction of a mixed use residential, retail, restaurant and entertainment development around the Square at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Montgomery Street. The Plan includes the provision of housing for a range of income levels. It increases neighborhood open space through the creation of a pedestrian-only festival street and several pocket parks. Finally, it increases connectivity with Journal Square and the waterfront through a proposed bus rapid transit route.

HR&A was pleased to have the opportunity to support Trinity Choice Communities in its efforts to implement the Plan. HR&A conducted a market study for residential, retail, and professional office uses which will be used to market the project to potential tenants.

John Alschuler, HR&A Chairman, and Candace Damon, HR&A Vice Chairman, received the Women’s City Club (WCC) of New York Civic Spirit Award at the WCC’s annual Civic Spirit Awards Dinner in May 2012. Adrian Benepe, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner, presented the award to John and Candace. Commissioner Benepe spoke of HR&A’s crucial role in the transformation of the High Line into a landmark park, and its ability to guide innovative investment strategies: “HR&A has been at the forefront of park revitalization efforts made possible by attracting private investment.”

The WCC honored John and Candace for their role in projects key to New York’s contemporary renaissance and in similar projects in other great cities. These projects include mixed-use, neighborhood, downtown, campus and regional development projects such as the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Heart of Brooklyn cultural consortium, the legacy park that will result from the London Olympics, and the chain of new parks along the Toronto waterfront.

The WCC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, activist organization of 600 volunteer members, recently completed its 95th year of advocating for causes vital to New Yorkers. The oldest multi-issue advocacy organization in NYC, the WCC recommends changes in legislation, regulations and practices to create a better City. The WCC educates the public to become changemakers, provides a forum for connecting with like-minded advocates and makes resources available for members to bring about policy improvements. Through the Civic Spirit Awards, the WCC publicly recognizes and honors individuals, institutions, organizations and corporations that have demonstrated a commitment to social responsibility in addressing the civic and social needs of the community.

Co-honorees include Laurie Beckelman, a leading expert in the development of cultural and not-for-profit organizations and in landmarks preservation, and Mary McCormick, President of the Fund for the City of New York, an innovator in nonprofit management, social entrepreneurship and adapting emerging technologies for the benefit of government, nonprofit agencies, communities and families.

San Antonio’s City Council today adopted a plan for implementing growth and development in the City’s Center City developed by HR&A, and unanimously passed one of its key recommendations, a clear and consistent incentive policy for downtown housing. HR&A worked with the City’s elected officials, staff, and a newly-formed public-private partnership of civic leaders to create a Strategic Framework Plan for the fast-growing City.

The plan focuses on achieving a target of 7,500 new housing units in the downtown by 2020 through financing, infrastructure investment, and other innovative tools, which will in turn support the City’s competitiveness, job creation, and quality of life. Investments will be prioritized in four key priority growth areas to extend the vibrancy of San Antonio’s great neighborhoods, tourist destinations and convention activities, and its unique RiverWalk.

The new incentive policy will provide a predictable package of tax incentives, fee waivers, loans and grants for quality new downtown housing, bringing transparency and leveling the playing field for developers. Council members and developers lauded the policy for its potential to normalize land values and provide greater certainty and speed of approvals to developers.

Candace Damon, who leads HR&A’s energy efficiency practice, spoke at the 2012 Northeast Energy Efficiency Summit on June 13th. The Summit is an initiative of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership (NEEP), which facilitates regional partnerships to advance the efficient use of energy in buildings in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states. Candace joined real estate experts Matt Weko of Jones Lange LaSalle and Marla Thalheimer of Liberty Property Trust to discuss the effects of mandatory rating and disclosure policies on the real estate market and how utilities and governments can partner with the real estate community to design and implement such policies.

HR&A Partner Paul Silvern was recently appointed by Mayor Richard Bloom to the Santa Monica Redevelopment Successor Agency Oversight Board. At the Oversight Board’s first meeting on April 16, Paul was elected Chair for its inaugural year of operation. Other Oversight Board members include an additional Mayoral appointee, three appointees by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and one appointee each by the Los Angeles County Board of Education and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

The Board is tasked with various responsibilities associated with winding down the affairs of the former Santa Monica Redevelopment Agency, as required by a California law enacted in June 2011, and sustained by a State Supreme Court decision issued in December 2011, that required the dissolution of all 400 redevelopment agencies in the state. Among its responsibilities, the Oversight Board is responsible for approving lists of “enforceable obligations,” or redevelopment project expenditures that may be eligible to continue receiving property tax increment funds until they are completed. In doing so, the Oversight Board has fiduciary responsibilities to holders of enforceable obligations as well as the taxing entities that benefit from distributions of property tax and other revenues generated from redevelopment activities. The Santa Monica Oversight Board will operate through June 2016, at which time the Oversight Boards for all the former redevelopment agencies in Los Angeles County will be consolidated into a single Oversight Board.