James Suhr
President
JamesSuhr@earthlink.net

Jim, of James Suhr & Associates, LLC, has focused on urban infill and multifamily developments throughout his career in Southern California . His twenty years in the real estate industry encompass experience in the areas of acquisitions, entitlements, development management, and asset management of a wide range of land uses. Jim has been involved in the development of a number of transit-oriented mixed-use infill projects in association with Urban Partners LLC, including ... Washington National Station in Culver City, California - redevelopment of sites surrounding Exposition Light Rail station, including residential and commercial uses; Wilshire Vermont Station in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles - joint development with MTA of 450 apartments and 38,000 sf of ground-level retail with subterranean parking, all built over an existing Red Line subway portal; Burien Town Square in Burien, Washington - redevelopment of 10.5 acres into a mix of public, retail and residential uses surrounding a new civic park. Prior to forming his company, Jim served as Director of Land Acquisitions for BRE Properties in Southern California , and also held positions with Newhall Land & Farming, Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros., and with The Ratkovich Company. Jim is a graduate of UCLA's Anderson School of Management and School of Architecture and Urban Planning and serves as the Board Treasurer of Palisades Charter High School.

Mott Smith
Past President
msmith@civicenterprise.com

Mott Smith is principal of Civic Enterprise Associates LLC, a Los Angeles-based firm that develops infrastructure for vibrant, emerging neighborhoods in areas such as public schools, shared parking and housing. He has built his career by crafting innovative real estate projects from within both private industry and government. Prior to forming CEA, he was Acting Director of Planning for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where he helped launch the District's $1.6 billion Phase II school construction program. Prior to that Mott expanded the use of joint-ventures, mixed-use and public-private development models in public-benefit projects. His work in this arena included (a) launching a public-private housing partnership serving neighborhoods impacted by L.A.'s public school construction program, (b) innovating the use of private non-profit corporations to expedite public real estate acquisition, (c) executing the first mixed-use public school/affordable housing project in the City of Los Angeles, and (d) serving as the founding Executive Director of New Schools-Better Neighborhoods, an L.A.-based nonprofit that develops and advocates creative, community-based approaches to school development. Prior to that Mott developed affordable housing from within the private sector and served as editor/business manager of industry publications The Planning Report and Metro Investment Report.

Patrick Tooley founded and is President of Tooley Interests, LLC a company focused on the development of neighborhood scale retail and mixed use projects in Los Angeles and surrounding areas. As a second generation Los Angeles builder, Patrick leads TI in its development strategy including the conceptualization, design, entitlements and financing of new projects.

Prior to forming TI, Patrick was responsible for the development of several urban infill, mixed-use projects in the City of San Francisco and on the San Francisco Peninsula. Patrick has held positions with Robertson Stephens in the real estate investment banking group, at Spieker Properties, and with The RREEF Funds. He is actively involved in the promotion of the recently adopted mixed use zoning ordinance in the City of Los Angeles, participates in the International Council of Shopping Centers and is a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Patrick received a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Stanford University.

Josh Stephens
Vice President, Programs
The Planning Report
editor@ablinc.net
www.planningreport.com
www.metroinvestmentreport.com

A nearly lifelong resident of the Westside, Josh Stephens is the editor of The Planning Report and the Metro Investment Report, monthly newsletters covering land use, infrastructure, and public policy in the Los Angeles region.

Prior to immersing himself in L.A.'s civic life, Josh taught geography, journalism, and speech and debate at the Archer School for Girls in Brentwood. He has also worked as a freelance journalist and coached club and high school volleyball. He serves on the steering committee of the Brentwood School Alumni Association and on the Brentwood Community Council.

Josh graduated from Princeton University, where he majored in English and served as an editor on the Daily Princetonian. He also did graduate work in urban geography at the University of Arizona.

Phyllis Dubinsky
Vice President, Subscribership
Phyllis@pdkmarketstrategies.com

Phyllis Dubinsky, Principal of PDK Market Strategies, specializes in marketing and organizational strategies for service firms and owners in design, construction, development and related industries. Prior to forming her own practice, she was a Principal for the southern California practice of Perkins + Will, an international architecture, interior design and planning firm. Her nearly 20 years of experience includes leading the marketing and strategic efforts for both large international practices and smaller regional practices. Her work was recognized with the receipt of the prestigious Leonardo Award in 1995. Believing that the constant exchange of fresh ideas is critical to sustaining creative industries, she also has been active in academia over the years and currently is on the faculty of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). In addition, Phyllis has published several articles on creative business strategies for architects, including the widely acclaimed "When Merger and Acquisition Promise Fails to Deliver" published in Design Intelligence.

Phyllis is active in the community and has been on the board of the Westside Urban Forum for 10 years, serving as President in 1998/99. She is also very active in Turtle Will, an organization dedicated to helping the traditional peoples primarily of Niger, Mali and Ethiopia retain their cultures and their dignity.

Matthew A Haas
Fannie Mae
matthew_a_haas@fanniemae.com

Matthew A Haas is a Senior Multifamily Manager at Fannie Mae in Pasadena, CA. He oversees LIHTC acquisitions for Community Investments. Prior to his work at Fannie Mae, he worked for Bank of America Community Development Banking as a Vice President and Client Manager for three years. Mr. Haas has over 16 years of affordable housing and community development experience having worked in New York City, Chicago and now Southern California.

Matthew Haas has been employed by the National Equity Fund as a Senior Acquisitions Officer and as a Senior Program Manager and for Illinois Housing Development.  In addition, he was an Assistant Director of Development for St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation in Brooklyn, NY and as an Assistant Architect and Project Development in New York City.

Matthew Haas has a M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley.

As VP, Land Use & Planning at Cerrell Associates, Kristen Montet Lonner is responsible for oversight of Cerrell's Land Use and Planning division. She is an experienced land use planner and political strategist with an extensive career in the public sector working on a variety of development projects. Her expertise helps clients successfully navigate the public entitlements process.

A former Los Angeles city council deputy, Kristen began her career as an intern with Los Angeles City Councilmember Laura Chick. A subsequent role on Cindy Miscikowski's victorious city council campaign team led to Kristen's selection as Miscikowski's Westside Field Deputy specializing in public works, building, and safety and planning issues.

In 1999, Kristen was tapped to join Miscikowski's legislative staff as the associate planning deputy responsible for urban planning and development issues. Kristen worked directly with Miscikowski and was subsequently named her chief planning deputy. Kristen also handled citywide-planning issues when Miscikowski served as the vice chair of the council's planning and land use committee.

In October of 2003, Kristen was named the director of land use planning for the Los Angeles Unified School District's new construction program. The program brings over 300 school construction projects to the Los Angeles area and is the largest public works project in the U.S. LAUSD promoted Kristen to Chief of Staff to the deputy chief facilities executive of new construction. In this position, she tackled difficult political decisions and negotiated with city councilmembers and state elected officials on a wide range of issues.

Following her time at LAUSD, Kristen served as vice president of land use for GCG Rose & Kindel, representing developers seeking entitlements for projects throughout Southern California.

A UCLA graduate, Kristen is the chair of the Ralph J. Bunche Scholarship for the UCLA Alumni Association and serves on the UCLA Alumni Association scholarship steering committee. Kristen is also the president of the 900-member Los Angeles County Young Democrats. In addition to her leadership in those groups, Kristen serves as the public relations chair for the Westside Urban Forum and sits on land use committees for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Central City Association, and the Los Angeles Business Council assisting them with policy development and outreach. Kristen is a graduate of the Los Angeles Chamber's Leadership LA program.

Andrew Kaplan

Andrew is a Project Developer in Forest City's Hispanic Retail Group, which is developing retail and residential mixed-use environments for Spanish-speaking communities throughout California and the Southwest.

Prior to Forest City, Andrew did business development and corporate strategy consulting as a management consultant for PWC Consulting and IBM Business Consulting Services. He has worked with Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Technicolor, The New York Times Co., The Getty Conservation Institute, Best Buy, Guam Telecom Authority, and other clients in the media, real estate, retailing, and telecommunications industries. Andrew also has worked as a journalist, guidebook editor, and travel writer in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Turkey.

Andrew holds an A.B. degree from Harvard College, an M.B.A. from Columbia University, and a Master of Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California.

Housing problem is supply, demand
Copyright 2004 Daily Breeze.