I studied city planning because I believe that every place has a unique personality. And that the people who live in each place have unique skills to make that place shine.

When I started working with local governments and real estate developers over 20 years ago, I found that most advice they were given by consultants was too vague and too “anywhere U.S.A.” I saw committed local leaders pulled in a thousand different directions every day, trying to make a difference to build great places for their residents, but they didn’t have the best solution— specific to their needs—at their fingertips. I spent 17 years working directly with these leaders in the federal, non-profit, and private sectors to make sure they had the people and policies at hand to create places EVERYONE can call home.

In 2014, I launched Recast City to make things happen for the local economy. and in 2021, i released the book on all of it: recast your city: how to save your downtown with small-scale manufacturing.

My commitment is to apply my expertise in smart growth, community reinvestment, real estate analysis, and stakeholder engagement to create more opportunity for more people in more places and to create strong, inclusive, and resilient economies.

It’s based on a few core beliefs.

I believe in the power of local business.

I believe in greater opportunity for more people - from big city to rural town.

I believe in creating more places we love - everywhere.

I believe we create strong resilient local economies by investing in all of these outcomes.

And I believe that small-scale manufacturing businesses, and the real estate they occupy, gets us these outcomes.

So that’s what we do.

We work with local leaders to create great places that build energy, increase the number of good paying jobs, fill our storefronts, and make people proud of where they’re from. All by bringing small-scale manufacturing businesses into the forefront.

I’ve seen amazing things in my RC travels - small town residents coming together to invest in their own brewery to bring main street back to life, real estate developers investing deeply in old industrial property to create affordable space for small-scale producers, economic development and planning directors investing directly into makerspaces and incubators to create more opportunities for ALL residents, and mayors going door to door with me to meet these small business owners and understand their needs.

But since I know that every local leader has just A FEW different hats to wear in their job, my goal is to simplify the process and help you drill down to the right planning, economic development, marketing, or business development solution at the right time to create great places that are uniquely yours.

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