The Urban Edge: Developing and Investing to Unlock Value

Jerold Kayden
Professor, Co-Chair and Program Director,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Jerold S. Kayden is the Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), where he also serves as Co-Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design and Director of the Master in Urban Planning Degree Program. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between urban planning, law, and the built environment, as well as the role of public-private partnerships in urban development. His books include: Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience, Landmark Justice: The Influence of William J. Brennan on America's Communities, and Zoning and the American Dream: Promises Still To Keep. He has written numerous articles on the constitution and property rights, smart growth, design codes, and market-based regulatory instruments, among other subjects. His current research explores how ideas of context and harmony are applied and misapplied in design review, historic preservation, and judicial review.

As a lawyer and planner, Professor Kayden advises governments, developers, and non-profit organizations. He has briefed and argued cases and served as expert witness in federal and state land-use cases across the country. His international work includes work for the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations, among others, in Asia and the former Soviet Union. He served as Senior Advisor on Land Reform and Privatization to the Government of Ukraine in the early 1990s for USAID/PADCO. In 2002, he founded Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space to improve New York City’s 500-plus zoning-created plazas, arcades, and indoor spaces, and HE has been principal constitutional counsel to the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 1990. Professor Kayden has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from, among others, the Environmental Design Research Association, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning/American Institute of Certified Planners, and the American Planning Association, National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and he was “Teacher of the Year” at the GSD. He received the AB, Juris Doctor, and Master of City and Regional Planning degrees from Harvard University. He subsequently served as law clerk to Judge James Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice William Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Alicia Glen
Managing Director,
Goldman Sachs, Urban Investment Group

Alicia is a managing director in the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, a proprietary private equity initiative focused on underserved and emerging urban markets, where she oversees the implementation of the group’s real estate strategy.

Before joining Goldman Sachs, Alicia was the assistant commissioner for housing finance at the New York City Department of Housing, Preservation and Development from 1998 to 2002. She was a real estate associate at Fulbright & Jaworski and at Kalkines, Arky Zall & Bernstein (now Manatt, Phelps) from 1996 to 1998. Alicia was also an attorney at Brooklyn Legal Services, representing low-income tenants, from 1993 to 1996. Prior to attending law school in 1990, Alicia worked for the Manhattan borough president’s office.

Alicia teaches Real Estate Development and Urban Markets at the University of Pennsylvania and serves on several advisory boards of organizations that advocate for additional resources for affordable housing development and preservation.

Alicia graduated from Amherst College in 1988 and Columbia Law School in 1993. She and her husband, Daniel Rayner, live in New York with their two daughters, Olivia and Rosa.

Mossik Hacobian
Executive Director,
Urban Edge

Mossik Hacobian is the Executive Director of Urban Edge Housing Corporation (UEHC) and Urban Edge Property Management (UEPM). He has been Urban Edge's Executive Director for the past 21 years, concentrating on comprehensive community-based development in partnership or collaboration with local, citywide, regional and statewide organizations. Mossik’s interest in community development was sparked during a 9-month design project in East Harlem while attending the Columbia Architecture School.

Mossik is a Trustee and an Executive Committee member of the Boston District Council of the Urban Land Institute. He is on the Board of the Boston City to City Leadership Exchange and is a member of the Boston Committee of the Massachusetts Association of CDCs. He is also a member of the Commonwealth Housing Task Force and a member of the Soverign Bank Commonweath Advisory Committee.

Urban Edge is a non-profit community development corporation focused on homebuyer training, lending for local business growth, home improvements and deleading, resident organizing, safety initiatives and support for youth facilities and programming. Now in its 33rd year of operation, Urban Edge has developed or preserved over 1,300 units of housing and currently manages 1,340 homes and apartments, 193 of which are Boston Housing Authority apartments for the elderly and disabled. Current real rstate development projects include 35 homes for first time homebuyers, conversion of a former transit power station into studio and program space for Boston Neighborhood Network and a $200 million mixed-use, mixed income transit-oriented development in partnership with three community-based organizations and two private developers.

Frank Wuest
Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Development,
Forest City Enterprises

Frank Wuest is a Senior Vice President with Forest City Enterprises.  Based in Boston, he is responsible for all new investment activity initiated though Forest City’s Boston office and through the company’s Science + Technology Group.  This includes identifying new investment opportunities and establishing joint venture/partnership relationships with municipalities, universities, medical institutions and other real estate owners around the country.  Mr. Wuest is also responsible for helping manage these two units of the company. 

Mr. Wuest was a long-time principal with AEW Capital Management and Copley Real Estate Advisors, where he had extensive experience in acquisitions, development, asset management, and investment sales.  During his career, Mr. Wuest has been responsible for the acquisition, development, sale or financing of over $4 billion of real estate including office, industrial, residential and mixed use properties and has invested in a number of real estate related companies.   In addition to his acquisitions and investment management experience, Mr. Wuest served as the portfolio manager of a publicly traded REIT and served on the Board of Directors of several of AEW’s portfolio companies.

Mr. Wuest is a member of the Executive Committee of the Boston District Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).  In addition, he has served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) and was the founding Chair of NAIOP’s Capital Markets Forum.  He is a past member of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts and was one of the founding members of the local board of the Real Estate Investment Advisors Council.  

A former certified public accountant with Price Waterhouse, he is a graduate of the University of Connecticut (B.S.) and Harvard University (M.B.A.).