Connecting Communities: Transit Oriented Development

Gene Skoropowski
Managing Director
Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority

Gene Skoropowski has been Managing Director of the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) since August 1999, 10 months after the CCJPA took over the administrative management of the Capitol Corridor service from the Caltrans Division of Rail.

For ten years prior, Gene was Director of Rail Transportation for Fluor Corporation, heading rail projects in Southern California, Florida, Montreal, London, Paris and Amsterdam.  He served ten years as Assistant General Manager of the Philadelphia regional transit system, and was Chief Railroad Services Officer for Boston's sprawling commuter rail system for five years.  While practicing as a private architect and planner, he also served 6 years on the Boston transit system's budgetary board and regional planning commission.

Gene became active as a rail advocate in the late 1960's as a 'paying daily rail commuter' in the Boston area.  He is a graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with a professional degree in architecture.  He and his wife Joann live in Dublin, and have three grown daughters and one grandson.

Kenneth Hughes
CEO
Hughes Development

Ken Hughes is CEO of Hughes Development. He began his career with the Henry S. Miller Company in Dallas, Texas.  With the company for fifteen years, he eventually became Executive Vice-President and a member of the board of directors.  He attended The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business.  He is a member of and serves in a leadership capacity in several professional and civic organizations.  In Washington, D.C., he has been a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute and Chairman of The Dollars and Centers of Shopping Centers, ULI.  He currently is on the Policy and Practice Committee of the ULI and is a Governor of the Institute. He has served as an advisor to several foreign-based developers including Architectos Javier Sordo Madeleno on Moliere 333, Mexico City, Fabrikasa, Caracas, Venezuela and Lensworth, Melbourne, Australia.  In Houston, he sat on the Costume Council of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  He also has served on the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Council in Dallas and has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Cox School of Business and the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University. He has served as a board member of Theatre Three, a respected local repertory company and provided the match funding for the current theatre building.   He currently serves on and is a Life Member of the Advisory Council of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture   He also served for three years on the Mayor of Dallas’ Inside the Loop Committee for the rebuilding of downtown Dallas. He is a continuing guest lecturer on urban housing and mixed-use development with the Real Estate Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In Dallas he is also serving on the Construction Management Committee and the Landscape Design Committee of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts a $250 million opera house and theatre project slated for construction beginning in 2006.

Brooks Blake
Executive Development Officer
JBG Companies

Mr. Blake has over five years of experience in the commercial and residential real estate industry and is involved in all aspects of the development process.  He is currently focused on managing the development activities for JBG Fund VI, a $600MM real estate investment fund.  Prior to joining JBG, Mr. Blake worked in investment banking and private equity.  Mr. Blake has a B.A. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A., Harvard Business School.

Rob Martin
COO
Saco Development

Robert A. Martin, Chief Operating Officer of Mattson Development, is the primary executive responsible for the $100 million redevelopment of Saco Island, a 16 acre island in the Saco River between the cities of Saco and Biddeford, Maine. The project, named Island Point, is a four-year renovation of 500,000 square feet of abandoned mill space into a mixed-use development including retail, commercial office space and condominium housing. Mattson Development specializes in the transformation of buildings into new uses and currently manages over a million square feet of commercial space in Maine.
Bob has held senior executive positions at The Washington Post Company, The Hartford Courant and Dai Nippon Ink & Chemicals. He earned his MBA at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.