Jill Sherman on developing communities for a thriving future
The latest episode of the Design the Future podcast features the voice of someone that we've been wanting to talk to and learn from for some time: developer Jill Sherman at Edlen & Company, an impact real estate organization in Portland, Oregon.
We recorded this one on stage at Living Future 26 in Seattle earlier this month. (Lindsay Baker was, unfortunately, under the weather, so she missed the one, alas.)
For developer Jill Sherman, buildings are not just assets, they are support systems for a thriving future. Jill leads Edlen & Co.'s public-private partnerships and build-to-suit projects. Jill sources new deals and manages all aspects of the development process, with a depth of expertise at integrating non-conventional sources of financing including low income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, historic tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and urban renewal funds.
"We are focused on developing work that is community focused, impacts underserved communities, and pushes the boundaries of sustainability to try to bring that to scale," she says. One such project, the PAE Living Building, was "the world's first developer-led Living Building" and the approach (it was a conventional capital stack model) will be studied for some time.
Jill shared about her path to becoming a developer, which germinated in noticing needs in the community and a desire to do positive things. The key attributes for development work, she says, are deep curiosity, comfort with math, and a high tolerance for unexpected challenges.
We were at the Living Future conference, surrounded by the community, so our question about "being part of the movement" seemed relevant in a deeper way than it sometimes does. "When I'm able to meet with like-minded developers and architects and contractors and engineers," she says, "I do feel like we are all trying to, yes, move our industry forward, but more importantly, create some positive change in the world."
Listen at https://www.designthefuturepodcast.com/episodes/jill-sherman or on your favorite podcast platform.
Please consider leaving a review on Apple or Spotify; it helps people find us.
Thank you very much to Chris Forney of Brightworks Sustainability for his introduction of Jill and for supporting Living Future and this session.
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Kira Gould Hon. AIA
Kira Gould CONNECT
Mission Hills KS
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