The Montgomery County Planning Department is sponsoring a three-part Winter Speaker Series in December 2017 and January and February 2018 that celebrates 90 years of planning achievements since the M-NCPPC was founded in 1927. The series, titled The Economic Future of the Suburbs: Infill, Commerce, Placemaking, will examine the shift away from sprawling, car-centric places to more walkable, mixed-use and urban-style communities.
The sessions, which will include question-and-answer discussions, will be held in the Planning Department auditorium (8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring) from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The Winter Speaker Series is free and open to the public and planning professionals.
Session 2 on January 24, 2018: Commerce
Heather Arnold, Director of Research and Analysis for Bethesda-based StreetSense, specializes in retail market analysis, incentive planning and merchandising strategies for communities. She was the lead consultant on the Planning Department’s recently completed Retail Trends Study and will speak about online shopping’s influence on retail and commerce in the suburbs. https://www.streetsense.com/team/heather
Peter McLaughlin, Development Director of Rockville-based ProMark Real Estate Services, manages construction projects and focuses on new acquisitions, portfolio strategy and redevelopment opportunities. He will discuss the Octave condominiums in Silver Spring, a 1964 office building transformed by ProMark into residential units, and the challenges of such conversions. http://promarkrealestate.com/who-we-are