Turning Potential into Prosperity

As Executive Director of the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority, I am thrilled to lead the launch of Maine Redevelopment and tackle the important challenges ahead. Throughout my career, I have successfully guided organizations in identifying critical issues, building consensus, and executing strategic solutions. I look forward to leveraging my background as a planner, attorney, and manager to drive the mission of our organization forward.

With over two decades of experience, I have had the privilege of working on diverse and complex infrastructure projects—from expanding rail transit in Boston, to ensuring the sustainability of island electric grids in Downeast Maine, to managing growth in the state's largest city. The sites that Maine Redevelopment will work on present significant challenges, but they also offer crucial opportunities for the future of our state.

Ex officio member Daniel Brennan, became MaineHousing’s Director on April 9, 2018.  Prior to becoming Director, Dan served in a number of senior staff positions at MaineHousing overseeing multifamily asset management and development efforts; weatherization, fuel assistance and home repair programs; and federal programs providing federal rental assistance and funding for Maine’s homeless shelters.  He joined MaineHousing in 1993 as their first Internal Auditor.

Dan currently serves on several state, regional and federal boards and councils, including the National Council of State Housing Agencies, Efficiency Maine Trust, the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority, the Maine Climate Council, and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Advisory Board.

He earned his B.A. in Business Management from the University of Maine and his M.B.A. from Thomas College.

Robert "Bob" Bryant is a Boomerang Maineiac. After graduating from Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, ME he earned his BA at St. Michael's College and did a tour in the Navy to pay off his debt while having them pay for his MBA at Bryant College.  After a long career in Healthcare Information Technology relocating from Rhode Island to Texas and Florida, he retired to come back to Central Maine.  The motivation to move back to Maine was a desire to give back to the Central Maine Communities where he grew up.  Settled on Great Moose Lake in Hartland, ME, he started a small brewery and coffee roastery business.  He then joined the Board of Trustees for MCI and jumped at the chance to join the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority as the District 2 Representative.  Over the years, Bob has seen significant deterioration of the towns and way of life of Central Maine when he came back to visit the family who still live here.  He is excited about the many opportunities the MRLBA has to help these communities and their people.  By rejuvenating the properties abandoned by the companies that also abandoned Central and Northern Maine, he believes that we can provide opportunities to keep and attract the next generation of family oriented, civic minded people to revitalize Central and Northern Maine.

Kevin Bunker is a founding principal of Developers Collaborative. Kevin founded DC with Richard Berman after graduating with distinction in 2007 from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design with a Master in Urban Planning degree. A former municipal planner and lobsterman in the Rockland area, Kevin is a principal on all of DC’s current projects, which have averaged about $45 million per year in recent years and run the gamut from residential to industrial. 

Kevin brings experience in complex financing models including tax increment financing, use of tax credits, and other public-private partnerships, all leading to creative projects that build community and strengthen the Maine economy in innovative ways.  Kevin is also an activist promoting the causes of smart growth and downtowns at the state and local levels. He was the recipient of the City of Portland’s prestigious Economic Development Achievement Award in 2019. 

Kevin lives in Portland with his wife and two daughters.

I am the 10^th generation of my family to call Maine home. I was born in Bangor, and through the years I have had the privilege of living in Penobscot, Aroostook, Franklin, Kennebec, and Cumberland Counties, as well as the Mid-coast. Across generations, my family has experienced the pain of economic disinvestment and seen how blight can harm communities. As a Real Estate Broker, long-time Grant Writer, and former Urban Planner, I see the power that renewed investment can have on the economic health of an area. With transformative tools provided by Maine Redevelopment, Maine towns and cities have an exciting opportunity to create change, resolve issues once thought intractable, and restore vitality to their communities. Maine is an incredible place to call home, and I am thrilled by the prospect of helping Maine Redevelopment get to work for the people of Maine.

Stephen Cole is an ex officio member of Maine Redevelopment, he is Regional Planner for Southern and Midcoast Maine at MaineDOT. He has worked in regional planning and community development for more than three decades, including roles at the Maine State Planning Office and CEI, a community development corporation. 

Stephen holds degrees from Brown University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has co-chaired the Maine Downtown Center Advisory Council and is a board member of the Maine Mobile Health Program, a federally qualified health center serving migrant farm workers.

In my role as a Community Reinvestment officer at Norway Savings Bank, I see the tremendous impact idle and under-utilized buildings have on the surrounding communities.  Occasionally, even a small investment in pre-development work can create momentum for the redevelopment of these buildings into housing or commercial uses.  I’m excited to get to work on Maine Redevelopment Land Bank’s initiatives to bring renewed vitality to neighborhoods and towns across our great State.

John Egan is senior program officer for strategic initiatives at The Genesis Fund. His focus is to help communities overcome barriers and create affordable housing and other projects that support health and wellbeing and generate prosperity. The goal is to build capacity among municipalities, emerging developers, and diverse community groups to plan projects and gain access to resources.

John leads a statewide partnership project that customizes in-person and virtual training to build community capacity to create affordable housing, potentially with funding from MaineHousing. John also is part of the Genesis team that regularly shares information with policymakers at the state and federal level on how to expand the development and preservation of affordable housing, particularly in rural areas.

Lee Jay is the first chairperson of the Board for Maine Redevelopment, serving since the organization's founding in 2023.  By day, he is the Deputy Director of Community Development Director in Kennebunk and previously served as Director of Planning for the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission for 11 years. 

Lee Jay is certain that, “Maine Redevelopment will be a great tool for communities and developers to use in an effort to redevelop properties that can be productive once again for the state in the community in which they are located. I am excited to see what will happen in the future.”

Lee Jay  has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) focused in Geography/Land Use Planning from University of Maine at Farmington. 

Ex officio Board member Nick Hodgkins is the Director of the Division of Remediation at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Nick directs and oversees work at Brownfields, Voluntary Cleanup Program, Uncontrolled Sites, Landfill Closures, Federal Facilities, Superfund, Asbestos, and RCRA Corrective Action sites.  Nick has been with Maine DEP for 35 years.  

Nick has managed the closure of over 500 contaminated sites.  He has also worked within the DEP’s Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Sites Program and the LUST (Leaking Underground Storage Tanks) Program.  Prior to his employment with state government, he worked as an exploration geologist for one of North America’s largest gold companies.

 He has a Bachelors in Geology from the University of Maine.

Ian Houseal was the founding leader of Sanford Land Bank Authority, the state’s first redevelopment focused land bank. He is a visionary, and strategic-thinker who has worked tirelessly to help revitalize Maine communities. He is an expert in all aspects of land bank mechanics from housing to former industrial buildings. Ian has worked with both communities and redevelopers, and has experiences with an incredible breadth of redevelopment issues from contamination to disposition and title distress. 

“Many of us were  frustrated by the lack of coordination among the variety of actors causing delay and holding local communities back from redevelopment. The Maine Redevelopment was born to be a proactive force for communities”. 

Observing the desperate need across the State, Ian and a coalition of partners worked with the legislature to make Maine Redevelopment a reality. Ian now helps and teaches communities and redevelopers across the State, using land banking tools to build vibrant communities.

Kirk is an ex officio member of Maine Redevelopment’s Board, he is the Director and State Historic Preservation Officer for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission (MHPC). Kirk has been with MHPC since 1986.

MHPC was established by the Legislature in 1971 to implement State policy to “preserve the architectural, historic and environmental heritage of the people of the State, and promote the cultural, educational and economic benefits of these resources....” The Commission is an independent agency within the Executive Branch. 

Kirk is an architectural historian and author of several books on the subject. He has conducted research on the history of hundreds of Maine's historic properties. He holds an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Rochester and a graduate degree in historic preservation planning from Cornell University. 

Rip Patten has over 30 years’ experience as an environmental engineer in Maine specializing in assisting municipalities and developers acquire, assess, clean up, and redevelop abandoned and underutilized industrial/ commercial properties throughout Maine.  His experience is not just on the technical side of this work, but also in assisting with the development and execution of redevelopment strategies, establishing public-private partnerships, and leveraging various funding programs.  Successful projects he was involved in include Prime Tanning in Berwick, Eastern Fine Paper in Brewer, Sanford Mill in Sanford, and Lincoln Mill in Biddeford, to name a few.   He has also served on the Board of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and has successfully worked with several affordable housing developers over the years to create affordable housing including both non-profit and for-profit entities.  He lives in Scarborough with his wife, Theresa, and two kids.

Alexa Plotkin is a Policy Analyst with the Justice Policy Program at the Catherine Cutler Institute. Prior to joining the institute, she worked for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland for 8 years. Her background includes a masters in community planning and development from the Muskie School of Public Service. She currently serves on the Biddeford planning board.

Doug serves as one of the ex officio members of the Authority, assigned by the Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD).  He has served a variety of roles within DECD since 2011 spanning two different administrations. Doug began his career at DECD as Director of Legislative Affairs and Communications, and is currently a Development Program Manager, working primarily with communities and businesses involved in federally funded and locally administered Community Development Block Grants. Prior to DECD, Doug worked as an anchor/reporter for more than 12 years at WGME-TV in Portland.