James Lima

Biografía: James F. Lima President, James Lima Planning + Development James Lima is the founding principal of a planning, real estate and economic advisory firm based in New York, serving clients throughout the U.S. James has extensive private and public sector experience in the planning and implementation of urban revitalization projects throughout North America and structuring public-private partnerships in real estate development. Current and recent work includes providing urban design, public policy and programming recommendations for a $500 million flood protection initiative (the “BIG U”) in Lower Manhattan, working with the Presidio Trust of San Francisco on a land use study and implementation strategies, and on behalf of the Alliance for a New Penn Station, authoring the report, Unlocking Penn’s Potential, calling for a new Penn Station (NYC) Redevelopment and Value Capture District. Prior to founding JLP+D in 2011, James was a partner at the national real estate and economic advisory firm, HR&A Advisors, with a focus on downtown and waterfront revitalization. In 2003, Mr. Lima was then NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s appointee as founding President of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC), a public corporation created to oversee the planning, redevelopment and operations of the historic 172-acre former military facility in New York Harbor. James has been an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Columbia University Master of Science in Real Estate Development Program, where he has taught “Public-Private Partnerships in Real Estate Development.” James earned a B.A. from Columbia College with a major in architecture and urban studies, and stayed on at Columbia to complete the Master of Science in Real Estate Development Program. He is a frequent speaker at Urban Land Institute and other conferences, has served on the Mayor’s Institute of City Design and other advisory panels throughout North America, and has lectured on urban redevelopment at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, and Syracuse, as well as in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Sao Paulo. James serves on the Economic Development Committee of the Fourth Regional Plan for the Regional Plan Association in New York, and the boards of the New York Harbor Foundation (d/b/a the Billion Oyster Project), the American LGBTQ+ Museum, and Art Bridge.