Who We Are
Donovan Rypkema is principal of PlaceEconomics, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic development-consulting firm. The firm specializes in services to public and non-profit sector clients who are dealing with downtown and neighborhood commercial district revitalization and the reuse of historic structures. In 2004 Rypkema established Heritage Strategies International, a new firm created to provide similar services to world-wide clients. He also teaches a graduate course in preservation economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Rypkema began his consulting practice in Rapid City, South Dakota and relocated to Washington, DC in 1985. He has performed real estate and economic development consulting services throughout the United States for State and local governments and non-profit organizations with interests in a broad range of properties, from National Historic Landmark Structures to Main Street commercial centers. His specific fields of consultation include: feasibility analyses for real estate development; training in community-based development; economic revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood commercial centers; and the rehabilitation of historic structures.
Prior to 1985, Mr. Rypkema was involved in the direct development and management of residential, office, retail and National Register properties. He completed appraisals of over 1500 properties including residences, office and apartment buildings, farms, ranches and athletic facilities. His background includes teaching pre-licensing and continuing education courses for real estate professionals.
Today Mr. Rypkema is recognized as an industry leader in the economics of preserving historic structures. Since 1983 he has provided ongoing consulting services to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its National Main Street Center. He has undertaken assignments in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
Rypkema was educated at Columbia University where he received a Masters of Science degree in Historic Preservation. He has lectured widely on economic and preservation issues relating to rehabilitation, community development and commercial revitalization. Mr. Rypkema’s short courses and workshops have been delivered to architects, bankers, developers, preservationists, planners, and downtown managers. He is author of several publications including Community Initiated Development, The Economics of Rehabilitation, and the Downtown Real Estate Development Series. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Architectural Record, The Journal of Commercial Bank Lending, The Responsive Community, Urban Land, Real Estate Finance, Investment Decisions, Places, Preservation Forum, Vital Speeches, the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society and others. In Washington he has served on the Boards of Directors of North Capital Neighborhood Development Corporation and the Washington Council of Agencies.
Rypkema has worked with such groups as the Urban Land Institute, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, the American Planning Association, the International Downtown Association, International Town and City Centre Conference, the World Monuments Fund, the Center for Livable Communities and hundreds of other international, national, statewide and local organizations.
Rypkema worked with the U.S. Army’s Office of Historic Properties creating strategies for the redevelopment of historic buildings on active Army posts. As part of this effort he has written a Feasibility Assessment Manual to be used at the installation level Army-wide.
In recent years Mr. Rypkema has conducted statewide studies of the economic impact of historic preservation in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, New York and Maryland and a citywide study in Philadelphia.
An updated edition of Rypkema’s book, The Economics of Historic Preservation: A Community Leader’s Guide, was published by the National Trust for Historic preservation in 2005 and is widely used by preservationists nationwide. In 2006 the Russian Center for Heritage Trusteeship translated and published a Russian edition of the book.
Caroline Cheong is the Director of Research. She received her MS in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation program, where she focused her studies on the management and planning for historic sites. She was a 2007 US/ICOMOS International Exchange Intern, during which she worked in Al Houson, Jordan on the rehabilitation of an historic convent into a community center. Her thesis focused on sustainable tourism and indigenous communities in Peru’s Lake Titicaca. Cheong was a 2008-2009 Graduate Intern at the Getty Conservation Institute where her work focused on evaluating the challenges and opportunities facing historic cities and urban settlements. She is an able researcher and is experienced in the preparation of both publications and presentations. Cheong recently completed an analysis of the economic impact of the state historic tax credit in Delaware, for which she was responsible for all research.
Cara Bertron is the director of PlaceEconomics’ Rightsizing Cities Initiative. She has completed preservation-based planning and revitalization projects in Philadelphia and Seattle, including a new type of time- and resource-efficient citywide historic resource scan, commercial corridor revitalization projects, and coordination of catalytic redevelopment design. Previously, she worked at Page & Turnbull in San Francisco, where she authored the Charleston Preservation Plan, assisted with four major historic resource surveys, and assessed numerous projects for compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Bertron studied urban planning at Stanford University and holds an MS in historic preservation and a certificate in urban redevelopment from the University of Pennsylvania, where she wrote her thesis on incorporating preservation in older industrial cities’ rightsizing strategies.