Seifel Consulting Inc.
is a woman-owned California Corporation, certified
as a small
business enterprise with
the State of California.

Team Resumes

Job Openings

Seifel Consulting is known for creative solutions to complex problems. We pride ourselves on excellent client responsiveness, reliable analyses, coherent public presentations, and a substantial track record of solid performance.

Diligent in helping clients reach their goals, we support our clients with an integrated approach to strategic planning, economic analyses and project management. Our professional team has extensive public and private sector experience in real estate; urban planning; housing; economics; public finance and policy; and business, governmental and community relations.

Elizabeth (Libby) Seifel, President of Seifel Consulting, is a certified planner who has been applying the principles of real estate economics and planning to property development and urban revitalization efforts for more than 25 years. Since founding her firm in 1990, Ms. Seifel has managed more than 500 consulting assignments. She has advised private developers, investors and governments in the western and southern United States on projects ranging in size from small infill housing developments to large master planned communities such as San Francisco's Mission Bay. She has consulted on more than 100 redevelopment project areas in California and guided the development of thousands of market-rate and affordable housing units. She has also performed economic and fiscal impact analyses and recommended public financing strategies for numerous revitalization efforts. She has also served as an expert witness on cases involving redevelopment, public finance, housing, and real estate.

Ms. Seifel is an instructor at U.C. Berkeley Extension teaching courses on redevelopment, affordable housing and public/private partnerships. She is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, having presented to the American Planning Association, Florida's Broward Alliance, the California Association of Local Economic Development, the California Redevelopment Association, Housing California, the League of California Cities, the MIT Alumni Association, and the Urban Land Institute.

Ms. Seifel writes on real estate, redevelopment and affordable housing subjects. She is the editor of the California Affordable Housing Handbook and principal author of the Community Guide to Redevelopment published by the California Redevelopment Association. She has also written extensively on mixed income housing, contributing to publications by Solano Press and Urban Land.

Ms. Seifel previously managed the Bay Area consulting practice of Williams-Kuebelbeck & Associates, a real estate economic and management consulting firm. Ms. Seifel was the founding executive director of a nonprofit development corporation that built 270 units of mixed income housing in downtown Boston. She staffed President Carter's Task Force on Housing Costs and evaluated regulatory revisions to federal Indian housing programs while an urban intern with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Seifel has a Master of City Planning and a Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is certified with the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Marie Munson is a Senior Managing Consultant providing advisory services on a wide variety of assignments including redevelopment feasibility studies, redevelopment plan adoptions and amendments, implementation plans, and affordable housing studies. Ms. Munson brings an academic and professional background in local government, urban planning and studies, communications, and project management.

Ms. Munson has extensive experience in the redevelopment process. She has prepared major documents for redevelopment plan adoptions, amendments and mergers including Feasibility Reports, Preliminary Reports, Reports to Legislative Bodies, and Implementation Plans. She has advised on proposed redevelopment project areas, analyzing economic and physical blight and the financial feasibility and fiscal impacts of redevelopment. She has reviewed blight analyses and analyzed the adequacy of proposed redevelopment projects as they relate to statutory and other legal criteria. In addition to redevelopment services, Ms. Munson has performed assignments including grant writing, housing needs assessments and strategic plans.

Ms. Munson's academic and professional background is in communications, urban studies and local government. She has extensive experience with local governments, providing them with advocacy, policy development and analysis, information, and research services. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Munson worked for two state municipal leagues, providing advocacy, policy development, legislative analysis, research, and affiliate group services to mayors, city managers, selectmen, city councilors, and department heads. She staffed policy and legislative committees on economic development, labor relations, health care, and electric industry restructuring.

Marie Munson has a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Connecticut.

Kohki Shiga is a Senior Managing Consultant providing advisory services on a wide variety of assignments related to real estate, urban economics, housing, and redevelopment. Mr. Shiga's professional expertise includes real estate economics, financial feasibility analysis, economic development strategy, fiscal and economic impact analysis, cost benefit analysis, due diligence, and land use advisory services. Mr. Shiga brings more than 15 years of professional experience in real estate finance, transportation, financial and business consulting, and project management.

Mr. Shiga has evaluated numerous real estate projects, performing a variety of financial and economic analyses including pro forma cash flow projections and market analyses. He has also provided redevelopment consulting services including tax increment projections, pass-through calculations, housing development finance, and economic/physical blight analyses. Mr. Shiga has analyzed economic development projects and their feasibility for clients in both the public and private sectors.

Prior to working at Seifel, Mr. Shiga worked as an independent consultant, providing economic and financial consulting to private business and government. He has prepared corporate site evaluation analysis, cost benefit analysis and joint public/private financing strategies. He has completed market research and neighborhood/regional impact analysis for various projects including a high-speed railway project in Japan. He has advised on transportation demand management (TDM) projects in Japan, preparing strategies to promote TDM programs for local governments and assisting the Japanese central government in producing public participation guidelines for transportation planning. He has analyzed market trends and developed market strategies with business consulting firms for a variety of industries.

Mr. Shiga has a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, a Certificate in History and Philosophy of Science/Technology from the Research Center of Advanced Science & Technology at the University of Tokyo, and a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from ICU. He was awarded the Lewis Mumford Scholarship based on his outstanding professional experience.

Jessica Zenk is a planner with a background in urban and regional economic development. She brings professional expertise in redevelopment, community planning, affordable housing, and the arts and urban development.

Prior to joining Seifel, Ms. Zenk engaged in redevelopment, affordable housing and development efforts for various public and nonprofit entities. These include the City of Oakland Community and Economic Development Agency, Redevelopment Division; the Emergency Housing Consortium, a homeless services and affordable housing provider in Santa Clara County; the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara, Development Division; and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, Downtown Management Division. While in graduate school, Jessica served as a student instructor in the University's Urban Studies program and authored and consulted on reports written with the City of San Jose Office of Economic Development and Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley.

Ms. Zenk has a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Brown University.

Abbie Conlee brings a diverse background in public affairs, housing, the arts, and finance to Seifel. Ms. Conlee manages and advises on projects including redevelopment plan amendments, implementation plans, impact fee programs, housing studies, retail market analyses, and economic development strategies.

Prior to joining Seifel, Ms. Conlee worked on a variety of public and nonprofit projects. As a consultant to the City of Redwood City, she managed the development of a citywide Master Fee Schedule after researching development impact fees. For the new Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, Ms. Conlee served as the Capital Campaign Associate Director. As a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, a nine-month experiential education graduate-level program, Ms. Conlee worked on projects ranging from designing a grants management database for the Port of San Francisco to investment analysis for Merritt Community Capital, an affordable housing tax credit syndicator. She also worked with the San Francisco Firefighters Union Local 798, the No on Proposition 72 campaign and the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Ms. Conlee has a Bachelor of Business Administration, magna cum laude, in Finance from Texas A&M University.

Helen Oliver brings to Seifel a diverse background in economic and policy analysis in the fields of redevelopment, housing, childcare, and international development. Since joining the firm, Ms. Oliver has worked on redevelopment plan adoptions and advisory services, fiscal impact studies, impact fee analyses, financial advisory services, and economic development studies.

Prior to joining Seifel, Ms. Oliver worked with a number of public and nonprofit agencies on projects related to public policy and urban development. At the City of Emeryville Redevelopment Agency, she provided technical assistance on redevelopment projects, helped promote the City's homebuyer programs and managed the selection of several public art installations. As an intern with Oakland Community Housing, Inc. she assisted with all aspects of the development process for affordable housing. She also completed short-term consulting projects for the World Bank in Lima, Peru, the Alameda County Housing Authority and the City of El Cerrito, where she and her colleagues advised staff on redevelopment strategies for a commercial corridor.

Ms. Oliver has a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Swarthmore College.

Jackie Tsou is a planner with a background in community development, economic development, land use planning, and affordable housing. Since joining Seifel, Ms. Tsou has performed redevelopment advisory services, impact fee assessments, implementation plan adoptions, and redevelopment plan adoptions and amendments that involve economic and physical blight research and documentation and plan preparation.

Prior to joining Seifel, Ms. Tsou was a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Department Fellow. Ms. Tsou worked on a number of community planning and policy projects with Bay Area nonprofit organizations and local government agencies, including Urban Ecology and Urban Habitat, the City of Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency and the Richmond Planning Department. With Urban Ecology, Ms. Tsou led community planning efforts in the San Antonio District of Oakland. Ms. Tsou researched the social implications of green economic development policy while at Urban Habitat. With the Community Redevelopment Planning Department in Richmond, Ms. Tsou provided technical assistance on a variety of redevelopment projects and policy documents.

Ms. Tsou has a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in Natural Resources from Cornell University.

Evan Sarna is a planner with a background in affordable housing, community development, and urban and regional economic development. Mr. Sarna advises on projects including redevelopment plan amendments, implementation plans, economic development analyses, and affordable housing programs.

Prior to joining Seifel, Mr. Sarna worked for a variety of public and nonprofit projects. As a Project Manager with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, he led development activities for two affordable housing projects for seniors and formerly homeless residents in San Francisco. While a researcher with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, Mr. Sarna contributed to reports detailing economic and community development issues in Oakland and other cities in the region. As a Center for Community Innovation Fellow at U.C. Berkeley, Mr. Sarna worked extensively on a report analyzing industrial, occupational and socioeconomic indicators in Richmond. Mr. Sarna also worked with the City of Berkeley Housing Department on affordable housing and homeless policy.

Mr. Sarna has a Master of City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Pedro Peterson is a planner with a background in regional economic development, participatory planning, urban sustainability, and housing markets. Mr. Peterson advises on projects including redevelopment plan amendments, economic development analyses and impact fee assessments.

Prior to joining Seifel, Mr. Peterson worked in projects for the public and nonprofit sectors, as well as academia. As a Summer Program Associate at ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, Mr. Peterson researched the impact of land use policies adopted by local governments on greenhouse gas emissions. As a Graduate Student Researcher with the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at U.C. Berkeley, Mr. Peterson researched urban land and housing markets in Brazilian cities and the effects of land regularization schemes on housing informality. He also participated in an economic development workshop that developed the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Krabi Province, Thailand. In addition, he worked on the San Francisco Economic Development Strategy developed by ICF International in collaboration with Seifel Consulting and other team members.

Mr. Peterson has a Master of City Planning and a Master of Arts in International and Area Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Emory University.

Helen Lee is a planner with a background in affordable housing, site planning, land use policy and planning, the arts, and urban development. Ms. Lee advises on projects related to redevelopment plan adoption, implementation and amendment; economic development analyses and affordable housing programs.

Prior to joining Seifel, Ms. Lee prepared feasibility analyses and funding proposals for development projects of various sizes at two nonprofit affordable housing development corporations in Cambridge and Boston. As a planner for the City of Lowell, Ms. Lee led various neighborhood and citywide planning efforts such as the Lowell Open Space Plan. She also contributed to the comprehensive revision of the City's zoning ordinance and map and assisted the Lowell Planning Board. At the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Ms. Lee contributed to monetary policy by analyzing regional economic data as well as financial data provided by major banks in New England.

Ms. Lee has a Master of City Planning and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rachel Bassini brings a diverse background of real estate development, finance, investment, and consulting, affordable housing, and infill redevelopment to Seifel. Ms. Bassini advises on projects related to redevelopment financing and planning, affordable housing program implementation and financing, and economic development analyses.

Prior to joining Seifel, Ms. Bassini worked on a variety of developments and redevelopments in America and Latin America, many involving public/private partnerships and urban infill mixed-use projects. As a development analyst and consultant in New York City, she structured the financing for the redevelopment of a 250 acre Urban Renewal Area in the town of Avon, Colorado, helped developed proposals for large publicly-owned land in low-income neighborhoods of Manhattan, and represented the developer to create a master plan with a team of urban planners and designers for a village in Sussex County, New Jersey. Working on the internal consulting team of Argentina's largest and most diversified real estate development company, IRSA, she analyzed surrounding Latin American urban economies to advise the company how and where to invest and develop in the region. There she also worked with local industries and banks to create and provide credit to the low-middle income first-time homebuyers of the company's residential development in the Buenos Aires' burgeoning industrial suburbs. Involvement in the community and investigation into pressing regional issues motivated her participation in educational and housing programs in various cities' impoverished neighborhoods and efforts to leverage new national sustainable energy development incentive programs to develop bio-diesel at the company's vast agricultural land holdings.

Ms. Bassini has a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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