David Greensfelder
Biography
David Greensfelder, named a Top Retail Influencer for 2021 by GlobeStreet, is founder and Managing Principal of Bay Area-based Greensfelder Real Estate Strategy, providing strategic planning, market analytics and location intelligence, and real estate development services to communities, financial institutions and investors where there is a nexus between commercial/retail and urban planning and economics.
GRES significant assignments include developing comprehensive retail and economic development strategies for San Jose, California Citywide and Downtown Retail Studies (winner of the APA California Northern Section 2020 Urban Design Award of Excellence), Santa Clara’s Downtown Precise Plan, Fremont’s Irvington District Land Use Conversion Study, Boulder, Colorado’s Citywide Retail Strategy, five large-scale infill redevelopment projects in Honolulu, Hawaii, market strategies for retailers and REITs, repositioning programs for “dead” malls including Cupertino’s Vallco Fashion Square, mixed-use project implementation, and land-use and entitlement consulting. David has also driven more than 325 development projects spanning 6.5 million SF and a finish market value estimated at over $1.25 billion.
David is a specialist in economic development and redevelopment planning, retail resiliency, understanding retail opportunities by differentiating between commodity and specialty retail, and analyzing the impacts of competing retail channels on bricks-and-mortar storefronts. David recently authored the Market Analysis chapter for Building Small – A Handbook for Real Estate Entrepreneurs, Civic Leaders, and Great Communities (ULI, 2021), and the Retail and Last Mile narrative in ULI-pwc’s 2019 Emerging Trends in Real Estate where he discussed how influencers, platforms, an evolving landlord-tenant relationship, and a new equilibrium between retail and other product types is reshaping the retail landscape, and how the “last mile” is the least understood and biggest force impacting all product types. David serves on National Academy of Sciences NCHRP research panels as an urban economics and last-mile expert.
David frequently lectures at UC Berkeley’s Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics and MRED+D programs (where he is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow), the Haas Graduate School of Business, at USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate Development, and teaches ULI’s Mixed-use Development Best Practices Professional Development program. He is a Director of Satellite Affordable Housing Associates and the Center for Creative Land Recycling, is an active ULI member (Urban Revitalization Council, Advisory Services, Education programs, and UrbanPlan and UP4PO steering committee, instructor, and trainer), and ICSC’s P3 National Steering Committee. David graduated from Pitzer College (The Claremont Colleges) with a degree in Business Economics, and the SciARC Foundation Program.
