Mr. M.J. Brodie
President
Baltimore Economic Development Corporation

Since January, 1996 M.J. “Jay” Brodie has been President of the City of Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation responsible for Baltimore’s city-wide economic development.  BDC’s core mission is business retention, expansion and attraction, including providing the momentum for downtown revitalization.

Highlights during Mr. Brodie’s leadership at BDC include:

• Revitalizing BDC’s operation by organizing into teams, hiring new staff, and inspiring them to set and achieve high goals
• Identifying and focusing on the city’s economic assets to redevelop a current and future viable economic base (Life Sciences, The Port, Tourism, Warehouse/Distribution, Technology, New Manufacturing)
• Carrying out outreach to existing businesses (150 to 200 each year) with vigorous follow up of problems and opportunities
• Developing new area plans and adding to Urban Renewal plans, especially as the mechanism for site assemblage
• Restructuring the Commercial Revitalization effort to now include 10 “Main Streets” programs in older commercials districts
• Creating new funding tools (Tax Increment Financing and Brownsfields) through State Legislative action – and putting these to active use
• Accelerating the Tourism effort by assisting the creation of a variety of hotel projects (Inner Harbor Marriott, Hampton Inn & Suites, Marriott Residence Inn and the City – Financed Hilton Baltimore Convention Center headquarters hotel now under construction), creating the City’s design-award-winning Visitors Center, sponsoring the update of the Inner Harbor Master Plan (leading to the recent design and construction of West Shore Park).
• Initiating the plan and strategies, followed by the implementation, of the major downtown West Side Revitalization, linking Charles Center/Inner Harbor to the University of Maryland/Baltimore/University of Maryland Medical System complex, including new and rehabilitated housing and retail and the $60 million Hippodrome Performing Arts Center
• Beginning in 1996, BDC’s efforts retained or attracted 52,383 jobs in 706 businesses, resulting in a capital investment of $2.4 billion.

From 1993-1995, Mr. Brodie was Senior Vice President of RTKL Associates, Inc., an international architecture/engineering/planning firm headquartered in Baltimore.  As a member of RTKL’s board of directors and director of the firm’s Washington office, Mr. Brodie was the principal-in-charge of planning and architecture projects in various cities in the United States and in Europe, China, Japan, and the Middle East. 

Before joining RTKL, Mr. Brodie had a three-decade career leading major redevelopment agencies in Washington and Baltimore.  His contributions to the revitalization of these cities were reorganized in 1994 by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Thomas Jefferson Award, which honors public officials and public-and-private-sector architects whose career achievements represent quality design.

As Executive Director (1984-1993) of the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC), a federal corporation established by Congress to revitalize a 21 block, 110-acre area between the White House and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.  Mr. Brodie directed the near completion of the United State’s most prestigious urban redevelopment project leveraging $150 million of public funds to attract $1.5 billion in private investment.  In addition, PADC, as requested by Congress, led the design and development of the now-completed Ronald Reagan Federal Office Building and International Trade Center, a 3.1 million sq. ft. complex combining public and private office space, retail and parking uses in the last available site in the Federal Triangle, two blocks from the White House.

From 1969-1984, when he served as Deputy Commissioner and then Commissioner of the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development, Mr. Brodie molded much of the character and image of the Inner Harbor and surrounding areas that have received international acclaim, in addition to revitalizing many neighborhoods throughout the city.

Mr. Brodie is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (F.A.I.A.) and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) the Urban Land Institute, and the Natural Trust for Historic Preservation.  He has delivered talks on urban revitalization and public/private partnerships to numerous organizations and academic institutions around the world.

A native and resident of Baltimore, Mr. Brodie earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree (1958) from the University of Virginia and a Master in Architecture degree (1960) from the Rice University (Houston, Texas).