Michael is one of North America’s leading experts and futurists on urban and Downtown/Main Street districts as well as the retail industry more generally. As the Founder and President of New York City and San Francisco Bay Area-based MJB Consulting, Michael has amassed more than twenty years of experience in conducting retail market analyses, devising tenanting strategies, and spearheading implementation efforts across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Michael is a regular presenter and keynote speaker at industry conferences, including those of the International Downtown Association (IDA), the National Main Street Center, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the American Planning Association (APA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), among others. In addition to his widely followed “Retail Contrarian” blog, Michael has penned numerous articles for ULI’s monthly magazine, Urban Land, and has authored a chapter for a recently-published book on the urbanization of the suburbs (“Suburban Remix: Creating the Next Generation of Urban Places”, Island Press, 2018).

Kristen Fish-Peterson has 20 years of direct experience leading the business development efforts of a municipality and working in both media and manufacturing sectors. In 2009 she and two colleagues started Redevelopment Resources, a community impact consulting firm that operates nationwide. She has managed all aspects of business development and adaptive reuse programs including business recruitment, retention, entrepreneurial programming, loan fund management, deal structuring, blight elimination, and policy/program development. She managed development in a 400+ acre industrial park and written/managed multiple Tax Increment Financing Districts from creation to fulfillment. Her work through Redevelopment Resources focuses on bringing results to businesses and communities through proactive commercial real estate development and redevelopment, market analysis, creative financing, tax incremental financing district creation and implementation, organizational structure consulting, and business recruitment/retention.  Developing creative solutions to community challenges is one of Ms. Fish-Peterson’s favorite things to take on.  Equipping communities with the tools to solve their economic challenges drives the work of the firm.

David has completed leading-edge work on downtown central social districts, arts districts, multichannel retailing as well as numerous retail assessments and downtown revitalization strategies for clients such as: Meredith, NH; Maplewood, NJ; West New York, NJ;  the City of Gering, NE; the Village of Sherwood, WI;  the Morristown Partnership (NJ); the Long Island City Partnership (NY); the Grand Central Partnership and 34^th Street  Partnership in Manhattan; Jamaica Center, NY, and the City of Peoria, AZ. David also has been involved in stimulating Transit-Oriented Development projects in Cranford, NJ, and Bayonne, NJ.  Since 1990, when many experts felt downtowns could no longer be successful retail locations, David has formulated numerous niche-based retail revitalization strategies that have stimulated growth in communities across the nation, including Rutland, VT, and Englewood, NJ. He is the author of three books and numerous articles related to downtown revitalization. In 2020 he helped found the American Downtown Revitalization Review (The ADRR) and serves as its editor.