🔒Kooris to lead Municipal Redevelopment Authority in first multifamily housing investments

A new quasi-public state agency armed with $60 million to spur multifamily housing in Connecticut downtowns and around mass transit hubs will begin to fund its first projects this year.

At the helm of the newly formed Connecticut Municipal Redevelopment Authority (MRDA) is David Kooris, a 44-year-old Fairfield native who has led planning and economic development initiatives for Connecticut municipalities and state agencies over the past 17 years.

“The mission is to support municipalities in their efforts to build more housing in their downtowns and around their trains or rapid bus transit systems,” Kooris said. “The Governor and I believe strongly there is a critical mass of communities that want to (add multifamily housing), but they need some technical support, they need some resources.”

Reconciling differences

Kooris graduated from Montreal’s McGill University in 2002, with a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and anthropology. He began his college studies focused on archeology, fascinated by the way infrastructure and settlement patterns reflected the culture of ancient civilizations.

But archeology lost a bit of its luster over time as Kooris discovered much of the work would happen in lonely laboratories and quiet offices, rather than on dig sites.

It wasn’t exactly Indiana Jones.

During his senior year, Kooris discovered the field of urban planning, which led to a post-graduate internship with the New York-based Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit that consults with communities and transit authorities around planning initiatives.

Kooris found himself out in the field, talking with community stakeholders about potential developments. He saw a chance to influence infrastructure and settlement patterns for public good.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a master’s degree in city and regional planning in 2005, Kooris took a full-time job with the Regional Plan Association. There, much of his work centered on organizing community forums about development initiatives around rail hubs in New York and New Jersey.

There were a lot of competing interests — affordable housing advocates, economic development boosters, open space preservationists and others. Kooris’ job was to reconcile these groups, which is part of his responsibilities leading MRDA.

“What I learned from that process was bringing those folks together, engaging in a meaningful and honest participatory process would always result in an increased acceptance of development, of housing production, housing types,” Kooris said.

During his time at the association, Kooris said he learned that a big increase in housing density in specific areas can accomplish many goals. Market rate housing can be leveraged for affordable and workforce housing, and tamp down on urban sprawl. It also helps fuel healthy commercial districts.

Key year ahead

MRDA was established by state lawmakers in 2019, modeled after the Capital Region Development Authority, which has deployed state bond funding over the last 12 years to spur hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private multifamily development in Hartford and surrounding communities.

MRDA will do the same for municipalities outside CRDA’s coverage area, which also includes East Hartford, West Hartford, Newington, Wethersfield, South Windsor, Windsor and Bloomfield.

It has taken several years for MRDA to germinate. It didn’t have funding until 2023; Kooris was tapped by Gov. Ned Lamont in late July to lead the organization.

Kooris has been meeting with municipal and state officials ever since, explaining MRDA’s offerings, which will include zoning consulting services, developer recruitment and development incentives.

Interested communities can sign up for help pushing high-density residential and mixed-use projects around train and rail hubs, or in downtowns.

The agency is in talks with more than a dozen potential member municipalities, and Kooris said he’s confident that at least two dozen cities and towns will enroll with MRDA in 2025, with funding beginning to flow to the first handful of projects by the third quarter.

“There are a lot of folks who think we won’t get any action without sticks,” Kooris said of spurring new residential projects. “We are a carrot and we don’t come with sticks. I am cautiously optimistic this approach will yield more results than people expect it to.”

MRDA can help identify suitable development zones, and consult with officials, residents and stakeholders to map out a development vision. If necessary, zoning changes would be crafted to support that plan.

Once development district boundaries are set and zoning is squared away, MRDA can help recruit developers and begin taking applications for development assistance. What form that assistance will take is not yet defined, but it will likely include low-interest loans for developers, Kooris said. It could also mean supporting demolition of a structure to clear a site for redevelopment, he noted.

“Basically, anything that will help realize housing potential within that district,” Kooris said he also hopes to work with key state agencies to streamline permitting processes and channel the various grant programs available through different agencies.

The $60 million in state funding can be deployed quickly when spread around multiple big-ticket infrastructure and housing developments, but Kooris said he’s confident lawmakers will see value in the investment and allocate more funding in the future.

Veteran planner

Kooris is already a familiar face to Connecticut’s development community.

He left the Regional Plan Association in 2012, after rising to become head of its Connecticut operations. That job prompted him to move from New York back to Connecticut, specifically Stamford. His next role was heading Bridgeport’s planning and economic development offices.

In 2016, Kooris was hired as director of resilience for the state Department of Housing. Two years later, he was appointed deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

Kooris served in that capacity for about two years, and then took a job leading Stamford’s downtown business improvement district.

He left that role to helm MRDA. Kooris also serves on the Connecticut Port Authority board, and was its chairman from July 2019 through this past August.

Kooris stresses the importance of developing a consensus around redevelopment missions. That means listening to residents and stakeholders, as well as pitching new ideas.

It was a strategy he’s deployed in the past, including in Fairfield more than a decade ago, when town officials asked the Regional Plan Association to help rezone an area around a planned passenger rail station.

At the time, the area was zoned for industrial use and mostly occupied by car dealerships. Officials thought new retail and restaurant opportunities would pair well with the passenger rail station.

Instead of leading a top-down rezoning process, in which town officials dictated everything, Kooris said he engaged residents and stakeholders to develop a plan.

About 18 months later, Fairfield’s Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously adopted zoning rules that allowed for 1,200 mixed-income housing units, with ground-floor retail and commercial spaces, Kooris recalled.

The resulting development was well received, he said.