Fairfield native David Kooris was tapped by Gov. Ned Lamont last July to launch a new quasi-public agency armed with $60 million to incentivize development of dense multifamily housing around mass-transit hubs and downtowns.
The first municipalities began enrolling with the new Connecticut Municipal Development Authority in February, and Kooris expects to begin funding projects this year.
Kooris is a veteran planner, with 17 years of experience leading economic development initiatives in different Connecticut cities and towns.
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His professional career began at the New York-based Regional Plan Association in 2005, focusing on development proposals around mass transit in New York and New Jersey. There, he learned to rally various constituencies around the benefit of transit-oriented development.
Kooris rose to head Regional Plan Association projects in Connecticut before he left in 2012 to lead Bridgeport’s planning and economic development offices. Four years later, Kooris was hired as director of resilience for the state Department of Housing. In 2018, 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 CMDA . Kooris also serves on the Connecticut Port Authority board and was its chairman from July 2019 through last August.