Former state Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Alexandra Daum has spent the first half of 2024 in a new role set in familiar territory: New Haven.
She left her state government post in late 2023 to become Yale University’s associate vice president for New Haven affairs and University Properties.
University Properties manages Yale’s commercial real estate holdings in New Haven. According to its website, it has over 85 retail tenants as well as 500 residential properties in its portfolio.
Daum is also tasked with bolstering Yale’s impact on the city’s “economy, public schools and youth, neighborhoods, local businesses, and community.”
The Harvard Business School graduate has lived in New Haven with her husband and two children, and has managed a personal portfolio of Elm City properties under a real estate investment firm she founded called Field Properties. She began her career in real estate development at Trammell Crow Residential in its northern California division. Previously, she worked as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company.
Since joining Yale, her department has announced several new deals. In April, it was announced that national fashion retailer 2nd Street USA will take over space formerly occupied by L.L. Bean in The Shops at Yale.
That same month, Yale purchased for $2.58 million an abandoned industrial factory on Daggett Street that once was slated for an apartment redevelopment. Daum and university officials said there was no plan in place yet for the property, but they noted its key location near Yale and its flagship hospital.