Marilyn Chu
Ms. Chu is a Manager in Keyser Marston Associates’ San Francisco office. She has worked in urban planning in the cities of Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, and Oakland prior to joining the firm in 1984.
Key Role
Ms. Chu specializes in assessing the market potential and financial feasibility of real estate development projects. Given Ms. Chu’s training in architecture, urban planning and economics, she is able to apply an interdisciplinary perspective to many of the firm’s real estate assignments. She has also worked extensively in both the private and public sector and thus is familiar with the respective goals and technical requirements of each. With her bilingual skills, her expertise is especially applicable in the Asian communities.
Areas of Expertise
Downtown Revitalization
Ms. Chu assisted cities and towns in developing workable downtown strategies that both acknowledge and preserve existing retail uses as well as identify and create opportunities for new uses to enhance, revitalize, and complement the existing mix. She has been involved in the conceptualization of strategic plans for downtown Portland, Spokane, Concord, Pleasant Hill, Oakland, San Mateo, and more recently, Belmont and Santa Clara. She has also worked on market studies for the development of major retail and entertainment projects in a number of downtowns, including Modesto and Sunnyvale.
Real Estate Feasibility Analysis
Ms. Chu has extensive experience in identifying market opportunities and evaluating the financial feasibility of development proposals. Assignments have included residential and commercial projects specifically oriented to the Asian community such as Phoenix Plaza and Pacific Renaissance Center, two completed projects in downtown Oakland.
Assignments have been as diverse as assessing market potential for three major retail sites in Osaka, Japan, to pro forma analysis of investment, cash flows, and returns for the Bloomingdale’s project in downtown San Francisco and the Town Center Mall in Sunnyvale.
Economic Development/ General/Specific Plans
Ms. Chu worked with municipalities to prepare economic development, general and/or specific plans to identify opportunities for job creation, tax base expansion and business retention/attraction in their communities. She has worked on projects with the Port of San Francisco (Piers 90-94), San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Napa County (Airport Industrial Area), and the City of Emeryville (General Plan Update).
These assignments often include developing a realistic and timely implementation strategies that identify the financing resources available (debt, equity, public/private funds), the priorities of allocation, the entities responsible, and a schedule of implementation actions. Examples include a leasing and financing plan for the Presidio of San Francisco and an infrastructure financing plan for the City of West Sacramento.
Professional Credentials
Ms. Chu received a B.A. in architecture from the University of California, master’s degrees in urban planning and business administration, and a certificate in urban design. She is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Northern Chapter of the American Planning Association and Women in Real Estate.