New Hope for Newtown

Lorna Alston, 53, came to the City of Sarasota in May as general manager of the North Sarasota Redevelopment Division, where she is charged with overseeing strategies to attract businesses to Newtown. For the past four years, she has coordinated the East Tampa Economic and Urban Development Division, the second largest community redevelopment agency in the nation. In 2008, she was secretary and treasurer of the Florida Brownfields Association. A former banker she served as Vice President Community Reinvestment Act / Loan Review Compliance Officer for BB&T Bank in St. Petersburg. We caught up with her after two weeks on the job.

What do you bring to community redevelopment from your banking background? The ability to analyze the finances for any kind of development. If someone brings something to the table, I’m able to see if it’s a viable project, if there are financial gaps in the process, and sometimes I’m able to help them work their finances to put a better package together. What I’ve found is they know what they want to do, but understanding the financing behind it becomes the critical piece of putting the deal together. It’s almost like a precursor to going to the bank—I know what the bank is looking for.

What special challenges does Newtown face? I flip it around and look at opportunities: retooling ourselves for this economy, job training, getting our residents in place and trained for the green initiatives that are to come, so when the economy turns around are they properly skilled.