David Quart, AICP, is the Northeast Regional Real Estate Market Director at VHB, a national planning, engineering, and design firm with clients in the real estate, transportation, local government, institutional, and energy markets. David leads the firm’s integrated real estate services practice to support new development, redevelopment, land acquisition, permitting compliance, and transportation improvements. Previously, David spent nearly 14 years in NYC government, most recently as the Deputy Commissioner for Strategy, Research, and Communications and Chief of Staff to the Commissioner at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he helped to create and implement the Housing New York plan and to plan and gain approvals for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. In addition, he helped launch the planning process which led to the Where We Live NYC Plan, the City’s blueprint to break down barriers to housing opportunity and build more integrated, equitable neighborhoods.
In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Development for the NYC Economic Development Corporation, he advanced and delivered transformational projects that strengthened the city’s affordable housing stock and central business districts and increased public access to the waterfront. Among other projects, he was instrumental in the success of the community engagement, public approvals, developer selection, and implementation of the Essex Crossing project on the Lower East Side, and he led the design and engineering team for the East River Esplanade and Piers project that created new open spaces and improved waterfront access from the Battery to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. David serves on the Board of Directors for the Regional Plan Association and is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the New York State Association for Affordable Housing. He holds a BS in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Urban Planning from NYU Wagner.
