James specializes in land use economics with a specialty in finance, including fiscal impact and the public and private financing of infrastructure and development projects. His public sector experience includes local and regional economic impact studies; fiscal impact evaluations; new county government formation strategies; and the creation of impact fees, assessments and special taxes to fund infrastructure and public facilities. James has conducted numerous evaluations of the economic and fiscal impact of specific plans, and consulted on a wide variety of land use planning topics related to community revitalization and the economic and fiscal impacts of development. He has evaluated markets for entire new towns as well as for individual proposed residential, retail, entertainment, office, R&D, hotel, and mixed-use projects throughout the western United States, for both private and public clients.
As a former bond attorney, James understands the legal underpinnings and technical requirements of public financing instruments, and has advised both public and private clients on the use of individual instruments and the interaction between those instruments and the needs of developers and project finance. He has also conducted project feasibility studies for a wide range of development, often in connection with community revitalization or expansion efforts. He has conducted fiscal impact evaluations in a wide range of contacts, including specific plans, individual development project, community revitalization programs, annexations and government reorganizations.
Before joining ERA, James was a vice president at Economic Planning Systems, Inc., a real estate economics firm in Berkeley, California, where he provided expertise on the public and private financing, feasibility and fiscal impact of real estate development to public agencies and private clients. Previous to that James was a budget analyst for the City and County of San Francisco and a public finance attorney with the firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in Los Angeles. He holds M.P.P. and J.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. His undergraduate work was at Harvard University, where he received an A.B.
magna cum laude. James is a member of the California State Bar and a licensed real estate broker.