Lomenick Leading New Urban Division

Lomenick is considered an expert in the field of urban development. The new division will "consult, develop, partner and joint venture" on developments, John T. Amend, WorkPlaceUSA's president, tells GlobeSt.com. "We're going to do everything that promotes this kind of environment."

Years ago, Amend and Lomenick had worked together. As so often happens, they fell out of touch with each other. Lomenick had quietly exited Post in December only to find himself fine-tuning the new division a month later with Amend. WorkPlace Urban Solutions had been in the planning stages for a year, says Amend, so it was fortuitous that Lomenick had been available to head it up.

With New Urbanism as a basis, the projects will weave housing, retail, office and transit into an all-round real estate venture--a growing trend in a region where freeway congestion is a commonplace occurrence. Amend says the capital market is such that the rest of the year will be spent planning and not building. Those plans, Lomenick tells GlobeSt.com, are focusing on possible projects in Austin, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver and Southern California. Other Sunbelt cities are options because that's where Lomenick has built up his reputation in the field of urban development.

Lomenick says the idea is "to be a generalist developer, which has been lost in America. Cities used to provide that role as master developer, but that was lost with suburban sprawl." It's his experience that a growing number of America's population is disenchanted with suburban living.

WorkPlace Urban Solutions will be developing what Lomenick considers "authentic mixed-use" projects. He points to the success of his projects in Dallas' Uptown section, where 10,000 residents live, work and play in comparison to the neighborhood's population of 300 just 11 years ago. Like others in the region, the division will target development of pedestrian-friendly, full-service neighborhoods intermingled with office buildings that in the end create mini-towns either through adaptive reuse or new construction--all closely aligned with the New Urbanism philosophy. That, says Lomenick, is the way of the future.

Lomenick emphasizes that other WorkPlaceUSA divisions will be called upon to help develop the projects. In all, Amend has assembled 15 entities to provide end-to-end business and real estate solutions. More divisions are coming, Amend says. Next week, WorkPlaceUSA unveils its first product, an online project management system that's been developed by WorkPlace Exchange.