CITY HIRES NORTH SARASOTA
REDEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Sarasota, FL:  A new face will soon be seen in North Sarasota coordinating Newtown redevelopment efforts for the City of Sarasota.  Lorna Alston has been hired as the General Manager, North Sarasota Redevelopment Division following an extensive nationwide search.  Her primary responsibility will be overseeing the development of strategies to attract and retain businesses in North Sarasota.

Ms. Alston currently works for the City of Tampa coordinating the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), the second largest CRA in the nation.  For the past four years, she has overseen all economic and redevelopment activities, including the coordination of Tax Increment Financing dollars and infrastructure enhancements.  Ms. Alston has more than 15 years of banking experience dealing with credit analysis, and loan risk management.  She also has worked with brownfield redevelopment projects, and currently serves as the Treasurer/Secretary of the Florida Brownfields Association.

A community advisory board assembled to assist with the selection process interviewed five finalists for the position and unanimously recommended Ms. Alston.  The advisory board included:  Kathleen Baylis, Sarasota Economic Development Corp./Newtown CRA Advisory Board; Capt. Lucius Bonner, Sarasota Police Department; Trevor Harvey, NAACP/Enterprise Zone Development Advisory Board; Dr. Ed James, ABC 7; Mary Mack, Front Porch/Amaryllis Neighborhood Association/Newtown CDC; Eddie Rainey, Newtown CRA Advisory Board.

The Newtown CRA Advisory Board toured the East Tampa CRA in January.  Members were very impressed with the revitalization and growth in the area, and wondered how the success in East Tampa could be replicated in Newtown.

Ms. Alston graduated from Northwood University in Tampa with a degree in business administration.

She plans to move to Sarasota soon.  She will begin work April 30th.

Newtown redevelopment is the City Commission’s top priority for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

 

 

For more information, please contact:
Jan Thornburg, Public Information Officer (941) 954-2613
jan.thornburg@sarasotagov.com