The LOCUS member spotlight highlights a LOCUS coalition member whose past work and dedication in the real estate sector advance smart growth principles and equitable development. For this member spotlight, LOCUS is excited to feature Steering Committee member Cathy Sloss Jones.
Cathy Sloss Jones
Cathy Sloss Jones is President and CEO of Sloss Real Estate Company, an urban redevelopment firm based in Birmingham, Alabama. Cathy is a founding member of the LOCUS Steering Committee and has extensive experience in mixed-use redevelopment and transformative placemaking projects. She chairs the Lakeview Business Association and the Alabama chapter of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2007. She has also been named Businesswoman of the Year and an Executive of Influence by the Boston Business Journal.
Q&A
The following is a brief excerpt from our Q&A with Cathy:
Are there any recent or upcoming development projects you would like to share?
I am currently working on a large downtown urban redevelopment project in Birmingham, centering around Sloss Furnaces, a 36-acre National Historic Landmark and park. Our team is working to tie together transit, affordable housing, entertainment, and public space along our city’s central rail corridor. My hope is this project becomes a DOT pilot project for using TIFIA/RIF financing. I am currently seeking support and expertise from our membership regarding the financing of this project.
Tell us about your work, and how you became engaged in smart growth and triple-bottom-line real estate development.
As part of a 100-year-old family-owned real estate company in Birmingham, Alabama, my work has been exclusively focused on urban redevelopment since 1986. We embraced the idea of triple bottom line development from the beginning. I am also greatly influenced by the Inner City Council of ULI, the Mayor’s Institute on City Design (MICD), my Harvard University Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellowship (2007), working with mayors, and through my experience as a faculty member of the Rose Fellowship.
What inspired you to join LOCUS?
I met Chris Leinberger in Chattanooga, TN in the early 1990s and was inspired by his vision (so clearly articulated in his wonderful book The Option of Urbanism). I was honored to have been asked by Chris to join the first LOCUS Steering Committee.
Connect with Cathy
You can learn more about Cathy and her work in equitable real estate development by visiting her firm’s website, slossrealestate.com.
Join us
With the growing opportunities arising from the federal policy space, there has never been a better time to join LOCUS. LOCUS members enjoy exclusive resources, visibility, business development, and unique leadership opportunities to guide the coalition’s strategy and influence in the real estate development sector.