Shawn M. Barney

Managing Director | CLB Porter Development

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Top Real Estate Influencer

CLB Porter Development is a real estate development and public finance advisory firm focused on mixed-finance, mixed-income development projects, as well as helping municipalities structure transactions to access capital for their projects through municipal bonds, public private partnerships, short-term borrowings and other instruments. CLB Porter has structured or developed over $1 billion in projects and is one of the partners working on the massive planned development upriver from the Morial Convention Center, River District. The firm is also involved in the mixed-use redevelopment of the Naval Support Activity (NSA) complex in Bywater.

What are you most excited about in the coming year? I am over the moon to have the opportunity to work on two riverfront developments — NSA and River District — at the same time and shape such an iconic part of our city. Both projects, while complex, sizable and catalytic, also have affordability at their core. River District also has the unique opportunity to educate and elevate history as an amenity given that the land was formerly the cotton press district of the 1800s. It represents a new possibility for equitable development in terms of ownership, procurement, uses and access. It will also be fun.

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What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today? Construction costs and a rising interest rate environment are headwinds we’re all facing. The pandemic also continues to impact the sector in unforeseen ways. A more structural challenge that also represents an opportunity is promoting racial equity in real estate. Earlier this year, ULI released “10 Principles for Embedding Racial Equity in Real Estate Development,” which I helped craft. It is intended to equip real estate professionals with fundamentals to deliver financial and social value to all stakeholders. Historically racist policies and practices such as redlining, racial covenants, and the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 — which routed some highways directly, and sometimes purposefully, through Black and brown communities — have shaped land use with many of the effects still being felt today. Undoing that injustice will take time and intentionality.

 


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Offering comprehensive energy efficiency at no cost to the consumer, Entergy’s Energy Smart program incentivizes Entergy New Orleans customers to perform energy-saving upgrades in...

 

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