Ones To Watch: Innovators In Commercial Real Estate: Amy Stokes, Kalel Companies

Innovation Highlight:
The accomplishment I’m most proud of goes back to my time at NYCHA, where I led the creation and implementation of the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, which modernized public housing. By addressing decades of deferred maintenance, established through an innovative funding mechanism, we reimagined how public and private partners could collaborate while keeping residents at the center of the process. This experience shaped how I now approach my work as a principal of Kalel Companies.

Innovation in Action:
Collaboration among the development team, public sector partners, tenants, and other stakeholders is a radical departure from how development was done for decades, and that change has made a tremendous positive impact. My focus on bringing together residents, public agencies, developers, investors, and community partners early in the process has helped us identify solutions that are financially viable and genuinely responsive to tenants’ needs, and that have buy-in from the entire spectrum of stakeholders.