URBAN DESIGN &
PUBLIC-PRIVATE FINANCE
ADVISORY

THROUGH THE SYNTHESIS OF STRUCTURE, FORM, SURFACE AND STORY, BUILT SPACES OCCUPY NOT ONLY A PLACE ON EARTH BUT ALSO A PLACE IN THE MIND.

OUR STRATEGIC EXPERTISE HAS BEEN ENTRUSTED BY DEVELOPERS, PUBLIC ENTITIES, AND INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS TO DELIVER MAXIMUM IMPACT IN BOTH PLACES.

 

  • Structuring financially sound projects through data-driven analysis and layered capital strategies.

    Services:

    • Capital Stack Engineering
      Assemble multi-source financing with capital structure optimized for operational flexibility and risk mitigation.

    • Incentive Structuring
      Quantify and structure benefits from Special Districts, tax abatements, credits, Rebates, and fee waivers.

    • District Finance Modeling
      Assess and design special district funding for infrastructure, operations, and programming.

    • Development Feasibility Analysis
      Detailed underwriting, optimization for land basis, scaling of multiple uses, and potential for successive phases.

    • Investor & Lender Strategy
      Align underwriting assumptions with market benchmarks and institutional requirements.

  • Applying spatial analysis and development logic to guide planning and design outcomes.

    Services:

    • Land Use & Phasing Strategy
      Build-out sequencing based on absorption rates, infrastructure timing, and capital cycles.

    • Zoning & Entitlement Optimization
      Quantify impacts of code changes, overlays, and density bonuses.

    • Programmatic Fit & Use Allocation
      Test mix of uses through market analysis and building efficiency ratios.

    • Public Realm Cost-Benefit Analysis
      Evaluate open space and streetscape investments by their downstream effect on project NOI and public value-capture.

    • Design Advisory
      Lead architecture & engineering teams in efficiently advancing design process to optimize for public incentives.

  • Navigating intergovernmental processes with precision and strategic foresight.

    Services:

    • Entitlement Strategy & Risk Management
      Timeline forecasting, condition analysis, and mitigation of political and procedural risk.

    • Infrastructure Coordination
      Align off-site improvements, utilities, and street networks with development schedules and budgets.

    • Ordinance Drafting & Legislative Support
      Draft policy language tied to implementation feasibility and fiscal impact.

    • District Formation & Governance Design
      Create entities to manage operations, maintenance, and long-term funding mechanisms.

    • Stakeholder & Agency Coordination
      Structured engagement processes with interjurisdictional decision-makers.

  • Quantifying and operationalizing cultural infrastructure within development frameworks.

    Services:

    • Cultural Asset Audits
      Data-driven mapping of institutions, creative businesses, and cultural land use patterns.

    • Program Demand Analysis
      Market assessment for performance space, exhibition & experiential venues, and creative production uses.

    • Cultural Tenant Fit & Financial Modeling
      Underwriting of creative & “Intangible” functions via novel applications of industry standard benchmarks and gap analysis.

    • Public Art Budgeting & Delivery Models
      Define procurement paths, capex allocation, and long-term O&M strategies.

    • Governance & Operating Models
      Structure sustainable cultural programs — trusts, nonprofits, or hybrid operators — with clear funding logic.

 

By leveraging expertise in urban design and public-private finance as a fee developer and owner’s representative, Giese Ltd has orchestrated incentive and entitlement packages for over a billion dollars worth of adaptive re-use, urban infill and transit-oriented development projects across the American southwest.

Across these projects, Giese Ltd has assembled project-specific advisory and predevelopment teams in the creation of bespoke urban design parameters and fiscal impact scenarios that have been successfully formalized into "win-win" special district & public-private development agreements.

Led by principal, Matthew Giese AICP, CNU-A, MBA, MSF, the firm pairs data-driven underwriting protocols with deep cross-sector experience spanning municipal finance, construction management, hotel, hospitality, retail, entertainment and residential to engineer “real-world” capital stacks that creatively optimize for risk mitigation, operational efficiencies, and successive project phases.