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Co-founder and principal of Element, JoAnna Hicks has spent the past fifteen years successfully leading $150M of complex real estate developments that include LEED-Gold office buildings, retail, apartments, mixed-use buildings and even an indoor public market.   In her most recent position as Senior Managing Director at Ackerberg, JoAnna led teams through every phase of the projects from site selection and acquisition, through municipal use permits and approvals, design, construction, leasing, and transition to property management.   For both private and non-profit owners, her creative sourcing of financing options generated millions of dollars in equity through secondary loans, grants, TIF, rehabilitation tax credits, new markets tax credits, and low income housing tax credits.   JoAnna was instrumental in the development of several award-winning projects including:

• MoZaic, a 75,000 mixed-use building, parking ramp and art park in Minneapolis
• Midtown Global Market, a 75,000 SF indoor public market in Minneapolis
• Two MarketPointe, a 200,000 SF LEED-Gold Office building in Bloomington
• 1001 Plymouth, a 25,000 SF office reposition for Hennepin County in Minneapolis

JoAnna has also led development projects at Ryan Companies, United Properties as well as the Neighborhood Development Center.  JoAnna received a Master of Science in Planning from The University of Vermont and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies & History from Macalester College.