Bernice Radle owns Buffalove Development and Little Wheel Restoration Company, a full-service real estate firm focused on reviving vacant and underutilized places and spaces in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Her goal is to combine urban design, preservation, energy efficiency, and affordability to make neighborhoods better for people to live, work, and play.

Her woman-owned and minority-focused companies aim for a more inclusivity for females and minorities in the real estate and construction industries. Bernice's work has been featured on HGTV and DIY network as well as in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Preservation Magazine, TedX, and was awarded the Peter H. Brink Award for individual achievement by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Bernice has been a member of the City of Buffalo's Zoning Board of Appeals since 2016 and was appointed Vice Chair in 2019. Bernice was an active volunteer throughout the adoption of the Buffalo Green Code and active on the Zoning Board throughout the Code transition in 2017. Bernice is a Senior Faculty member of the Incremental Development Alliance where she works with cities across America to do zoning stress tests and train their communities on how to do small-scale real estate development.

In 2021, she was selected to serve on the Form Based Codes Institute Driehaus Awards Committee and in 2022 became an appointed to the FBCI steering committee.

Bernice holds a B.S. in Urban Planning and Regional Analysis from Buffalo State College.

Mike Forrest Keen, PhD, LEED-AP, REALTOR®

Mike Keen is a Managing Partner with Hometowne Development LLC, and President of The Bakery Group LLC. A LEED-AP with two decades experience as a sustainability professional, he spent 30 years as a professor of sociology and sustainability studies at Indiana University South Bend.  

As Managing Partner of Hometowne Development for the last six years, Mike has taken the lead role in the development of Portage Midtown, a sustainable neighborhood demonstration infill project located in South Bend, Indiana.  He is also the facilitator of the Michiana Town Makers ecosystem, an informal network of small scale developers, design professionals, finance officers, real estate agents, property managers, contractors, neighbors, and municipal officials dedicated to helping to create wealth in neighborhoods for neighborhoods.

A social entrepreneur, Mike is trained in The Natural Step’s Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. He offers seminars, workshops and consulting services to developers, municipalities, and not-for-profits wishing integrate sustainability and/or incremental development into their localities.

Monte Anderson is President of Options Real Estate Investments Inc, a multi-service real estate firm specializing in developing sustainable neighborhoods in Southern Dallas and Northern Ellis counties. He is both an advocate and practitioner of incremental development and is often found speaking and teaching across the country on the Cultivating of Local Neighborhoods.

Monte and Options have been recognized by the Dallas Chapter of AIA, North Texas Council of Governments, the American Planning Association, Preservation Dallas, Preservation Texas, and the Greater Dallas Planning Council for their work. Award winning projects have included Main Station Duncanville, DeSoto Market Place, Tyler Station, the Texas Theatre, Belmont Hotel in Dallas, and MidTowne Midlothian.

Monte’s most recent project is Wheatland Plaza in Duncanville, TX, a 90,000sf retail shopping center makeover that will include a food hall anchor, 11 hotel rooms, a co-working space, and various other local retail, restaurant and office type users. Beckley Settlement in South Dallas recently opened at 100% occupancy with 35 office and service providers. Monte previously served on the Duncanville, Texas City Council. He is the founding President of the North Texas Chapter of Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and was a co-founder of the Incremental Development Alliance.

In his spare time Monte enjoys playing with his grandchildren, his cats, and listening to rap music.

Jim Kumon oversees design coordination, construction management and business management activities for Heirloom. He coordinates the building design and construction process with an eye towards achieving deep energy efficiency and sustainability goals, rooted in his experience as a LEED accredited professional. He has more than ten years of small business and nonprofit executive management expertise in the industry.

Jim is also Principal at Electric Housing, a private consulting firm that builds upon work he started as Executive Director and Co-Founder of Incremental Development Alliance. The practice supports developers and cities who want to encourage small-scale real estate development in their community. Through his collaboration program Developer in Residence, he trains and mentors non-profit and for profit professionals in the built environment through all stages of design, finance and construction for middle scale housing 1-20 units in size on urban infill lots across the county. His work spans the country in the northern climate zones from the inland Northeast, Midwest and Mountain West from with particular long term engagements with the cities of Kalamazoo, MI and South Bend, IN.

Jim has an undergraduate degree in Architecture from the University of Michigan, and over 15 years of experience in the design and construction industries in Los Angeles, Denver and Minneapolis. Previously, Jim worked as a project manager in architecture firms where he planned, designed and executed private sector multi-family and public sector buildings. Prior to starting IncDev, Jim was the Executive Director at Strong Towns. As a past board member of the Kingfield Neighborhood Association and chair of the Kingfield Redevelopment Committee for the past nine years, Jim has been closely involved with development projects at the neighborhood level in Minneapolis.