Sulin Carling
Principal
Sulin manages economic development initiatives, complex master plans, and public policy analyses across the county. She specializes in creating innovation districts, planning for the future of urban industrial areas, and supporting neighborhoods and small businesses in a shifting retail landscape. Sulin assists clients in advancing projects that support growth of the 21st century economy while balancing public sector, private sector, and community interests. She draws on a strong background in public policy, land use planning, economic analysis, and market analysis.
Sulin’s recent work to create strong commercial corridors and strategize for the future of retail includes a study of the impacts of COVID-19 on Long Island’s downtowns. Conducted on behalf of the Rauch Foundation, the study identified new strategies to help small businesses and downtowns recover, adapt, and thrive in a post-COVID world.
Sulin is currently leading an economic development strategy for the Boston Planning and Development Agency’s PLAN:Newmarket, a plan to support retention and growth of 21st century industry in the Newmarket neighborhood. Other recent economic development work includes the development of an employment strategy for a major development site in Toronto to create a vibrant jobs hub and innovation ecosystem that will meet both public and private sector goals. Sulin also advised Carnegie Mellon University on planning for its presence at Hazelwood Green, a former industrial brownfield site in southern Pittsburgh.
Sulin re-joined HR&A in 2020 after serving as Senior Economic Development Planner in the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP). At DCP, she focused on initiatives to support growth of New York City’s rapidly evolving economy. This included leading the North Brooklyn Industry & Innovation Plan, the most comprehensive study of an industrial area conducted by DCP in decades, which identified strategies to grow an innovation ecosystem while reinforcing core industrial areas in the North Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone. Sulin also led a comprehensive study of the future of retail and storefront vacancy trends in New York City.
In her prior tenure at HR&A from 2011-2015, Sulin managed a wide variety of master plans, real estate development projects, community plans, and economic impact studies, including in New York City, Buffalo, Providence, San Francisco, Newport, and Kenya.
Sulin holds a Master in Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago.
American Planning Association, Member