THE MBTA, which has faced criticism for lax oversight of its real estate portfolio, has hired the top real estate official at MassDevelopment.
Richard Henderson, the executive vice president for real estate at MassDevelopment, will assume the title of chief real estate officer at the T on July 1. He was paid $219,662 in 2018 at MassDevelopment, according to state comptroller records, but a T spokesman said he would be paid only $200,000 at the transit authority.
“As the second-largest landowner in the state, the MBTA is committed to being a good steward of its real estate portfolio,” T General Manager Steve Poftak said in a statement. “Richard will be a great addition to the team, helping us think strategically about maximizing the value of the T’s assets to better serve our riders.”
The T is expected to present a strategic plan for real estate, including a review of current revenues, at next week’s Fiscal and Management Control Board. The briefing has been in the works ever since Brian Lang and other control board members grumbled about what they perceived as sluggish growth in authority real estate revenues. Real estate revenues in fiscal 2019 were slated to go up $1 million to $18 million.
“In the environment we’re in, that’s our most valuable asset,” Lang said at a March control board meeting. “It’s a huge miss on our part.”
In a memo to T staff on Tuesday, Poftak said Henderson will be responsible for the acquisition, disposition, and management of all T real estate and report to Chief Administrative Officer David Panagore, the former town administrator in Provincetown. Panagore joined the authority in mid-May, receiving a salary of $230,000 a year.
The previous chief of real estate was Janelle Chan, who left the agency in April 2018 to take a job as an undersecretary at the state’s executive office of housing and economic development. In the wake of her departure, the T hired Roger Mann as senior director of real estate and David Lepore as deputy chief real estate officer.