Faculty Story: Matt Peacock
Architect and former Norman, Oklahoma, City Council member Matt Peacock has spent his career thinking about how thoughtful development and better policy can strengthen communities. His work—from infill architecture to changing parking minimum requirements into recommendations—reflects a belief in investing back into your own “farm.” As an IncDev faculty member, he encourages aspiring developers to learn from others, understand the risks, and start small. As Matt puts it, “The worst thing a first-time developer can do is go out there and try to build a 40-unit complex. Just go build an ADU in your backyard.”
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The Typical Builder Starts Five Homes a Year. Housing Policy Should Take That Seriously.
By: Chris Allen
A number in the National Association of Home Builders’ latest member census jumped out at me.
The typical NAHB builder member started five housing units in 2025.
Not 50. Not 500. FIVE.
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Parking Reform - and Why it Matters for Creating More Housing in Your City
Communities should stop using one-size-fits-all parking mandates and instead allow parking decisions to be right-sized to the project, the site, and the neighborhood context.
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Alumni Story: Seth Harkins
Former math teacher Seth Harkins found his way into development through his work with Memphis’s Alcy Ball Development Group, where buying and improving property became another tool for investing in the neighborhood. An IncDev Boot Camp helped Seth learn to evaluate projects, understand their financial risks, and embrace the idea that “you can own something today that’s not in its final form.” Today, Alcy Ball is rehabbing and building homes, creating gathering spaces, and earning deep neighborhood support—all while showing that development is a skill that can be learned.
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What You Need to Know About Housing Finance + Incremental Development
Financing is one of the biggest barriers to rebuilding a healthy ecosystem of small-scale development. Many communities have changed their zoning, adopted housing plans, or expressed support for missing middle housing, but the projects still do not happen at the pace people expect. One reason is simple: the capital system is not built for the kind of small, local, incremental projects that many neighborhoods need most.
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Alumni Story: Ave Mondie and Aric Hotchkiss
Ave Mondie and Aric Hotchkiss, who together lead Hopscotch Construction in Memphis, TN, approach development with a shared interest in bringing neglected properties back to life—and finding ways to make that work both healthier and more replicable.
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Alumni Story: JT Malasri
JT Malasri's first development project transformed two vacant lots into four new homes, demonstrating how small-scale infill can strengthen existing neighborhoods. His story explores how an Incremental Development Alliance Boot Camp gave him the confidence and practical tools to turn that vision into reality.
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Alumni Story: Stephanie Wade-Armando
Originally constructed as a house in 1858, this Memphis building later became the home of Griggs Business and Practical Arts College, one of the first historically Black colleges in Memphis. IncDev alumni Stephanie Wade-Armado has a vision to restore the two-story building and transform the half-acre property into a mixed-use destination with apartments on the upper floor and light retail below.
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Building Bloomington from Within: How Hopewell Is Reshaping What's Possible
Bloomington, Indiana is Indiana's most housing cost-burdened metro area. Now, on the site of the former IU Health Bloomington hospital, the city has a rare shot at something different: a neighborhood built close to downtown and designed around the people who call Bloomington home, not just the next wave of student housing.
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Alumni Story: Bryce Morrow
IncDev alumni Bryce Morrow's development journey shows how small, incremental projects can grow into lasting community investments. Beginning with a pioneering ADU conversion in Portland, he steadily expanded into larger adaptive reuse projects—including Oregon City Brewing and the Canby Beer Library—while embracing hands-on project management, creative financing, and a commitment to preserving existing buildings and strengthening neighborhoods one project at a time.
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Alumni Story: Andre Jones
Andre Jones has spent decades investing in the Memphis neighborhood where he lives and works. A builder by trade, he grew up around construction; his father was a brick mason, and he and his brother eventually became general contractors building homes in the suburbs. But over time, Jones became increasingly interested in a different kind of development: smaller footprint, higher quality housing that could strengthen existing neighborhoods rather than expand outward.
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Faculty Spotlight: Ivy Vann
When Incremental Development Alliance teaching faculty Ivy Vann and her husband bought their 1895 Victorian in Peterborough, NH, they weren't setting out to become developers. They were looking for a home for their family. The 6,000-square-foot former mansion had already lived many lives—as a nursing home, boarding house, youth hostel, and bed-and-breakfast—and Ivy saw another chapter waiting to be written.
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Faculty Spotlight: Jen Acosta
Jen Acosta is a developer, housing strategist and IncDev faculty. Here, she shares the story of one of her current pioneering projects in Bay City, Michigan—a contaminated former mill site that is being remediated and turned into over 80 new apartments and commercial spaces.
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Alumni Story: Cameron Brewer
With insight and encouragement from Incremental Development Alliance, Cameron Brewer tackled the adaptive reuse of a 1930s garage, reinventing it as a restaurant and center for community in Norman, Oklahoma
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Cleveland Housing Innovation District An Exciting Path Forward
By: Chris Allen
Cleveland is showing what a new local housing playbook can look like. Now comes the hopeful work of building the people and systems that can make it real.
Across the country, local leaders are realizing something important: housing cannot be treated as a standalone problem. It is not separate from economic development, infrastructure, small business growth, neighborhood repair, public finance, or whether the next generation of families can stay in the communities they love. Housing is the connective tissue of local prosperity.
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Faculty Spotlight: Joel Dixon
Joel Dixon is a faculty member at the Incremental Development Alliance and Co-Principal of Urban Oasis Development, a real estate company focused on residential and commercial development on Atlanta's south and westside. Born and raised on the westside, Dixon is dedicated to building secure, inclusive neighborhoods in the community that raised him. Perhaps his most unique and forward-thinking project is the new 918 Dill Ave development, which unites a community land trust, grocery store, gathering place, and apartments.
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America’s Transit Problem Is Really a Land Use Problem
By: Chris Allen
The Guardian recently published a useful piece on how far American cities lag behind their global peers on public transportation.
One number from the article jumped out: bringing major American cities up to “world-class” transit standards would require roughly $4.6 trillion over 20 years.
That sounds enormous.
Until you compare it with the roughly $6.3 trillion the United States is projected to spend on highways over that same period.
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Gregory Walls’ St. John Development
Family can be seen at the heart of the projects Greg has developed. His family’s history and future is found in both their local restaurant, Johnson’s Boucainiere, and the St. John Street development.
Gregory started out in the construction industry over 30 years ago, working with his father, C. Phil Walls. He started his firm, Walls-Studio in 1994.
Gregory is philosophical about his early years in the field: “I wish I wouldn’t have had to build in subdivisions for the first 10 to 15 years of my life, but it was a path for me to be able to do this, now.”
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Overregulation Might Be Worse Than You Think
By: Chris Allen
One of the most important housing policy questions is also one of the most uncomfortable:
What happened to the bottom rung of the housing ladder?
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Ryan Saunders's Washington Street Alley
I first became aware of incremental development through listening to a podcast from the Switchyards team in Atlanta on which they interviewed Eric Kronberg. He was discussing human scale design and breaking the city down into micro economies. I had the pleasure of spending some great quality time with Jim on a couple occasions when he visited Greensboro, and he said no one should have to go outside of their neighborhood to get essentials: Basic groceries, coffee, a meal, a beer, or a place to meet friends.
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