Washington Business Journal
By Michael Neibauer

Brian Kenner , his office bookshelves dominated by Midwest college football helmets, is the District’s economic development quarterback, running the huddle and executing on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s vision.

Or maybe, given the carefully mounted Iowa basketball posters on his office wall, the District’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development is the point guard, setting the stage for development victories large and small.

Both are apt analogies — more apt, say, than describing him as coach. In the Bowser administration — not unlike the Fenty administration — the power is centralized at the very top with a select few brokers, not decentralized across various agencies, including deputy mayors’ offices.

“I want people to tell me what the great ideas are, and then I’m really good at executing,” the 41-year-old Kenner, an Iowa native with a college football addiction, said during a recent sit-down in his Wilson Building office. “I’m really good at setting a policy, setting a vision, and then executing on it. I don’t need to be the person who’s coming up with every single good idea.”

Kenner has kept a relatively low profile in the nearly six months since Mayor Muriel Bowser tapped him to lead DMPED, letting the mayor bask in the spotlight during her first months in office. It’s a stark departure from the man who was in the role for much of the Gray administration, Victor Hoskins.

This is Kenner’s second stint in D.C. government. He served as DMPED chief of operations under both Valerie Santos during the Fenty administration and Hoskins during the Gray administration. In early spring 2013, after four years at DMPED, he headed north to run Takoma Park as its city manager.

“It gave me an excellent perch on which to think about things like transportation, DPW, environment,” Kenner said of his run in the People’s Republic. “I had parks and rec. I had library. It really was helpful to see how everything fits together. I think it’s helpful for lots of people who are in government to actually see how another agency functions. You get a real appreciation for how the pieces fit together.”

He returned in January to a rousing introduction by Bowser, who announced that Kenner would “hit the ground running and lead my administration’s efforts” to create more affordable housing and good paying jobs. He came back just in time to see Capitol Crossing, the massive air-rights project atop Interstate 395, break ground, and to see Bowser sign the agreement that will finally deliver the first stage of Hill East’s redevelopment.

“I was actually happy with the progress,” Kenner said. “The thing about McMillan, Walter Reed, St. Elizabeths, Capitol Crossing — those are 1.5, 2 million-square-foot projects. Those things don’t happen in three years. They are 10-, 15-year total buildouts. These are long, large scale projects. The important thing is you just have to continue to make progress, and then when the market’s right, when the timing’s right, when the council’s right, when everything’s right, they just kind of blossom.”

“That is why I would like to think the mayor picked me, because I have seen how to make progress,” he continued. “I feel like I know how to make sure that DMPED is running as well as it can run.”

As deputy mayor, Kenner is little like his predecessor and former boss. Hoskins, now head of Arlington Economic Development, was a demonstrative cheerleader whose employer, Gray, gave him the freedom to chase his grand ideas across the globe. Some ideas worked. Others didn’t. But win or lose, he had the cover to pursue his vision for growing D.C.’s economy while implementing Gray’s plans.

Kenner, a lifelong competitive soccer player, is lower key than Hoskins (though just about everyone is lower key than Hoskins). He is calculating, meticulous and stooped in reality, in an underwriting sort of way. He focuses on the jobs at hand, but he does not appear to have the run of the house, nor does it seem as if he wants it. He is humble, Hoskins said, with a “quiet power,” a “strength under control.”

“This guy knows what he’s doing,” Hoskins said of Kenner. “He knows so much about finance that he became invaluable to me in terms of how I worked on transactions.”

Kenner’s extensive resume has set the stage for his rise to deputy mayor, beginning with his bachelor of arts degree in biology from the University of Iowa, to his master’s of public policy from Harvard University, to his decade of private sector real estate and finance experience.

There were four years at Ernst & Young, managing the government real estate advisory services practice. Then two-plus years as a vice president at real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, specializing in public-private partnerships, deal structuring and site selection. Then three years as a senior investment manager with Fannie Mae, underwriting billions of dollars in debt investments. And COO at DMPED, overseeing a 60-plus employee agency. And then city manager at Takoma Park, running day-to-day operations and frequently interacting with residents.

Back in D.C., he says, “I’ve got something to sell.” He remembers when D.C. wasn’t the “belle of the ball,” when the city was begging businesses to just consider locating here. Now, the window is open “to make things happen,” he said, but he acknowledges the economy is softening and it may not be open for long.

“It’s hard to sell things when you don’t have stuff to sell,” Kenner said. “When your office vacancy rate is 40 percent, it’s hard to sell. I’m gaining in population here. I’m getting better schools. I got good transportation. I got a core of ‘where your future workforce wants to be.’ I got something to sell. I love it when I got something to sell.”