Breaking Ceilings|Breaking Ground

In this episode, Molly and Jill sit down with Kaitlin McCarthy, Founder and CEO of Ionic Development Company and co-founder of ARX. A civil engineer turned management consultant turned developer, Kaitlin is "leapfrogging" her way to the center of urban decision-making.

Kaitlin is a dedicated "Swifty"—and much like Taylor, she’s a master of the "Era." She’s moved from the construction site to the boardroom, and now she’s bridge-building (and actual building) with a level of strategic precision that would make any fan proud. We discuss how her obsession with "why things are the way they are" led her to leave PowerPoint behind for 46-story residential towers and the mission to redesign the world for women.

• The "Feminine Column": Why the name Ionic is a subtle nod to the Greek column known as the "feminine column"—a reminder that women are the true pillars of our society.
• ERAs of a Developer: From Turner Construction to Harvard Business School to the front lines of Boston’s skyline.
• The ARX Revolution: How a mismatched safety vest and a co-founder’s eye injury led to ARX, a company designing PPE (like the "industrial athlete" vest) specifically for women’s bodies.
• Systems Thinking: We discuss "systems thinking"—the ability to peel back layers of a problem to understand the stakeholders and hidden opportunities in a deal.
• The Massport Model: Leading the charge on Boston’s first all-affordable housing development in the Seaport through inclusive joint ventures.

• Ionic Development Company: www.buildionic.com
• ARX PPE: www.arxworkwear.com
• Women’s Development Collaborative (WDC): The power of geographic-dispersed peer networks.

In this episode, Molly and Jill sit down with Kristin Ryan, co-founder of barrientosRyan, an all-woman development and advisory firm in Seattle. Kristin is a rare breed of developer who weaves together sociology, systems thinking, and complex multi-layered financing to build communities that actually work for people.

From her early days in the nonprofit sector to running West Coast operations for Jonathan Rose Companies, Kristin has always operated on the belief that you can "do well and do good." We dive deep into her "toolbox" of real estate and how she’s tackling the housing crisis by building intergenerational spaces and health-focused community hubs.

• The Power of Co-Location: Kristin discusses The Nook at Northhaven, an 89-unit workforce housing project integrated with a 100-kid childcare center and a senior living campus. She shares the hard-earned lesson that co-location doesn't automatically mean collaboration—and how she funded a dedicated facilitator to ensure these generations actually connect.
• A New Model for Healthcare: Learn about the Tubman Center for Health and Freedom, a $32M medical clinic designed through community conversations to provide holistic, medically-marginalized-centered care (from acupuncture to primary care).
• Systems Thinking as a Superpower: How Kristin tracks "six-inch wall shifts" while never losing sight of the macro-economic forces and societal systems at play.
• The "Funded Facilitator" Model: Why complex community projects need dedicated implementation staff to move from vision to reality.
• Advice for Emerging Developers: "Never become too good at something you don't enjoy."

• Barrientos Ryan: www.barrientosryan.com
• The Nook at Northhaven: Project Info
• Tubman Center for Health and Freedom: www.tubmanhealth.org
• Refugee Women's Alliance (ReWA): www.rewa.org

Fabiola Fleuranvil on Building Wealth, Access, and Legacy in Detroit

Fabiola Fleuranvil bought her first Detroit building site unseen, at auction, having never set foot inside it. She closed the deal the day the city shut down for COVID — with no financing plan and no idea what LIHTC even stood for. Three weeks later, after teaching herself the entire framework, she became what she calls an overnight underwriter. That building is now 77 units of affordable senior housing, breaking ground last year and anchoring a $135 million pipeline across Detroit's Russell Woods neighborhood.

Senior housing isn't abstract to her. It's shaped by Miss Charlie Brown — a 105-year-old friend Fabiola met after her own grandparents passed, someone she talked to on the phone for decades before she died in 2020. When Fabiola thinks about Miss Charlie Brown when she thinks about what is important in senior housing.

That same instinct shows up everywhere in her work. When her architect tried to shrink unit sizes to maximize studios and yield, she told him this was a family neighborhood, not downtown, and the design needed to reflect who would actually live there.

Fabiola is managing partner of Icon Heritage Partners and CEO of Blueprint Creative Group, and she's candid about what she's learned moving capital through LIHTC, new markets, and historic tax credits — tools she says are available to any developer but rarely taught to the people who need them most. That gap is why she founded the Institute of Black Wealth: not to share a secret, but to close a gap. As she puts it, if we're not at the table, we should build our own.

Her own assessment — fear is what stops most people, not capability. She doesn't think about what she lacks. She thinks about what she wants — and lets the rest follow.

Key Topics

• A $135M Detroit pipeline that started with one building bought sight unseen
• Self-taught LIHTC, new markets, and historic tax credit financing
• The Institute of Black Wealth: closing the access gap for women and Black developers
• Designing for the neighborhood, not the yield
• Fear, faith, and building a 200-year legacy

Connect with Fabiola Fleuranvil
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabiolaf/

In this episode, we sit down with Leslie Horn, CEO of Three Squared, Inc., a visionary developer pushing the boundaries of sustainable real estate in Detroit. From shipping containers to advanced prefab materials, Leslie shares her journey of perseverance, collaboration, and her commitment to inclusive, eco-friendly spaces.

Key Topics:

• From Rehabber to $57M Developer: Leslie’s pivot from traditional rehab to large-scale innovation.
• The Modular Revolution: Navigating Michigan’s first container permits and evolving into prefab panels for efficiency.
• Community-Centered Design: Strategies for authentic engagement and building local trust.
• Women in CRE: Leveraging empathy and relationship-building as development superpowers.
• PropTech & Innovation: In-house tools for energy-efficient building and industry collaboration.

Highlights:

• Unbending Intent: Leslie’s secret weapon for overcoming market downturns and skeptics.
• Steel, Wood, and Speed: How advanced building tech reduces costs and timelines while boosting sustainability.
• Cochrane Commons: A case study in resilient design and layered community impact.
• Collaboration over Competition: Building inclusive, scalable developments to address the housing crisis.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Focus, unwavering intent, and the power of collaboration
• 02:22 – Leslie’s journey: From Detroit rehabs to shipping container pioneers
• 08:45 – Achieving the first container permit in Michigan
• 09:44 – Pivoting to prefab panels for sustainability and scale
• 11:36 – Scaling impact: 50 completed projects and a pipeline of 250+
• 12:43 – Personal influences and the mission for inclusive development
• 17:49 – The unique lens women bring to the industry
• 22:06 – Leslie’s superpower: “I plod until it's done”
• 31:54 – Deep dive: Cochrane Commons and community-engaged design
• 34:00 – Solving the workforce housing shortage with cost-effective tech
• 39:08 – The future of PropTech and digital tools in development
• 50:17 – Partnerships, investment, and collaboration opportunities

Resources & Links:

• Three Squared Inc. Website
• Cochrane Commons Project Details
• International Building Code Info
• Foam House Awards & Innovations

Connect with Leslie Horn:

• Website: threesquaredinc.com

Notable Quotes:

"Unbending intent is my superpower — persistence gets the job done."
"Collaboration is the key to solving problems and building real community."

Final Thoughts:
Leslie Horn’s story is a testament to the power of women’s leadership in building resilient, sustainable, and socially responsible communities. Whether through cutting-edge modular projects or visionary PropTech, Leslie is defining the future of smarter development.

Breaking Ceilings, Breaking Ground: Carla Guerrera on Innovative, Inclusive Real Estate Development

Molly McCabe and Jill Ferrari sit down with Carla Guerrera, CEO and founder of Purpose Driven Development, to explore her pioneering work in inclusive, sustainable housing. Carla's projects hold community impact and profitability as complementary priorities — a through-line that defines her decade-long approach to development in Vancouver and across North America.

Carla's path to development runs through law, urban planning, and social housing — a combination that shaped both her methodology and her mission. Purpose Driven Development partners with nonprofits, faith communities, and Indigenous organizations to bring forward projects that would otherwise never get built. At the center of the conversation: North America's first all-women-led, intergenerational housing development — housing for seniors, single mothers, and workforce women, built by an all-women team from design through construction.

The financial architecture of that kind of project is anything but simple. Carla walks through how she stacks public capital, grants, municipal fee waivers, and discounted land to make impact-driven projects financially viable. It's a model that demands patience, precision, and a long view on capital — and she makes the case that the development industry needs more of exactly that.

The conversation also covers the current lending environment and how tightening financing has created new pressures for affordable housing development. Carla is direct about the challenges and equally direct about the opportunities: patient capital, innovative partnership structures, and a willingness to stay in complex deals long enough to see them close.

This episode is a clear illustration of what becomes possible when profit and purpose are built into the same project from the start — and a compelling case that the most complex, socially vital developments are exactly where women in real estate are doing their best work.

Key Topics

• North America's first all-women-led, intergenerational housing development
• Financing strategies for social impact projects: stacking public capital, grants, and partnerships
• Working with nonprofits, Indigenous organizations, and faith communities
• Environmental, social, and economic sustainability as integrated priorities
• The case for patient, long-term capital in transformative development

Connect with Carla Guerrera Website: purposedrivenroi.com Email: [email protected]