Alexandra Elias, AICP is the President & CEO of Renew Moline, a non-profit corporation that works closely with the City of Moline to facilitate redevelopment of its downtown. Alex has a 30-year career working in and around government, and has held positions in local, state, and federal agencies.
During almost nine years at the City of San Diego’s downtown redevelopment agency, the Centre City Development Corporation Alex was CCDC’s project manager for the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, a $280m waterfront improvement plan; and she managed a comprehensive update of the Downtown Community Plan. She later worked for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s Southwest Region for seven years, managing real estate contracts and executing land conservation agreements in Nevada and California with entities such as The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land.
During her time at Renew Moline, she successfully completed a Public Art & Placemaking Plan that was adopted by the Moline City Council in 2021; and has led the visioning of downtown Moline’s I-74 Redevelopment Zone, a 25-acre redevelopment opportunity resulting from the construction of a $1.2 billion interstate bridge over the Mississippi River. She also manages the Moline Centre Program, downtown Moline’s largest Special Service Area (similar to a business improvement district) and Moline Community Development Corporation, a separate 501c3 dedicated to improving low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in Moline.
Alex has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and French Literature from the University of Iowa. She also holds a Master of Science in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Alex has received several awards, including the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Community Design award in 1999, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Realty Division’s National Land Conservation Award in 2011 and the Rock Island (Illinois) Preservation Society’s 2015 award for a house restoration in the National Register Historic Broadway District.
Alex is a member of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP); and a member of the Urban Land Institute. She has participated in ULI’s Advisory Panel Service program as a panel member and as a project sponsor.