Boise Mayor David Bieter recently appointed Mark Lavin, a real estate development executive with extensive experience and a licensed civil engineer, as director of the City of Boise’s Department of Planning and Development Services. Lavin’s appointment was affirmed by the Boise City Council Tuesday night at their regular weekly meeting.
As director, Lavin will take a lead role in executing the City of Boise’s housing and transportation strategies, such as Grow Our Housing and Keep Boise Moving. He will lead a department of more than 100 team members in four divisions that include planning, building, housing and community development, and operations and administration. He will continue to develop the department’s interaction with community constituents and neighborhood associations to improve processes and outcomes. He will also join the city’s executive management team. His first day on the job will be May 13.
“During our search it was important to us to find someone with diverse management experience that would help enhance the effectiveness of the Planning and Development Services Department,” said Mayor Bieter. “Mark has deep management and real estate development experience that will make him a great fit for this challenge.”
Previously, Lavin was a senior director of real estate for WinCo Foods where he led 35 transactions worth more than $478 million, including 17 new store and two distribution center property acquisitions and other real estate transactions. He was in that role for WinCo since 2012. Before that he worked as a group vice president for real estate and market development and vice president for real estate and store development at Supervalu. He has also served as a vice president at Albertsons. Altogether he brings 30 years of real estate development to his new role.
Lavin earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Idaho in 1987 and 1988 respectively, and his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999.
