Kofi S. Bonner is an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

planner Planner may refer to: * A personal organizer (book) for planning * Microsoft Planner * Planner programming language * Planner (PIM for Emacs) * Urban planner * Route planner * Meeting and convention planner * Japanese term for video game de ...

who is known for the heading the redevelopment of the city of

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 a ...

. Bonner also has served as deputy executive director of the

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) was an urban renewal agency active from 1948 until 2012, with purpose to improve the urban landscape through "redesign, redevelopment, and rehabilitation" of specific areas of the city. SFRA demolis ...

; the director of community & economic development and interim

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a " Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief ex ...

for the city of

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

; and chief economic policy advisor to San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. In 1998, Bonner became executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

football organization of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

. In 2004, Bonner was hired by

MBNA MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006. History The former Maryland National ...

and then in 2006 became director of urban land for

Lennar Lennar Corporation is a home construction company based in the census-designated place of Fontainebleau, Florida, with a Miami postal address. In 2021, the company was the second-largest home construction company in the United States based on the ...

. Currently he is regional president at FivePoint, a position he assumed when his previous role as president in

's Bay Area Urban division transitioned into FivePoint in July 2016. In this role, Bonner oversees all land acquisition and urban development activities for FivePoint in northern California, including The San Francisco Shipyard and Candlestick Point, Treasure Island, and the Concord Naval Weapons Station.

Early life and career

Born in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

, Bonner received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Science and Technology in Ghana. He then earned a

Master of City Planning Urban planning education is a practice of teaching and learning urban theory, studies, and professional practices. The interaction between public officials, professional planners and the public involves a continuous education on planning process. ...

and a

Master of Architecture The “Master of Architecture”(M.Arch or MArch) or a “Bachelor of Architecture” is a professional degree in architecture, qualifying the graduate to move through the various stages of professional accreditation (internship, exams) that resu ...

from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

in 1987. Bonner then worked for the housing development company then known as Fei Tsen and Associates in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

and served as a member of the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

city planning group called "SPUR" (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research). In 1988, Bonner was hired to replace out-going Steve Kaplan as redevelopment director for the City of Emeryville. It was there that Bonner captured local and national attention with several economic development efforts. Oakland-based

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser ...

was seeking land for a planned new headquarters facility in 1994. While the firm wished to remain in Oakland, finding land for Kaiser's plans proved politically and economically difficult. Observing these developments, Bonner courted Kaiser land development officials and eventually offered a plot of land at 41st and San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville as the place where Kaiser could build its new home. Eventually Kaiser ended its plans, citing changes in the health care industry as the reason. The Kaiser affair drew much praise and attention to Bonner, who continued to negotiate with developers to sell land and attract retailers like

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been ...

. Bonner also successfully established a reuse plan for the former Emeryville Judson Steel plant, which is now the Bay Street Shopping Center. And while Kaiser backed away from its plans to build a northern California headquarters in Emeryville, Bonner and the Redevelopment Agency attracted Pixar Animation Studios, which constructed its new home on the same property that was originally slated for Kaiser. Bonner later held the positions of deputy executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of community and economic development for the City of Oakland. He was appointed interim city manager for the City of Oakland in 1995. He served as chief economic policy advisor during the term of Mayor Willie L. Brown. In 1998,

President Carmen Policy offered the position of chief administrative officer of the Cleveland Browns to Bonner, who became the first African-American to hold such a title in the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

. With the Browns, Bonner was responsible for the construction of the new Cleveland Browns Stadium and spearheaded the creation of the organization's website. Bonner also sat on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

Committee. In 2004, Bonner was hired to a business development position with

, the credit card company. Expressing a desire to return to his city planning roots, Bonner became Director of Urban Land for

in San Francisco. His role as President in

's Bay Area Urban division transitioned into his current position as regional president for FivePoint in July 2016. Bonner is a 2011 UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design Distinguished Fellow and a Member of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Leadership Council, a non-profit public Policy "think tank" organization based in Washington, DC. He is also a member of

Lambda Alpha International Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave ri ...

, a Land Economics society where he recently received the "2010 Member of the Year" Award. He currently serves on the boards of Bay Area Council where he co-chairs the Housing Committee, UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design Advisory Council, UC Berkeley Foundation's board of trustees, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, and Museum of the African Diaspora. Bonner is married and has three children.

References

Sources

External links

Faces of Business: Kofi Bonner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonner, Kofi American architects American city managers Ghanaian emigrants to the United States Living people People from Emeryville, California UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni Year of birth missing (living people)