Daniel R. Guimond, a senior member of the Denver Planning Board, is heading the operation for Economic & Planning Systems. "Most real estate economic firms will tell whether your idea is feasible in the marketplace," says Guimond. "We help shape the more ambitious ideas, such as redeveloping dead malls and creating affordable housing."The firm has expertise in public finance, real estate economics and land use policy. EPS, founded in 1983 in the Bay area, has offices in Berkeley and Sacramento.

The consultants are working with Continuum Partners to redevelop the failing Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood and the Denver Regional Council of Governments to create an urban Centers Pilot Project to determine the type of development best suited for light rail hubs. In Roaring Fork Valley, Economic & Planning Systems is coordinating the Aspen-to-Glenwood Springs rail project, working with seven jurisdictions on funding venues.

The firm also is acting in an advisory capacity on the conversion of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center into a new campus for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the affiliated Colorado Bioscience Research Park. The team previously had worked with Acadia Development to determine land prices for a 27-acre Holiday Drive-In project in Boulder. A prior Stapleton project had involved developing the "Green Book," a planning guide for the largest infill project in the US.