Our freight and economic development professionals take a rail-centric, site-specific approach to economic development projects. They excel at evaluating rail-served sites, positioning communities for industrial success, and placing opportunities into their appropriate market and strategic context. We are excited for you to meet the team—and we look forward to helping you to expand your organization’s capacity to attract discretionary investment and create jobs, while boosting the competitiveness of your enterprise or region.
Robert Martinez
Vice President for Freight and Economic Development
Robert Martinez, as Moffatt & Nichol’s Vice President for Freight and Economic Development, expands the firm’s consultancy capabilities in the transportation sector. Rob joined the company following a distinguished career with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the State of Virginia as Secretary of Transportation, and Norfolk Southern, one of America’s premier Class 1 railroads. Rob has been responsible for many infrastructure and economic development projects and served as a principal lead on public-private infrastructure projects, such as the Heartland Corridor, a landmark, multistate rail infrastructure capacity project.
Michael Johnson
Technical Services Lead
Michael Johnson is the team’s technical services lead. He is an experienced industrial development professional with expertise in land planning and development focused on transportation systems during his tenure with Norfolk Southern. As a senior project manager with Jones Lang LaSalle, Michael managed design and construction projects for innovative commercial rail and industrial projects throughout the United States. He is well versed in detailed project site design and estimating, and his combined project management and engineering experience offers commercial clients a well-rounded perspective that facilitates project development.
Eli Falls
Economic Development Lead
Eli Falls joined the rail and economic development team as economic development lead, with a focus on projects that rely heavily upon the transportation of goods via the U.S. rail network and associated site development and engineering. He is experienced in public- and private-sector industrial development. Eli represented and handled industrial development projects and sites for Norfolk Southern for many years in a three-State Midwest region, and then headed economic development in Murray County, Georgia, home of the Moffatt & Nichol designed Appalachian Regional Port, which is served by CSX Railroad.
Aaron Densmore
Technical Associate
Aaron Densmore has joined the rail and economic development team as an associate for technical services. With experience in site design and analysis, Aaron performs site identification, configuration, and conceptualization of rail-centric properties for clients. Previously, Aaron has worked with industrial clients to integrate industrial parks and sites with Class 1 railroads. Additionally, he has worked with retail clients to perform lot analysis, rehabilitation, and redesign.
Alan Sisk
Consultant
Alan Sisk, a principal with Gibeon Consultants Corporation, has established a strategic collaboration with Moffatt & Nichol, supporting the rail economic development team and the transportation group. Alan has 40 years of railroad industry experience. During his career with Norfolk Southern, he worked in the engineering department and went on to lead the company’s industrial development technical service group, where he was responsible for addressing systemwide economic development and supply chain issues that impacted the railroad’s ability to compete for new system revenue by providing design and supply chain solutions for customers.
