Ralph Bell
Principal
My Story
Ralph has always had a desire to build things from his multiple LEGO sets as a child to complicated robotics as a young adult. A native Prince Georgean, Ralph matriculated through the Prince George’s County school system attending the University of Maryland majoring in Mechanical Engineering before completing his Masters degree in Real Estate Development.
Ralph has always had an interest understanding the “why” of his surroundings. Growing up on the eastern side of DC area, the County provided all the livable amenities a community could need as a kid but as time went on the places like the local malls and movie theaters started to disappear. If you wanted the latest in retail and entertainment, you had to jump on the Beltway and go to Virginia and Western Montgomery County. As places left, people saw it as aspirational to get up and go somewhere else leaving our spaces dormant while yearning for a revival.
Ralph spent years as many others do getting on the Beltway leaving the East side to commute for work, shop and play on the West side often adding to their economic development but missing the basic community services and added economic amenities in the neighborhoods closest to him. Ralph created Beltway East as a clear indication of the mission of where to bring and foster economic and real estate development. The guiding question is “Why Not Here?” in terms of developing communities that can foster security, growth and pride in such traditionally diverse communities.
Ralph has worked in the real estate development industry for close to 20 years working on all facets of the development process. Ralph heads up all strategy for the company and individual projects.
Kristina Mayne
Senior Associate
My Story
Growing up in a tight knit semi-rural community south of Philadelphia, Kristina has always been drawn to the simplicity of how a local community provides for each other. The main street, the market, the neighborhood, the town are all the building blocks of a community, and she looks at each community as how it can have its own character instead of being a node for the entire region. Every community should have its basic needs met with quality services and places to be together. While many will judge communities in their options to spend wealth, Kristina sees it as the availability of places you can be together and provide for each other. It isn't abundance that makes a community but the comfort of togetherness.
Kristina went to Pennsylvania State University graduated in Civil Engineering and subsequently moved to the DC region working to work for a general contractor. Kristina has built and consulted on projects all across the DC area but has found the most rewarding work to be the community projects like the community garden, grocery stores and food markets. To build these community anchors and deliver much needed services connects her to the sense of community Kristina grew up with. Kristina is driven by providing the same basic needs for the communities she builds in.
In renovating some of the spaces in the underserved communities, Kristina is struck by the lack of quality and habitability. While there are many levels of luxury that are not in the realm of the average affordability, she believes that quality should be afforded to everyone and for anyone in need she continuously asks the question “why not here”.
Kristina has spent close to 10 years building all manner of residential, retail and other mixed use projects. Kristina is a project manager for our Development and Construction services division.