Ronald K. McDonald is Managing Principal of RMC Development, LLC in the greater Washington DC/Baltimore region, where he is responsible for assisting clients/partners (both public and private) with their commercial real estate and finance objectives. He is an accomplished real estate executive with over 28 years of diverse industry experience who has been directly involved in the acquisition, brokerage, financing, development, and management of over $6B in real estate equities.
In partnership with Avanath Development and Vanguard CDC, RMC is currently developing mixed-income housing at North End Landing, an urban infill project located in an Opportunity Zone in Detroit’s North End neighborhood. McDonald has led a complex two-year public-private land assembly and entitlement process for an initial phase of 187 units of marketrate, affordable and senior housing. The project will break ground in the Spring of 2023.
Serving as Project Executive and Principal of Annapolis Partners, LLC, McDonald led a master development team through a complex high profile 16-year acquisition and entitlement process for the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC) project David Taylor Research Center, Annapolis, Maryland. Regarded as one of DOD’s most challenging military base transfers, plans are underway for a beautiful 46-acre waterfront office park, luxury hotel and marina across the river from the United States Naval Academy. McDonald has completed a host of complex predevelopment activities in conjunction with this large public-private project including coordination and negotiation with Federal, State and County government to enable the zoning and transfer of federal property into private ownership. The $300M project includes ten Class A office buildings, retail, boat slips and a luxury resort overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. Once completed, David Taylor will be the largest private waterfront redevelopment in the history of Annapolis, MD.
McDonald was formerly Senior Vice President of Mesirow Financial (Mesirow Stein Real Estate) in Chicago from 1998 through 2003 in the brokerage and development groups. He assembled and led large multi-disciplined teams for some of Mesirow’s most challenging public-private endeavors including stadiums, public assembly, affordable and student housing, several major military base redevelopments, phased mixed use projects, TOD and a leadership role in a joint- venture with Clark Construction for the nearly $1B expansion of Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center.
McDonald was Vice President and partner with Jones Lang LaSalle in Southern California from 1993 through 1998 where he coordinated commercial leasing and asset management activities for several high-profile assets with an aggregate value of $1.5B. As General Manager of Fox Plaza (a.k.a. Nakatomi Plaza from the movie Die Hard), McDonald served as landlord to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, 20th Century Fox and News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, oil & gas mogul Marvin Davis and a host of other prominent business figures.
While with LaSalle, McDonald also crafted high profile real estate solutions for several entertainment industry giants including Twentieth Century Fox, Village Roadshow, Motown and The Walt Disney Company. He was hand-picked by the Disney Development Company to serve as a third-party development advisor for a $100M, 330,000 sq. ft., Frank Gehry designed corporate headquarters at Disneyland. Upon completion of construction, McDonald commissioned the new building and served as General Manager for this 13-acre section of Disneyland. This is on record as the first outsourced management of a Disney asset anywhere in the world. He went on to lead strategic business development efforts with the Walt Disney Company in London, New York and Florida.
McDonald has served as an advisor to the National Capital Revitalization Corp (NCRC) in Washington D.C., Chairman of the Prince George’s County Transit Oriented Development Subcommittee, is a founding board member of the Real Estate Executive Council and member of The Real Estate Roundtable. In 2008, he was invited to brief the Obama administration on the impact of the financial crisis to the commercial real estate industry. McDonald recently led the establishment of the Alan R. Braxton Memorial Fellowship at the Wharton School of Business which awards full scholarships and internships to minority students pursuing careers in commercial real estate.
McDonald is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland’s Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development and serves on its Board of Visitors. McDonald holds a B.S. from the U. S. Naval Academy as well as a Masters in Financial Management from the University of Maryland at College Park. He is a decorated U.S. Navy veteran and former Official Navy Spokesman. While in uniform, his leadership and service were recognized through The Thousand Points of Light Award personally presented by former President George H. W. Bush for creation of a minority youth mentoring program at the U.S. Naval Academy that remains in existence after 30 years.