Somerville economic official to direct BRA real estate

Boston’s chief real estate agency now has a new chief of real estate.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has hired Ed O’Donnell, who has spent the past two years as head of economic development in Somerville, to oversee its 16 million square foot real estate portfolio.

The BRA has been without a director of real estate, a weakness highlighted in a tough audit performed this year by McKinsey & Co., which noted the authority has no database of its holdings nor any comprehensive approach to marketing them.

It’s time to change that, Mayor Martin J. Walsh said.

“I see a gap there,” Walsh said. “Hopefully, this fills it.”

O’Donnell’s job, the mayor said, will include making better use of the 191-acre Boston Marine Industrial Park, which the city hopes will house some of the blue-collar jobs being squeezed out of other neighborhoods as real estate prices climb. He’ll also work to market the China Trade Center on Boylston Street, which the BRA is overhauling, and other city-owned sites that are ripe for redevelopment.

“We need to let people know these assets are out there,” said O’Donnell, who also plans to do more outreach to neighborhoods about development opportunities on BRA land.

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