ABOUT US
Bringing your community's housing vision to life.
re:MAIN Communities connects the developers, investors, municipalities, and advocates that infill housing needs — pairing every opportunity with the right people, capital, and professional services to get it built.
WHO WE CONNECT
Developers
Vetted infill sites and aligned capital partners with strong municipal partners.
Investors
Find shovel ready development projects in jurisdictions with strong community and municipal support.
Municipalities
Attract developers and investors to activate underutilized sites and meet housing goals.
Advocates
Bring community together around a shared vision for your community's housing future.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Three convictions that drive everything we do
01
Our Zoning Codes Are Stuck In The Past
Most communities are governed by land use rules written to limit growth, not enable it. Minimum lot sizes, single-family mandates, and parking requirements have quietly eliminated entire categories of housing, the duplex, the courtyard apartment, the mixed-use corner building, that once allowed neighborhoods to evolve. Without those housing types, communities can't become the next version of themselves, no matter how much demand exists.
02
Supporting Development Community
Making it easier to build middle housing isn’t radical, it’s how our communities have always grown. Duplexes, triple-deckers, small apartment buildings, and infill development allow housing supply to scale naturally with demand, but today they’re often blocked by outdated rules and unnecessary barriers. To meet our housing needs, we need a system that supports a strong local development community, where small and mid-sized builders can participate and incremental growth is possible in every neighborhood.
03
Evidence Matters
Every recommendation re:MAIN makes is grounded in clear facts, local data, and real-world experience. Expanding housing requires honest conversations about both the need for new homes and their impacts, backed by evidence rather than speculation. By grounding reforms in data and communicating them clearly, we aim to help communities make informed decisions and move forward with confidence.
Jonathan Berk
Founder, re:MAIN
Jonathan@remainplaces.com
MEET THE FOUNDER
Built by someone who has seen all sides of the problem.
Jonathan is a placemaker, urbanist, and housing advocate working to make walkable communities easier to build. He focuses on the practical steps that turn housing plans into real projects, updating local rules, identifying high-potential infill sites, and connecting communities with the builders and investors who can bring new homes and main streets to life.
"The rules we've written about land use are the primary driver of housing unaffordability. Changing those rules, and the systems that regulate how and what we build, block by block, community by community, is one of the most powerful levers we have."
Jonathan is the Founder of re:MAIN, a planning and development advisory practice that helps cities and towns unlock walkable infill housing. re:MAIN works at the intersection of zoning, real estate feasibility, and implementation, helping communities overcome the regulatory and market barriers that often prevent housing from being built — especially in walkable locations where demand is strongest.
Previously, Jonathan served as Vice President at Patronicity, a Detroit-based civic crowdfunding platform, where he led statewide placemaking initiatives supporting hundreds of communities and helped raise millions of dollars for public space and local development projects. He also founded Bench Consulting, Patronicity’s advisory arm, where he guided cities through placemaking and tactical urbanism strategies and launched Winter Places, an international initiative focused on activating outdoor public spaces year-round.
Today, Jonathan serves as Board Chair of Abundant Housing Massachusetts — the state's leading pro-housing advocacy organization — and as a member of the City of Salem Planning Board. That combination of statewide advocacy and local governance gives him a front-row view of both the structural obstacles to housing production and the reforms that are beginning to work.
Jonathan holds a law degree and brings a policy-first, implementation-focused lens to every project. re:MAIN is the synthesis of everything he's learned about what it actually takes to build more homes in the places people most want to live.
