Matthew Schwalb, MA, MSA
Matthew is currently a managing partner and senior analyst at ABLE Operations. He has nearly 15 years of economic impact, target cluster identification, commercial real estate development, and market analysis experience. He has conducted numerous studies for diverse public and nonprofit clients. He holds graduate degrees in Political Science (MA) and Administration (MSA) from the University of West Florida. His studies focused primarily on public finance, applied economics, statistics, research methods, and policy analysis.
Matthew began his post-graduate career as the assistant director of the University of West Florida's Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development. He led various economic and fiscal impact assessments as
well as return-on-investment, feasibility, and cost/benefit studies. At the Haas Center, Matthew became proficient in utilizing industry standard economic impact models, such as IMPLAN (input-output model) and REMI PI+ (socioeconomic forecasting), as well as several advanced public sector valuation methodologies. He is well-versed with various public and private economic, financial, social, and demographic databases. During his tenure, Matthew was trained extensively in economic development theory, analytics, and best practices; and worked with numerous municipal clients throughout Florida and the nation.
In 2014, Matthew joined the Matrix Design Group as a research analyst providing analytic support for a variety of public and private sector clients. Matrix is a full-service engineering and community planning firm with a significant book of work in the defense and real estate development industry. Matthew oversaw a diverse portfolio of research projects including economic and fiscal impacts of various military installations and real estate developments (both defense and non-defense related), financial modeling (pro forma) of mixed-use real estate developments, fiscal impacts, and return-on-investment of exempting military retiree pensions from state income tax, as well as commercial real estate projections utilizing advanced employment and demographic forecasting techniques.
Matthew joined ABLE Operations as managing partner and senior analyst in 2022. He oversees business development and client relations for the firm and provides support on all qualitative and quantitative research projects.