Joan J. Millane, who has managed multimillion-dollar commercial real estate programs for 16 years, has been appointed the first executive director of real estate for the Johns Hopkins Institutions.

In this new position, she will be responsible for both sales and purchases of real estate; for leasing of office, research or other space; and for development of new real estate projects for the university and the Johns Hopkins Health System.

She will bring together previously separate real estate operations in the university and the institutions' Dome Real Estate subsidiary.

"The various Hopkins institutions have mission-related goals and objectives, and the real estate department is here to serve, to help them meet those objectives," Millane said. "We don't have any other objective. We walk in and say, 'How can we help you?' "

Millane comes to Johns Hopkins from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she has been assistant vice president for asset management since 1998. She is best known there for engineering a public-private development deal to relieve a severe shortage of on-campus student housing. Under her leadership, the university, private developers and investors have built an attractive garden-apartment complex with room for 700 students and are building mid-rise apartments for 1,000 more. Millane describes the deal as a "win-win-win," with significant benefits for the students, the university and the private interests involved.

Previously, she managed two dozen real estate joint venture investments worth nearly $2 billion at the Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C., and created a real estate asset management program for the Resolution Trust Corp., the quasi-federal agency created to clean up the national savings and loan failure crisis. She began in real estate in 1984 managing commercial real estate sales for the Prudential Insurance Co.

Millane brings a broad mix of skills and experience with her to Johns Hopkins, said James T. McGill, senior vice president for finance and administration of the university, and Ronald Peterson, president of the health system, who together announced the appointment.

"She's a proven deliverer of successful development projects, knows the development community well and knows how to operate in a university setting," McGill said. "Joanie is an excellent fit for Hopkins."

Millane, who will start work right after the New Year, said she is excited by the enthusiasm and spirit she has encountered at Johns Hopkins. She said that blending the expertise of the professionals in the Hopkins real estate offices with that of some new specialists will result in a strong team able to support each other's work and the institutions' core missions.

Millane said her first job will be to put policies and procedures in place to govern her office's activities while working with the deans and administration to begin to address "pent-up demand" for specific projects. She also wants to establish regular channels of communication with units throughout Hopkins with which she will be working.

Among the priorities over the near and long terms, McGill said, are redevelopment of the northeast corner of Charles and 33rd streets at Homewood, expansion of the Montgomery County Campus, new development outside the main building at Eastern High School and further development at the East Baltimore and Bayview campuses.