The town of Fishers announced Tuesday that it has hired a former executive of Duke Realty Corp. as its first community development director.

Tom Dickey, a former vice president and general manager at Indianapolis-based Duke, will oversee economic development, planning and zoning for the town of 77,000 people. The town said Dickey would start his job immediately.

“We welcome him in a newly created role, which we are convinced will bring efficiencies to the way we approach economic development and planning and zoning from the lead phase until a project breaks ground,” town councilor John Weingardt said in a prepared statement.

Dickey’s duties will include developing and updating the town’s comprehensive strategy, future land-use plan and regional plans. His economic development responsibilities include providing cost-benefit analysis for economic development initiatives, analyzing and coordinating tax-increment financing proposals, and administering the town’s tax-abatement program.

A spokeswoman for Fishers did not return phone calls or an e-mail from IBJ seeking further information about Dickey’s contract or salary.

At Duke, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, Dickey led the development of the 1,700-acre Anson mixed-use real estate project near Whitestown in Boone County. Dickey is an attorney who previously practiced at former Indianapolis law firm Johnson Smith LLP.