Affordable Housing Finance

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • November/December 2009

Conifer Announces Promotion

Andrew I. Crossed has become a partner and executive vice president of Conifer Realty, a Rochester, N.Y.-based aff ordable development and management company operating in a fourstate region.

He is responsible for directing the development throughout New York, Maryland, and central Pennsylvania. Crossed has been with the fi rm for 12 years, most recently serving as vice president of development.

Conifer employs 550 people and owns and manages 11,000 units in 180 apartment communities.

Bullock to Lead New Guardian Division

Guardian Real Estate Services, a Portland, Ore.-based real estate management and investment fi rm, is expanding its services to include a new business unit, Advisory Services. Brad Bullock has joined the fi rm to lead the new division.

Bullock has more than 21 years of experience in the aff ordable housing industry. He previously served as senior vice president of asset resolutions at Capmark, a fi nancial real estate company.

Guardian’s new division will seek out stabilized and workout asset management contracts.

Tawa Joins HUD

Christopher Tawa joined the Federal Housing Administration in September as its principal adviser on fi nance and policy issues aff ecting affordable housing development and preservation and to provide advice on programmatic and organizational issues.

He is senior adviser to Carol Galante, deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Previously, Tawa was senior vice president of the affordable debt group at MMA Financial, which was the largest owner and fi nancier of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties in the country. From 1993 to 1998, he was the national director of targeted aff ordable housing at Fannie Mae, where he developed debt products for fi nancing low-income rental properties.

First Sterling Adds COO

Kevin Fiore has been named COO at First Sterling, a national real estate investment fi rm and LIHTC syndicator.

Fiore, 39, brings 17 years of accounting, fi nance, real estate, and senior management experience to the newly created post.

He began his career at Arthur Anderson, where he led various audit and consulting engagements of public and private companies. Fiore also held various senior-level positions at Wyndham Worldwide, formerly Cendant Corp., where he was involved in about $4 billion of acquisitions. Most recently, he was COO at P&F Management, a real estate development company.

LISC Names L.A. Leader

The Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) has named Miguel A. Garcia as executive director of Los Angeles LISC, its 22-year-old local program that has invested $425 million in grants, loans, and equity in low-income communities throughout the region.

Garcia recently spent seven years as program offi cer and acting deputy director at the Ford Foundation, where he managed a community development portfolio focused on mixedincome housing and funding for public/community space. Prior to that, he was a community builder fellow in the HUD’s Houston offi ce, where he provided technical assistance and funding opportunities to local governments, nonprofi t organizations, and businesses with programs targeted to low- and moderate-income residents.

Garcia also worked four years as assistant director in Houston’s planning and development department and two years as executive director of the Harrisburg-Wayside Commercial Revitalization Project in Houston.

IHDA Appoints Deputy Executive Director

Phil Culpepper has been named deputy executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

The former director of debt management for the state, he brings extensive public fi nance, bond fund accounting, strategic planning, and revenue forecasting experience to the agency. In his prior role, Culpepper oversaw more than $7 billion in public fi nance transactions. He has also served as a debt management specialist for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, where he structured and coordinated more than $3 billion in municipal bonds and derivative transactions.

His appointment follows the recent naming of Gloria L. Materre as executive director of the housing agency.