EBALDC Names CEO
Andre “Andy” H. Madeira has been appointed CEO of the East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. (EBALDC), a nonprofit community development organization headquartered in Oakland, California. He assumes the post March 1.
Madeira joins EBALDC with 30 years of experience in affordable housing and community development, most recently working at Eden Housing, where he served as senior vice president of real estate development. During his term, Eden Housing expanded its construction pre-development pipeline, recapitalized and renovated its existing portfolio, grew the organization's financial reserves, and extended its impact by opening development offices in Monterey and San Diego.
Earlier in his career, Madeira was a senior banker with JPMorgan Chase in the community development banking division, where he was responsible for originating construction and permanent loans for affordable housing and community development across Northern California. He also served as director of real estate for BRIDGE Housing Corp. in San Francisco.
Kende Becomes SVP, Chief Program Officer, at Enterprise
Judi Kende has been named senior vice president and chief program officer of Enterprise Community Partners’ Solutions division, which operates nationwide with program, policy, advisory, and capacity-building arms at the national, state, and local levels.
In the newly created position, she will be a critical member of the senior management team by lifting up best practices in program design and implementation that are informed by ground-up strategies. As Enterprise embarks on an ambitious new five-year strategic plan, Kende will lead efforts to execute Enterprise’s three priorities of increasing housing supply, advancing racial equity, and building resilience and upward mobility.
Kende will remain based in Enterprise’s New York City office, where she previously served as vice president and New York market leader. In that role, she led a cross-functional team, working with New York City officials, financial institutions, foundations, developers, and other partners to build and preserve affordable homes. Prior to joining Enterprise in 2014, Kende led the Low Income Investment Fund’s Eastern and Central region and previously served as director of nonprofit finance at Citibank Community Development.
Housing Trust Silicon Valley Names CEO
Noni Ramos has been named CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, a nonprofit community loan fund headquartered in San Jose, California.
She will provide strategic leadership to the organization and oversee all day-to-day operations of the San Jose-based community development financial institution (CDFI). Ramos succeeds Kevin Zwick, who recently departed for another community organization.
Ramos joins the Housing Trust from Enterprise Community Loan Fund, where she served as senior vice president and chief operating officer. In this role, she oversaw the lending, portfolio and risk management, finance, and administration functions to align the organization’s strategic direction. She joined Enterprise in 2008 and also served as vice president of capital solutions and chief lending officer of Enterprise Community Loan Fund. Earlier in her career, Ramos was the chief credit officer for the Low Income Investment Fund.
Ramos serves as chair of the California Coalition for Community Investment and is a board member of Mercy Community Capital and a member of Opportunity Finance Network’s New Markets Tax Credit Advisory Board.
Since 2000, the Housing Trust has invested over $335 million in programs that help everyone from those experiencing homelessness to renters to first-time home buyers—creating over 20,700 affordable housing opportunities serving over 38,000 across the Greater Bay Area.
Middleburg Communities Announces Head of Affordable and Workforce Housing
Longtime affordable housing leader Kwaku “KC” George has joined Middleburg Communities as principal, head of affordable and workforce housing.
He will lead and execute the implementation of the company’s affordable and workforce housing strategic vision and development pipeline throughout the Southeast. In addition, George will focus on developing, managing, and sourcing capital and partnerships that are conducive to increasing the production of affordable housing. He will collaborate across multiple business lines in the fully service-integrated company to increase and expand Middleburg’s footprint and affordable housing production.
George joins Middleburg Communities with significant experience in affordable housing advisory services, real estate development and finance, and commercial lending. His experience includes mixed-use and mixed-income development, multifamily tax credit development, and public-private partnerships with municipal agencies and affordable housing developers. Most recently, he served as vice president/regional director for the National Development Council (NDC), one of the nation’s most experienced entities specializing in affordable housing, real estate, and economic development strategies. Prior to NDC, George was the senior director of housing finance and administration for the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership and Community Redevelopment Loan and Investment Fund.
Since 2004, Middleburg has acquired and developed more than 20,000 apartment units, executing over $3 billion in transactions.
Pennrose Promotes Stewart to Lead Development Activities in Maryland
Patrick Stewart has been promoted to regional vice president of the Maryland region for Pennrose. He assumes responsibilities for the region following the recent promotion of Ivy Dench-Carter to senior vice president for development.
Stewart joined Pennrose in 2013 and has since served in the company’s Baltimore office most recently as a senior developer. He has been active in all facets of the real estate development process, including financial analysis and feasibility, assembling and leading the development team, securing entitlements, and overseeing construction, lease-up, and stabilized occupancy. His current portfolio of projects managed for Pennrose includes over 700 units completed or under construction totaling over $178 million and an additional 750-plus units in pre-development with a combined value of over $185 million.
Earlier in his career, Stewart acted as project manager under the New York City Mayor’s Office of Capital Project Development, where he worked to implement multiple federally funded rebuilding projects aimed at revitalizing Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The NHP Foundation Promotes Price to EVP and CFO
Eric W. Price has been promoted to executive vice president and chief financial officer of The NHP Foundation (NHPF), a national nonprofit provider of affordable housing.
Formerly a senior vice president, Price joined NHPF in early 2019 with 30 years of experience in the development and financing of affordable housing and community development. Since his tenure with the organization, he has been integral to the advancement of new project developments including The Strand Theater in Washington, D.C., and the Park Heights development in Baltimore. Price also chairs NHPF’s RSI (Racism and Social Injustice) task force addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Prior to joining NHPF, Price worked at the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT), where he served as executive vice president of the HIT and CEO for the HIT Advisors and Building America CDE.
Price serves on the boards of the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Casey Trees.
Furey Joins NEF
Mark Furey has joined National Equity Fund as vice president for originations, overseeing investment activity throughout the Southeast. He is based in Florida.
Furey will lead NEF’s work with community-focused developers in the region to structure deals, connect with capital, and move forward with construction on low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects. NEF is one of the nation’s top affordable housing investors, having provided more than $17 billion in financing to more than 2,800 developments in nearly every state.
The industry veteran was most recently director of acquisitions with Berkadia Affordable Tax Credit Solutions, where he was the lead relationship manager in the Southeast, working with developers to support multifamily housing developments. In addition to overseeing underwriting and closings, he helped train and support staff in market analysis, financial modeling, project underwriting, and due diligence.
Earlier, he was a senior acquisitions manager at Raymond James Tax Credit Funds, where he closed more than $160 million in affordable housing investments.
CIC’s Markowski to Retire
Community Investment Corp. (CIC) has retained an executive search firm to help find its next president and CEO. The move comes after Jack Markowski announced his intention to retire after leading the Chicago-based organization for 13 years.
An industry veteran, Markowski served as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Housing before joining CIC, a leading regional lender for affordable housing. He plans to retire in May.
Koya Partners, part of the Diversified Search Group, will assist with candidate identification, finalist selection, and onboarding of the new president.
KeyBank Makes Moves
Matthew Haas has joined KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI) as a senior banker to expand community development lending and investment activities.
He oversees the delivery of community development/affordable housing financing and various banking products and services to commercial real estate owners, investors, and developers of affordable housing for the CDLI team in the Western region. In the near term, Haas will prioritize boosting production in California to help fight the state’s affordability crisis.
With more than 25 years of affordable housing and community development experience, Haas has raised over $600 million in multi-investor and club funds, financing 7,000 units of housing. Previously, he was the director of investor relations at Berkadia Affordable Tax Credit Solutions and director of investor relations fund management at Merritt Community Capital Corp.
Leslie Meyers has been appointed senior vice president and senior mortgage banker, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) affordable housing, at KeyBank Real Estate Capital.
Meyers is responsible for all of KeyBank’s FHA affordable transactions acting as the primary or co-mortgage banker. In addition, she will work with clients across the Southeast region to deliver FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other KeyBank products. She is based in Washington, D.C.
Meyers has more than 30 years of transactional experience in the multifamily and affordable housing sectors. Prior to joining KeyBank, she was at Bank of America, where she held multiple positions in community development, including most recently FHA originations manager. In that role, she structured and closed over $300 million in complex FHA affordable transactions frequently combined with LIHTC, Rental Assistance Demonstration, Housing Assistance Payment contracts, equity bridge loans, and tax-exempt financing.
She is a long-standing member of the Housing Association of Non-Profit Developers and a participant in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s FHA committees, and was an associate and women’s leadership initiative member with the Urban Land Institute, Washington, D.C., chapter.
The Doe Fund Announces Executive Restructuring
The Doe Fund has announced that John McDonald will increase his responsibilities on its leadership team as executive vice president. A seasoned corporate leader with expertise in financial analysis, management, and real estate development, McDonald will focus on the organization’s growing portfolio of transitional, affordable, and supportive housing through financing and partnerships with city, state, and private entities.
He has served The Doe Fund for three decades. Under his leadership, the New York City-based nonprofit has built energy-efficient, state-of-the-art residences that challenge preconceived notions of affordable and supportive housing. His commitment to addressing homelessness across a broad spectrum of the population has led to The Doe Fund developing housing for groups including veterans, families, and people living with disabilities or HIV/AIDS, among many others. He also has focused on providing housing that enriches the local community—such as The Doe Fund’s upcoming Jerome Avenue project, which features groundfloor retail.
Also joining the leadership team is Isabel Ames McDevitt, who for the last nine years has led the Colorado-based Bridge House, where she created the successful Ready to Work program inspired by The Doe Fund. She will oversee The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able reentry program and will lead efforts to further develop and implement a national scaling strategy based on its Work Works model.
PGIM Names Head of Production for Agency Lending
Stephanie Wiggins has been named managing director and head of production for its agency lending platform at PGIM Real Estate. She is responsible for oversight of the firm’s originations for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, and affordable multifamily loans. She is based in the firm’s Arlington, Virginia, office.
In this newly created role, Wiggins reports to Mike McRoberts, PGIM Real Estate’s head of agency lending and chairman of the agency platform. She is a member of the agency platform’s senior leadership team and has direct responsibility for driving strategic loan production across the business.
Wiggins will serve as a central point of contact for the agency platform’s borrowers, intermediaries, and internal team members in order to maximize the efficiency and integrity of its transactions process. She will also oversee debt structuring, pricing strategy, transaction negotiation and closing, and due diligence review.
She has more than 30 years of commercial real estate finance experience. Most recently, she was a senior vice president and chief production officer for the FHA team at Walker & Dunlop. Wiggins is a PGIM Real Estate alumnus, having previously served as a director and senior investment officer from 1997 to 2000.
AASC Names President and CEO
Michelle Missler has been appointed president and CEO of the American Association of Service Coordinators (AASC).
She joined the organization last year as vice president with 16 years of experience in affordable senior housing, service coordination, and program development.
Before joining AASC, she was named by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners to serve as the director of the Franklin County Office on Aging, where she managed Adult Protective Services operations for the state’s largest county. In this role, she was responsible for the distribution of senior services levy funding to local community-based organizations serving over 9,000 older adults living independently.
As vice president of strategic partnerships at the Healthcare Collaborative of Greater Columbus, she worked to create community collaborations to improve the value of health care for all people. During a tenure at National Church Residences, Missler worked directly with the elderly living in affordable housing in a quality assurance position before becoming director of the service coordinator program, in which she led and mentored more than 600 service coordinators nationwide.
Missler succeeds Janice Monks, AASC’s founding president, who retired after 21 years. Monks will continue to serve as a consultant through May to facilitate a smooth transition.
Cabretta Capital Announces Director of Tax Credit Investments
Jesse Speltz has joined Cabretta Capital to serve as director of tax credit investments. He will focus on expanding Cabretta’s national footprint with outreach to banks, private equity groups, family offices, specialty finance companies, and others.
Speltz comes to Cabretta with an extensive background as an accomplished finance and business development professional with more than 30 years of leadership experience working with middle market and growth-oriented companies. Before joining Cabretta, he led business development for DHG’s private equity and transaction advisory teams, assisting buyers and sellers with their M&A and financial accounting requirements around the transaction.
Outside of his work with Cabretta, Speltz is heavily involved within the financial community and serves as a board member for the Atlanta Association of Corporate Growth.
Cabretta Capital is a leading specialty finance firm with extensive experience in structured tax credit equity funds and tax-advantaged investment strategies.
First Community Village Announces Executive Director
Jennifer Adams has been named executive director of First Community Village, a continuing care retirement community owned and operated by National Church Residences in Upper Arlington, Ohio. She will direct all day-to-day operations for this long-term care community, including independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, and rehabilitation services.
Adams joins First Community Village with 15 years executive experience in the senior living industry. She has served as a licensed nursing home administrator and executive director of assisted living and independent living environments. Her experience spans diverse populations, as well as urban and rural settings, facilities under renovation, and health care delivery.
Cassin & Cassin Names Partners
Michael Discenza and Kelsey Halverson have been promoted to partners at Cassin & Cassin, a law firm specializing in real estate, real estate finance, and private client matters.
Discenza will continue to focus his practice on representing institutional lenders in connection with commercial real estate loans intended for securitization or other sale in the secondary market. In this capacity, he represents lenders in the financing of multifamily properties through the Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) program and the Freddie Mac Seller-Servicer program, with an emphasis on Freddie Mac Targeted Affordable Housing and Fannie Mae Multifamily Affordable Housing transactions. Discenza has significant experience with LIHTCs, tax-exempt bonds, Section 8, and Housing Assistance Payment contracts, and a variety of federal and state affordable housing and community development programs. He’s also experienced in counseling financial institutions in secured and unsecured financings, including asset-based loans, revolving lines of credit, letters of credit, and tax-exempt bond issuances to affordable and supportive housing developers. Discenza is based in the firm’s New York City headquarters.
Halverson’s expertise is in representing institutional lenders in closing commercial real estate loans intended for securitization or other sale on the secondary market, as well as the financing of multifamily properties through Fannie Mae’s DUS program and Freddie Mac’s Seller-Servicer program, and in originating bridge loans for transitional assets.
She is based in the firm’s Phoenix office, where she’s responsible for growing that office and expanding Cassin & Cassin’s West Coast presence.
RBC Community Investments Announces Promotions
RBC Community Investments has announced a series of promotions to start the new year.
Lorraine Coram has been promoted to managing director and serves as head of asset management, where she leads the development risk management, stabilized asset management, asset risk management, and asset management operations teams, overseeing the group’s portfolio of assets. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Coram joined RBC Community Investments in 2004 and has been on the asset management leadership team since 2007. She has over 30 years’ experience in property management and LIHTC asset management, and prior to RBC worked for 16 years in residential property management for a portfolio of conventional, HUD, and LIHTC properties.
Ken Lohiser has been promoted to managing director and serves as co-head of originations management, supervising the investment diligence group and collaborating with the underwriting team on all aspects of closing investments at the lower tier. Based in Cleveland, Lohiser joined RBC Capital Markets in 2006 as associate general counsel and has over 30 years of real estate experience, including 14 years in private practice and six years as corporate counsel for a Fortune 500 company.
Rob Ellinger has been promoted to director, investment manager, where he will focus on the structuring, underwriting, and closing of lower-tier investments. Based in Charlotte, Ellinger joined RBC Capital Markets in 2007 as assistant vice president, underwriting, on the acquisitions team in the Southeast region. His experience includes over 19 years in the tax credit industry and, prior to RBC, spent five years at Capmark/Paramount Financial Group, primarily as an underwriter.
Carol Waytes has been promoted to vice president, investment diligence manager. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Waytes joined RBC Capital Markets in 2005, bringing 23 years of commercial and residential real estate experience to the group. Her prior experience includes underwriting commercial real estate transactions for both construction and short-term standing facilities.
Steve Greer has been promoted to vice president, pricing group manager. Based in Charlotte, Greer joined RBC Capital Markets in 2014 as an analyst and was promoted to investment associate in 2017.
Matt Weston has been promoted to vice president, pricing group manager. Based in Charlotte, Weston joined RBC Capital Markets in 2014 as an investment analyst and was promoted to investment associate in 2017.
Jacqueline Curry has been promoted to vice president, development risk manager. Based in Charlotte, Curry joined RBC Capital Markets in 2015. Prior to joining RBC, she worked for 18 years as a licensed architect with a focus on affordable housing design.
Chris Blake has been promoted to vice president, investment manager. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Blake joined RBC Capital Markets in 2012 and transferred to RBC Community Investments in 2014 as an investment analyst. Earlier, he served as a commercial account manager in the nonprofit/public sector banking group of the Royal Bank of Canada.
In addition to these promotions, RBC Community Investments, led by Craig Wagner, has announced the following organizational changes: Dan Kierce and Tammy Thiessen, co-heads of originations and sales; Eric Moody and Lohiser, co-heads of originations management; Nancy Amstadt, head of sales management; and Jainesh Shah and Todd Surbey, co-heads of financial management. Coram remains head of asset management, and Yonette Chung remains head of direct investments and strategic initiatives.
