Homeport Appoints President and CEO
Leah Evans has been named president and CEO of Homeport, a Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit affordable housing provider, effective Jan. 1, 2022.
Evans, who has recently served as senior vice president of real estate development, takes over the top spot from Bruce Luecke, who is retiring after six years.
“When I came to Homeport eight years ago, I wanted to do purposeful work for people. We impact people’s everyday lives. We have true and lasting impact in our communities. What we do matters,” Evans said.Homeport is entering its 35th year of business with 42 communities, 2,736 apartments and homes, and almost 7,000 residents. It is the largest locally based and focused affordable housing provider in Central Ohio. It is also a major provider of home buyer education, financial fitness, and down payment assistance.
Before joining Homeport in 2013, Evans worked for the city of Gahanna, Ohio, as deputy director of planning and development and manager of economic development. She has also worked for the Ohio Department of Development.
Raised in Cleveland Heights, Evans, 45, holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s in urban geography from OSU.
She and her husband have a daughter.
Evans serves on the Columbus Women’s Commission, the board of the Neighborhood Design Center, and the NeighborWorks America Real Estate Advisory Committee.
Beacon Communities Announces Promotion
Kristie Tafel Rizzo has been promoted to senior vice president, property management, at Beacon Communities, a privately owned real estate firm that develops, acquires, invests in, and manages a wide range of multifamily housing. The Boston-based firm’s portfolio includes affordable, market-rate, and mixed-income housing.
Rizzo, who was recently a regional vice president, has risen through the ranks at Beacon during her 16-year tenure at the company. She has successfully transitioned nine properties and teams to Beacon throughout Connecticut and New York, completed numerous successful construction and lease-up projects, and has built positive relationships with owners, agencies, and key stakeholders. In her new role, Rizzo will oversee Beacon’s portfolio in New York and Connecticut.
Fairfield Homes Names Director of Asset Management
Mercedes Crouthamel has joined the leadership team at Fairfield Homes as director of asset management.
She is responsible for developing the asset management strategy to maximize the value and profitability for the Fairfield Homes housing portfolio. She will lead the ongoing evaluation of assets and guide the portfolio to perform at optimal levels financially, physically, and operationally.
With more than 15 years in the affordable housing industry, Crouthamel has valuable experience in the development of asset management reporting, policies and procedures, and credit risk improvement.
Prior to joining Fairfield Homes, she worked for Huntington National Bank as a vice president of asset management, overseeing the community development portfolio. In addition, she spent 11 years at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., managing its low-income housing and historic tax credit programs.Fairfield Homes is a full-service property management company present in over 113 communities with more than 4,700 units throughout Ohio and in neighboring states across the Midwest.
Former Fannie Mae Executive Joins Cassin & Cassin
Cassin & Cassin, a law firm specializing in real estate, real estate finance, and private client matters, has announced that Phil Weber, former senior vice president of multifamily at Fannie Mae, has joined the firm as of counsel.
Cassin & Cassin is a leading law firm representing Freddie Mac sellers and servicers and Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing lenders. In addition, the firm serves as joint counsel to Freddie Mac and many of its lender partners in representing master servicers and subservicers with loan servicing requests.
During his nearly 20-year tenure at Fannie Mae, Weber held numerous strategic senior positions, including director of congressional relations, chief of staff to both the non-executive chairman of the board and CEO, as well as corporate secretary and senior vice president of multifamily. Weber was most recently the CEO of Forestar Group, where he led a transformation of the natural resources and real estate company into a leading residential lot development company. In 2017, Weber led the acquisition of Forestar by D.R. Horton, America’s largest home builder.
Since the acquisition of Forestar, Weber has served as a consultant to D.R. Horton, SouthWest Water Co., and as an independent director of Horizon Bank in Texas. Prior to his tenure at Fannie Mae, Weber served in a variety of roles on Capitol Hill, including serving on the staffs of the then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Jim Wright and the House of Representatives Committee on Rules. In 1992, he served on the Clinton Gore U.S. Presidential Transition Team staff. Weber is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the State Bar of Texas. He will work from Dallas as well as the firm’s other national offices.
NixonPeabody Adds to Affordable Housing Practice
Nixon Peabody is expanding its national affordable housing and real estate practice with the additions of Karla Chaffee in Boston, Daniel Perlin in Chicago, and Chaundi Randolph in Washington, D.C. All three attorneys join the firm as counsel.
Chaffee provides guidance to clients seeking zoning approvals and other development entitlements. Her practice includes due diligence work for real estate transactions prior to acquisition and financing. She assesses the environmental risk of properties and determines what mitigation measures are needed to help clients avoid potential liability. She also works with sellers, buyers, and lenders to ensure a successful transaction, providing guidance on local land use approvals, counseling on the impact of proposed or recently enacted land use legislation, and advising on land use trends across the country.
Chaffee’s land use litigation practice includes handling complex federal litigation involving the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, First Amendment, and Equal Protection Clause. She also handles environmental litigation, defending claims brought under state and federal law, such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
She earned her law degree from Vermont Law School and her bachelor’s from the University of Massachusetts.
Perlin focuses his practice on complex commercial real estate transactions and assisting in negotiating every step of the process. He represents both landlords and tenants on leasing, development, and acquisition/disposition matters, and guides clients on land use, construction, municipal, environmental, M&A, and sale-leaseback/restructuring matters throughout the U.S.
He has extensive experience in sectors such as retail, entertainment/restaurant, commercial/industrial, warehouse, medical, cannabis, and office clients. He has prior experience working in-house with a national retail pharmacy and national cannabis company, as well as with a real estate investor, developer, and operator.
Perlin received his law degree from DePaul University College of Law and his bachelor’s from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Randolph focuses his practice on affordable housing and real estate, finance and investments, and environmental and natural resources. He comes to Nixon Peabody following 12 years at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was the lead attorney for the department’s Public Housing Mixed Finance, Multifamily Section 202 elderly, and Section 811 disabled housing programs. Additionally, he provided counsel in various other areas including Choice Neighborhoods, public housing finance (capital fund and operating fund), and energy performance contracting.
He negotiated and closed nearly 300 public housing and other various affordable housing transactions, advised agency principals on complex asset repositioning issues involving Section 8 administration and tax credit financing, advised on demonstration and program development, and assisted in drafting applicable statutes, regulations, handbooks, agency notices, notices of funding availability, and legal opinions.
Randolph earned his master of laws in real property development from the University of Miami School of Law and his law and bachelor’s degrees from Florida A&M University.
indieDwell Appoints President and COO
Derek Henderson has been named president and chief operating officer of indieDwell, a modular manufacturer of affordable housing. Henderson will oversee a critical phase of the company’s growth as it expands its factory footprint from Pueblo, Colorado, to Virginia and to two additional factory locations by the end of 2023.
He brings 30 years of construction and manufacturing experience, including steel frame modular manufacturing experience. He most recently served as vice president at Z Modular, growing operations from one employee to over 700 employees and from one factory to four factories, producing 1 million square feet of housing. Prior to Z Modular, he helped create the technology of VectorBloc, which is now the proprietary modular connection at the heart of the Z Modular system.
