CommonBond Names Executive Vice President of Real Estate
Cecile Bedor has joined CommonBond Communities as executive vice president of real estate.
She will resume her role on April 16 after serving as executive vice president of GREATER MSP, a regional economic development group in St. Paul, Minn.
Bedor’s experience also includes roles at the city of St. Paul, where she was the director of planning and economic development, the Minneapolis Public Library, National Equity Fund, the Metropolitan Council, and Aeon (then Central Community Housing Trust).
Bedor will oversee all of CommonBond’s real estate and asset management activities, including the acquisition of unsubsidized affordable rental housing and mission investing opportunities. CommonBond has expanded its work in the Upper Midwest significantly, growing the number of people it serves by 20% in the last year alone. CommonBond reaches nearly 12,000 people through housing, property management, and social services known as Advantage Services.
CommonBond is the largest nonprofit provider of affordable homes with support services in the Upper Midwest. It has been building and sustaining homes with services for families, older adults, and individuals with disabilities since 1971.
MidPen Housing Appoints Property Management VP
Marvin Williams has been named vice president of property management at MidPen Housing Corp.
Since its foundation in 1970, the nonprofit organization has developed more than 8,000 affordable homes for residents across 11 Northern California counties and employs a staff of nearly 450 people. Through its affiliate, MidPen Property Management Corp., the company professionally manages over 7,200 affordable homes across more than 100 properties
Williams is responsible for the physical integrity, safety, compliance, occupancy levels, and resident satisfaction for MidPen’s housing portfolio of over 7,200 units. He will lead an organization of over 250 employees and oversee all aspects of property operations.
Williams recently served as national director of property operations at Progress Residential in Arizona. Prior to Progress, he was director of property management for WinnResidential Military Housing Services in Boston.
MHEG Announces Director of Government Affairs
Joshua Yurek has been named director of government affairs at the Midwest Housing Equity Group (MHEG).
He will oversee MHEG’s federal and state policy agenda. He will travel to Washington, D.C., and throughout the MHEG footprint to educate and advocate for affordable housing resources.
Yurek has over 10 years of congressional work experience, most recently serving as a senior policy advisor for Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). In this role, Yurek provided strategic recommendations on a wide array of policy issues, including appropriations, financial services, housing, and tax issues. He worked extensively with the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over affordable housing tools, including low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs). Yurek represented the senator in negotiating significant policy reforms involving affordable housing, rural housing, and the most recent tax reform debate last year.
MHEG is a nonprofit organization that syndicates low-income housing tax credits and helps finance affordable housing throughout the Midwest. It also provides technical assistance to developers, owners, and management companies on the development and management of housing credit properties.
Alliant Capital Promotes Mistry
Suraj Mistry has been promoted to vice president of originations at Alliant Capital, a national LIHTC syndicator headquartered in Woodland Hills, CA. He will be responsible for LIHTC acquisition for several states in the Southeast.
Mistry is a real estate professional with more than 10 years of experience in office, multifamily, retail, hospitality, and LIHTC properties. He has worked in the affordable housing industry for the last eight years holding several different positions within Alliant and another national LIHTC syndicator. At Alliant, he started as a financial analyst and transitioned to an asset manager overseeing a portfolio of 65 LIHTC deals with debt and equity investments of over $750 million.
Founded in 1997, Alliant Capital is a leading national tax credit syndication company that provides financing and equity for the acquisition, development, and rehabilitation of affordable multifamily housing throughout the United States and its territories.
TAAHP Appoints Executive Director
Roger Arriaga has been named executive director of the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers.
Prior to joining the organization, he served the housing industry as assistant director at the city of Austin’s Housing Finance Corp. and subsequently as director of government affairs for production homebuilder KB Home. Most recently, he served in several roles within natural resources and economic development in San Antonio. As the director of natural resources for the Alamo Area Council of Governments, he was responsible for coordinating air quality initiatives for a 13-county region in South Central Texas.
Rainbow Housing Expands Vocational Training Program
Wendell Champion has joined Rainbow Housing Assistance Corp., a Phoenix-based nonprofit organization that provides service-enriched housing programs for residents of rental housing communities throughout the country. The move will help expand the organization’s vocational training and Rainbow Scholars program.
Champion will focus on expanding Rainbow’s vocational training program through collaboration, mentorship, fundraising, and partnerships for the provision of sustainable employment. The training program was established in 2017 and is designed to empower participants and launch graduates into careers in the multifamily industry.
He will also chair the Rainbow Scholars program, securing donors, collegiate partners, and viable candidates in pursuit of educational goals and opportunities.
Champion is also an attorney and counselor at law in Houston, Texas and a former military officer, captain, executive officer and platoon leader for the U.S. Army.
Smart Growth America Names Leader
Calvin Gladney has been named president and CEO of Smart Growth America. He will begin his duties in mid-April.
He succeeds Geoff Anderson to become the third person to hold the top post in the organization’s history.
Gladney spent more than 10 years at the helm of Mosaic Urban Partners, a firm he founded that delivered redevelopment strategies, addressed persistent blight, and catalyzed inclusive development in dozens of cities of all sizes around the country. During that time, he also served as a senior visiting fellow for equity at the Urban Land Institute and an adjunct professor in the real estate program at Georgetown University.
Based in Washington, D.C., Smart Growth America is dedicated to researching, advocating for and leading coalitions to bring better development strategies to more communities nationwide.
Hunt Mortgage Group Adds to Team
Owen Bouton has joined Hunt Mortgage Group as a director. Operating out of the Atlanta and Charleston, S.C., offices, he will focus on originating loans for clients located in the Southeast.
Bouton joins the firm as a member of the Proprietary Lending Group and will primarily serve clients using Hunt’s balance-sheet products.
Previously, Bouton worked as a loan originator at LStar Capital, a subsidiary of Lone Star Funds.
Law Firm Expands Real Estate Group
Sullivan & Worcester has announced that John W. Gahan III, Deirdre M. Robinson, and Karen J. Kepler have joined the firm’s real estate department as partners. The Boston-based trio enhances Sullivan & Worcester’s growing affordable housing team and brings additional depth to the firm’s real estate practice.
Formerly with the Murtha Cullina firm, the new partners have decades of experience representing owners, developers, management companies, and investors in affordable housing transactions that include complex multi-layered financing from public, private and semi-governmental agencies and the syndication of federal and state tax credits.
Gahan serves on the board of directors of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association and the executive committee of Preservation Massachusetts.
Robinson sits on the board of the Lawyers Clearinghouse for Affordable Housing and is an active member in the ABA Affordable Housing Forum and CREW Boston.
Kepler is active in the Boston Bar Association Real Estate Section and the ABA Affordable Housing Forum and is a past-president of the Lawyers Clearinghouse for Affordable Housing and the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association. She also is a member of the housing advisory board for the town of Brookline.
RED Mortgage Capital Appoints Head of Multifamily Small Loan Group
Scott Croul has been named senior managing director and head of small balance originations for RED Mortgage Capital, the mortgage banking arm of RED Capital Group.
He brings 30 years of mortgage lending experience across all institutional property types to RED with extensive background in multifamily lending. Croul joins RED from Freddie Mac Multifamily, where he was senior managing director and head of production and sales for the Western region.
At RED, Croul’s responsibilities will include growing the company’s national Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae small-balance lending platform.
Earlier in his career, he led regional operations at John Hancock Real Estate Finance Group and was a mortgage banker at predecessor companies to Berkadia, CBRE and Hunt Mortgage.
AEI Consultants Adds to HUD Services Team
AEI Consultants, a leading commercial real estate assessment and consulting firm, has expanded its Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-related service offerings with the addition of Staige Miller as director of environmental services—HUD and Jeb Bonnett as director of building assessments—HUD.
AEI has long provided assessment and consulting services related to HUD lending regulations for multifamily and healthcare properties.
Miller joins AEI after 17 years as director of environmental services with a national due diligence firm. She is a regular panelist on environmental issues, in particular HEROS (HUD Environmental Review Online System) at HUD lender-attended conferences.
Bonnett joins AEI following 12 years as a business project manager at a national due diligence firm. Bonnett is regularly engaged by HUD Lenders to provide guidance and training on HUD’s Capital Needs Assessment e-Tool.
ROSS Management Promotes Two
ROSS Management Services, a leader in multifamily property management in the Mid-Atlantic region, has promoted Tony Perichino to vice president of residential operations and Jeff Lawson to assistant vice president of residential operations.
Perichino will work closely with the executive team to promote the company and to help grow its third-party management portfolio in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. He will continue to oversee Seven Springs in College Park, Md., and Versailles in Towson, Md.
Lawson will remain focused on building and fostering the company's relationships with third-party owners.
In Memoriam: Ali Youssefi
Affordable housing developer Ali Youssefi died March 10 after a battle with cancer. He was 35.
Youssefi and his family’s Sacramento, Calif.-based CFY Development company were involved in some of the city’s “most important projects during its current renaissance,” reported The Sacramento Bee.
His projects included the Warehouse Artist Lofts on R Street, an affordable housing project that's home to some of the city's musicians, painters, and other artists. The firm had properties across the state.
“The loss of Ali is a terrible blow to our city,” said mayor Darrell Steinberg in a statement on Twitter. “Ali was a friend whose generosity, vision, and determination helped shape Sacramento into the vibrant and inclusive community it is today. He was an embodiment of Sacramento values and was unfairly taken too early from this world.”
Youssefi was born in Sacramento and educated at Dartmouth College. His father, Cyrus, had immigrated from Iran and launched the business.
