RCAC’s Keasling to Retire
Stanley Keasling, CEO of the Rural Community Assistance Corp. (RCAC), will retire at the end of the year. He joined the organization in 2008 and is just the second CEO in RCAC’s 40-year history.
Based in West Sacramento, Calif., the organization provides training, technical and financial resources, and advocacy to rural communities in 13 western states and western Pacific islands. RCAC staff provides direct services in three program areas: affordable housing, environmental services, and lending.
Keasling has more than 40 years of experience in affordable housing and community development. He began his community development work as a VISTA volunteer with Self-Help Enterprises and continued to work in the field for his entire career.
During Keasling’s tenure, RCAC grew from 108 to 145 staff members, and revenue grew from $13.3 million to $18.7 million, with total assets of more than $100 million and net assets over $42 million, according to Nalani Fujimori Kaina, board chair.
Several groundbreaking initiatives, including Agua4All, Development Solutions, Building Rural Economies, and the Tribal Housing Academy were launched under Keasling’s leadership.
RCAC services are available to communities with populations of fewer than 50,000, other nonprofit groups, tribal organizations, farmworkers, colonias, and other specific populations.
The board has retained Raffa-Marcum’s Nonprofit Social Sector Group to search for a new CEO.
Merchants Capital Names Vice Presidents
Merchants Capital has hired Lisa Lundeen as vice president of government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) portfolio management and Toni Gilbert as vice president of insurance compliance to the company’s Saint Paul, Minn., office. Both are newly created roles.
Lundeen brings more than 12 years of multifamily servicing and asset management experience to the team, with a background in both permanent and construction loans as well as knowledge of investor accounting and reporting for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) assets.
Since stepping into the role, Lundeen has transformed the GSE portfolio management team, which is responsible for performing financial analyses, completing inspections, monitoring repairs and escrows, processing loan events, and managing risks of the company’s Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae portfolios. She will play a critical role in improving company procedures as well as leading the implementation of a new servicing and database management application.
Gilbert’s addition will allow the Merchants Capital team to streamline the process for loan closings and post-closing insurance renewals. Her responsibility will include reviewing insurance information to ensure compliance with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Merchants Bank standards. Gilbert has 16 years of insurance compliance and multifamily escrow industry experience, as well as a vast knowledge of lender requirements.
Flaherty & Collins Announces Corporate Counsel
Kyra Rimsans has been named corporate counsel at Flaherty & Collins Properties, an award-winning developer, builder, and manager of mixed-use, multifamily properties
Rimsans joins the Indianapolis-based company from Barnes & Thornburg, where she was a partner. She received her doctor of jurisprudence from Indiana University and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Butler University. Rimsans was recently recognized by The Best Lawyers in America in the area of real estate law.
At Flaherty & Collins Properties, Rimsans will work directly with the company’s CEO, CFO, and the development team on all real estate and contractual matters.
Flaherty & Collins Properties manages nearly 100 properties and over 17,000 units in 12 states.
LHP Capital Promotes McDermott
Thomas McDermott has been promoted to vice president of asset management at LHP Capital, where he is responsible for the financial well-being of the company’s portfolio of more than 55 multi-housing properties. McDermott, who joined the company in 2015, previously served as financial analyst.
Prior to joining LHP, McDermott spent eight years working in mergers and acquisitions for the oil and gas industry, initially as an investment banker and later for a privately held exploration and production company.
Based in Knoxville, Tenn., LHP Capital, along with its operating companies—LHP Development and LHP Management—is a developer and manager of multifamily housing properties with a primary emphasis on affordable housing. Since 1998, the company formerly known as Lawler Wood Housing and rebranded LHP in 2015 has developed more than 12,900 apartment units in 96 properties with the majority of those developments utilizing the low-income housing tax credit program. LHP currently manages 55 multifamily properties in eight states.
Dominium Announces Appointments
Ryan Galligan has been named a portfolio analyst at Dominium, a Minneapolis-based owner, developer, and manager.
He will help execute the firm’s goals and objectives. Additionally, Galligan will prepare detailed reports on the holdings of the corporate enterprise and prepare high-level financial statements for stakeholders.
Prior to Dominium, Galligan worked for CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm for five years. He resides in Eagan, Minn.
Dominium also announced that Darron Bethea has joined the company as a regional maintenance manager. He resides in Houston.
He is responsible for the overall compliance of the maintenance department and safety policies and procedures at their assigned properties. Additionally, Bethea will audit property condition, preventative maintenance, and maintenance policy adherence biannually.
Prior to Dominium, Bethea served as a community manager, district maintenance supervisor, and a maintenance specialist for several years. He holds numerous qualifications, including being a LEED green associate, tax credit specialist, accredited residential manager, UPCS inspector, certified maintenance technician, and being EPA HVAC certified.
NorthMarq Adds Affordable and Senior Housing Specialist
Lawrence Larisma has been named senior vice president at NorthMarq.
Based in the firm’s Charlotte, N.C., regional office, he will assist local, regional, and national multifamily, senior housing, and commercial real estate clients with financing for the entire capital stack, including debt, mezzanine, and equity capital.
He will leverage NorthMarq’s relationships with institutional providers of capital, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, life companies, CMBS, REIT, bank and private debt, mezzanine, and equity funds to create innovative financing solutions for his clients.
Since 1998, Larisma has originated and underwritten over $1 billion of construction, acquisition, and refinancing transactions on market-rate multifamily, affordable housing, senior housing, and skilled-nursing properties. His accomplishments include originating one of HUD’s largest multifamily construction loans and underwriting one of HUD’s largest skilled-nursing facility refinances to date. He also originated among the first of several HUD Sec. 202 property refinances, as well as one of the first HUD Sec. 236/Sec. 8 decoupling transactions with a Fannie Mae DUS affordable loan.
Larisma recently served as director of originations at Love Funding Corp., as well as a director at RED Capital Group in Charlotte. He was also founder and CEO of Reiles Capital Group.
Furman Center Appoints Executive Director
Matt Murphy has been appointed executive director of the NYU Furman Center.
He joins the Furman Center on April 15 after an eight-year stint in city government, most recently as deputy commissioner for the Office of Policy and Strategy with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). His present portfolio includes the Office of Housing Policy and the Office of Strategic Operations and Analytics, which leads the development of strategies to advance HPD’s housing policy objectives and oversee initiatives to help achieve agency goals and improve operations.
Murphy started his HPD tenure as assistant commissioner for strategic planning in 2015 after serving as a senior project manager and policy advisor at the New York City Housing Development Corp. since 2011. He played a central role in many of the city's signature achievements, including the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, the reform of 421-a, the new Certification of No Harassment policy, and the pilot project to legalize basement apartments in East New York.
He takes over for Jessica Yager, who recently left the Furman Center to join Win as vice president of policy and planning.
The NYU Furman Center advances research and debate on housing, neighborhoods, and urban policy. Established in 1995, it is a joint center of the New York University School of Law and the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
