BFC Partners Announces COO
Melanie E. La Rocca has joined BFC Partners, a full-service development firm, as chief operating officer. She is based at BFC’s Brooklyn, New York, office
Collaborating with the executive team, La Rocca will guide the firm’s workflow, strategy, and organization of all essential business processes. Her duties include reviewing the efficiency of business functions, planning changes and updates to day-to-day operations, while collaborating with other executive staff to set and meet business objectives.
Prior to joining BFC Partners, La Rocca served as New York City’s founding chief efficiency officer, a position she was named to by mayor Eric Adams last year. Earlier, she was commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, where she regulated and promoted the safe and lawful use of nearly 1.1 million buildings and more than 45,000 active construction sites.
She has also served as vice president of development and external affairs at the New York City School Construction Authority, where she oversaw the real estate group.
McDowell Housing Partners Adds to Team
McDowell Housing Partners, a developer, owner, and operator of multifamily properties, has announced the appointment of three new team members.
Erin Green has joined the firm as vice president of asset management. She will lead the oversight of all affordable assets and take a direct role in managing third-party property management relationships, maximizing financial performance, and ensuring property compliance.
She brings more than 15 years of experience in low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and affordable housing to her new role. Prior to joining McDowell Housing Partners, Green was a regional vice president at Kittle Property Group, where she led a portfolio of up to 50 properties throughout 15 states over her time there. She specializes in new-construction lease-ups, repositioning, and training, and she holds multiple certifications in affordable housing and property management.
Henry Phillips has joined the firm as vice president of finance and will be responsible for leading the financial negotiations, underwriting new projects, and leading financial closings with the firm’s capital partners.
Prior to joining McDowell Housing Partners, he was a principal at Juno, a venture-backed design startup and multifamily developer. Prior to Juno, Phillips spent four years at The NRP Group, where he was a senior investment analyst on the capital markets team, responsible for underwriting, capitalizing, and closing the firm’s development pipeline, primarily 4% and 9% LIHTC transactions in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Lloyd Burman has been named corporate counsel. He joins McDowell Housing Partners from the affordable housing team at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, where he provided full-service representation to for-profit and nonprofit developers of attainable multifamily housing. As corporate counsel, Burman will spearhead the company’s legal activities while contributing to the company’s development and achievement of present and future strategic goals.
Washington Community Reinvestment Association Names President
Christine Roveda has been appointed president of the Washington Community Reinvestment Association (WCRA).
She takes the helm from Susan M. Duren, who joined the company when it was formed in 1992 and was promoted to president in 2007. Under Duren’s leadership, the WCRA has grown total assets of over $122 million and net assets of $5.7 million, providing critical Community Reinvestment Act credit to member banks and supporting residents throughout the state.
Roveda brings years of experience in construction, real estate finance, and community development to the WCRA. Following graduate school and a career in heavy civil construction, she joined Wells Fargo Bank in 2002 and since then has worked exclusively in the Commercial Real Estate Group, most recently providing credit supervision for the multifamily capital and community lending and investment business lines.
Founded in 1992 with support from the Federal Reserve Bank and major banks with a presence in Washington, the WCRA is a key public-private partnership making affordable rental housing, economic development, and special-needs housing safe and decent for Washington residents.
Robles Retires from CTCAC, CDLAC
Nancee Robles has retired from state service after leading the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee for more than two years.
In an announcement, Robles said she is ready to move on after accomplishing the mission set by California treasurer Fiona Ma, including integrating the two committees. She also cited the committees’ work in “creating a fair competitive process that measures the public benefit gained over the resources used for affordable housing.”
Ma appointed Robles to head the committees in 2021. She previously served as executive director of the California Pollution Control Financing Authority.
Merchants Capital Announces SVP
Min Park has joined Merchants Capital as senior vice president, balance sheet construction. She will be based in the firm’s New York office, which closed more than $1.3 billion in debt financing last year.
Park brings more than two decades of real estate finance and construction asset management experience to the role, having most recently served as a director at Citi Community Capital. She also held positions at Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp. and Equity Office Properties.
Recently, Merchants Capital surpassed $20 billion in unpaid principal balance in its servicing portfolio. Park will lend her expertise to the construction lending team to proactively oversee and manage risk nationally for the firm’s institutional investors, including parent company Merchants Bank of Indiana.
MHIC Appoints Deputy Director of Capital Development
Sean Beirne has been named deputy director of capital development at the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp.
He will support all aspects of investor relations for the organization’s LIHTC, New Market Tax Credit, and Healthy Neighborhoods Equity Fund equity platforms and lending programs.Previously, Beirne was assistant vice president of community development investments at Citizens Bank, where he was responsible for underwriting and closing multi-fund federal and state housing tax credit investments. He also held senior analyst positions at Boston Financial Investment Management.