Hoover Becomes President of Conifer
Joan Hoover has become president of Conifer Realty.
Since joining the firm in 2007, she has been responsible for multiple functions, including financing, acquisitions, and dispositions, and, most recently, she has led a talented multidisciplinary team of development, finance, legal, and human resources associates.
Tim Fournier remains chairman and CEO of Conifer, a nationally ranked, full-service real estate company specializing in the development, construction, management, and ownership of high-quality affordable housing. Since its inception in 1975, Conifer has grown considerably—owning and managing nearly 15,000 multifamily units representing 223 apartment communities in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
The NRP Group Bolsters Texas Leadership
The NRP Group has promoted Jason Arechiga to senior vice president of development. Arechiga, who has been with the firm since 2012, will continue to lead the majority of the company’s affordable housing initiatives in Texas, where it is developing and building over 4,000 affordable and market-rate apartment units.
In the expanded role, Arechiga becomes responsible for overseeing NRP’s partnerships with public finance corporations that have accelerated the development of affordable workforce housing in various Texas markets like Austin and San Antonio.
Prior to joining NRP, Arechiga was co-principal of Hillstar Investments, where he developed over 4,000 single-family homes in the greater South Texas area over a decade. Starting as a land acquisition specialist at NRP, he has developed 21 projects to date, accounting for over 5,500 units.
NRP also has hired David Brown as regional vice president of development in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
Brown will oversee the company’s pursuit of development opportunities in Dallas, a major commercial and cultural hub with a growing population and a rising demand for multifamily housing.
He began his real estate career at LMC, a Lennar company, where he was responsible for managing all phases of development on projects throughout Texas, including The 23 Victory Park, a mixed-use high-rise development that features luxury apartments and 20,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space. Prior to joining NRP, he was a vice president for a private developer in Dallas, where he was responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, underwriting, deal financing, construction administration, and asset management.
Since its founding in 1994, NRP has delivered more than 33,000 apartment homes, and manages over 17,000 residential units. The firm is headquartered in Cleveland.
Enterprise Announces Moves
Heather Hood has been promoted to vice president and Northern California market leader at Enterprise Community Partners.
In her new role, she leads Enterprise’s efforts in generating policy and funding innovations to address the region’s tremendous affordable housing needs, improving the buildings and services in public housing, preparing regions to be ready and resilient for disasters, and increasing local, regional, and state resources for affordable housing preservation and production.
Hood has more than eight years’ experience at Enterprise, most recently serving as deputy director of the Northern California office. During this time, she co-authored The Elephant in the Region: How Bay Metro Can Lead a Bold Regional Housing Agenda and served on CASA’s production work group to develop a potential regionwide inclusionary zoning framework and a plan to utilize public land. She also conceived Enterprise’s technical assistance approach around the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program and co-chaired Oakland’s Housing Cabinet to determine the most practical and impactful solutions.
Prior to joining Enterprise, Hood worked at The San Francisco Foundation as the initiative officer managing the Great Communities Collaborative, where she was instrumental in the development of the $85 million Bay Area Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund.
She takes over the role from Rich Gross, who is leading Enterprise’s work in disaster recovery, rebuilding, and resilience in the Bay Area.
In another move, Mike Rossi has taken on a new role as senior director, acquisitions, at Enterprise Housing Credit Investments.
He will be the housing credit originator covering much of the Midwest, specifically Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Since joining Enterprise in 2010, Rossi has underwritten and closed over $350 million of low-income housing and historic tax credit equity, creating or preserving nearly 3,000 homes.
Fairfield Homes Hires Development Project Manager
Joseph Wickham has joined Fairfield Homes as real estate development project manager, a new role at the Lancaster, Ohio-based firm.
Created as part of the company’s strategic growth plan, Wickham is responsible for developing projects, leading the evaluation and structuring of opportunities, and managing the oversight of projects to completion. In addition, he is responsible for the review and analysis of the performance of the company’s assets.
Previously, Wickham worked for the National Affordable Housing Trust, a national tax credit syndicator. With over seven years of experience in the affordable housing industry, his work included asset management, investment and financial analysis, development advisory services, and tax credit originations.
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. It specializes in the development, construction, and management of quality affordable housing.
Merritt Community Capital Names CEO
Ari Beliak has been named president and CEO of Merritt Community Capital Corp., a leading provider of equity capital for affordable housing in California. He will assume the role July 29.
Beliak joins Merritt from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served as a senior vice president in the community development banking group and led a team of experts that provided debt and equity solutions to affordable housing developers in Northern California, Nevada, and Colorado. He was a key driver in Bank of America’s $2.2 billion financing of the nation’s largest affordable housing project, the San Francisco Rental Assistance Demonstration initiative.
Earlier in his career, Beliak practiced law for Sidley Austin and served in various real estate finance capacities for Wells Fargo Bank, including its affordable housing group.
NYC Housing Partnership Appoints General Counsel
Crystal Kay has been named general counsel at the NYC Housing Partnership, New York City's primary nonprofit intermediary for the development of new and rehabilitated affordable housing.
Kay recently served as senior staff attorney in the Community & Economic Development Program of Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, where she represented nonprofit developers in large-scale affordable housing real estate transactions. She has extensive legal experience in project acquisition, predevelopment financing, construction/rehabilitation, and permanent loan financing for the development of affordable housing.
Previously, she served as an associate at Robinson & Cole, representing institutional lenders in complex affordable housing financing transactions, tax-exempt bond financing, and low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects. She also worked as an associate at Cullen and Dykman.
Bellwether Enterprise Hires SVP in Dallas
Jeff Bradley has been hired as a senior vice president by Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, the commercial and multifamily mortgage banking subsidiary of Enterprise Community Investment. He will work with the firm’s affordable housing group in the Dallas office.
Bradley is responsible for originating commercial real estate loans, specializing in affordable and market-rate multifamily housing. With almost 40 years of experience in the real estate industry, primarily as a commercial real estate appraiser across the nation, he has extensive familiarity with apartment, industrial, office, and retail properties, as well as many types of special-use developments. He specializes in multifamily analysis, including Fannie Mae, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., Department of Housing and Urban Development Multifamily Accelerated Processing, age-restricted, student, and LIHTC properties.
Capital One Adds Six to Multifamily Finance Team
Capital One has announced several key hires to its multifamily finance team.
Phyllis Klein has joined as senior vice president and head of agency production, a new role. Klein comes to Capital One from Fannie Mae, where she was vice president of multifamily customer engagement for the firm’s multifamily mortgage business division. She is based in Los Angeles.
Maureen Fitzgerald has joined as a senior vice president and head of servicing from Wells Fargo. She had been a managing director, commercial mortgage servicing at Wells Fargo and is based in Capital One’s McLean, Va., headquarters.
Megan Murphy has joined from Newmark Knight Frank as a senior vice president and head of credit for the agency team. She is tasked with overseeing underwriting, closing, and asset management and had held several positions at Newmark, where she was most recently head of underwriting and closing. Murphy is based in Bethesda, Md.
Jim Wogan has been named a senior vice president in Boston. He is focused on originating agency deals and will report to Klein. Wogan also joined from Newmark Knight Frank, where he had been a director, originating agency loans.
Jonathan Hackerman has joined the multifamily finance team as a senior vice president. Hackerman joins from Santander and is located in New York.
Todd Elkins has joined as a senior vice president based in Tampa, Fla. He is part of the multifamily finance Southeast team and will originate agency loans, with a focus on manufactured housing communities. Elkins was recently a senior vice president of production at Grandbridge Real Estate Capital.
