Tishman Speyer Appoints Industry Veteran to Establish Affordable Housing Platform
Gary Rodney has joined Tishman Speyer to help establish and manage a new affordable housing platform that will initially focus on the New York City region.
He will help the firm source opportunities to acquire, redevelop, and engage in ground-up construction of quality housing that is affordable to low- and middle-income New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs.
Rodney brings more than two decades of experience related to the development and financing of affordable housing to his newly created managing director role at Tishman Speyer. For the past four years, he served as chairman of CREA, where he worked with the senior management team and its partners to help finance quality affordable housing in cities throughout the country.
Immediately prior to CREA, Rodney served as president of the New York City Housing Development Corp., one of the nation’s most active housing finance agencies and the largest municipal issuer of mortgage revenue bonds for affordable multifamily housing. During his tenure at HDC, Rodney oversaw approximately $14 billion of assets, including a multifamily portfolio of over 190,000 units and approximately $10 billion in mortgage loans.
He has also served as executive vice president for development at Omni New York, a real estate development company that focused heavily on the preservation and development of affordable housing properties, and as director of development at BFC Partners.
Tishman Speyer is a leading owner, developer, operator, and fund manager of real estate in 29 key markets across the United State, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Its signature properties include Rockefeller Center.
Wallick Communities Names SVP of Affordable Housing Operations
Rita Bishop-Aimar is being promoted to senior vice president of affordable housing operations at Wallick Communities as of Sept. 1. She is replacing Amy Albery, who recently moved up to COO.
Bishop-‐Aimar will oversee the company’s affordable housing operations, comprising more than 170 communities across the Midwest, and join its senior leadership team. She has been serving as a regional vice president, supervising management of and resident satisfaction at 101 of Wallick’s affordable communities across Ohio and Michigan.
She began her career at Wallick in 1996 as a regional supervisor. Since then, Bishop‐Aimar has played a key role in numerous projects at the company, including leading a team that created and implemented an enhanced training program for associates and serving on Wallick’s policy and procedure task force. She is the firm’s principal broker in Kentucky and Michigan.
Standard Communities Expands Team
John Fischer has joined Standard Communities as managing director of asset management. A multifamily housing industry veteran, he has served in multidisciplinary managerial capacities at several large multifamily companies, including Aimco, Highridge Costa Housing Partners, TruAmerica Multifamily, and Compass Acquisition Partners. He will be based in Standard’s Los Angeles office.
Fischer, 40, is the most recent of nine new hires made by Standard this year, including five in the last two months. This significant staff growth mirrors Standard’s success in creating, preserving, and improving affordable housing. The firm was recently recognized by Affordable Housing Finance as one of the Top 50 affordable housing owners in the nation and one of the Top 10 firms completing substantial rehabilitations of affordable housing.
Standard has over 50 employees in seven offices nationwide, with additional hires in the pipeline, as its portfolio of nearly 9,000 affordable housing units continues to grow, according to company officials. Standard Communities is the affordable housing division of Standard Cos., a full-service investment and asset management firm.
Other recent hires include: · Sarah Pifer, associate director, compliance, in Orange County, Calif.;
· Jake Nathan, portfolio maintenance manager, in Charleston, S.C.;
· Kyle Considine, acquisitions analyst, in New York City; and
· Vivian Beebe, property operations and compliance associate, in Orange County, Calif.
Cohen-Esrey Announces Managing Director
Jon Atlas has been promoted to managing director of Cohen-Esrey Development Group (CEDG).
He joined CEDG in 2015 as vice president of affordable housing development.
He previously worked as a legislative assistant for two members of Congress in Washington, D.C.; was an associate fund manager raising affordable housing tax credit equity for the National Equity Fund; and was a vice president at JPMorgan Chase, where he underwrote and closed more than 40 affordable housing transactions.
He is leading a development and construction team of 10 people focused on affordable housing as well as fee-for-service development of market-rate apartments.
Headquartered in Kansas, Cohen-Esrey is a family of companies founded in 1970 that includes business units for market-rate apartment acquisitions, affordable housing development, apartment management, construction, building maintenance services, historic tax credit syndication, and capital formation. The firm operates in 14 states and has owned and/or managed more than 70,000 multifamily units since its inception.
Fairstead Appoints Chief People Officer
Fairstead, a fully integrated real estate firm committed to affordable housing, has named Gladys Chen as its first chief people officer.
In her new role, Chen will provide strategic and operational human resources leadership for the firm, drive initiatives that support the company’s strategic objectives regarding corporate culture and values, and collaborate with Fairstead’s leadership team to successfully grow the business while maintaining a high-performance work environment.
She brings over 15 years of experience in organizational design, executive recruitment, leadership development, and diversity and inclusion to her role and will be based out of Fairstead’s New York headquarters.
Chen has been a leading human resources executive for nearly two decades across the technology, customer experience, and financial services sectors. Most recently, she was head of HR for both the customer experience and technology divisions at E*TRADE.
Synovus Announces Affordable Housing Team
Synovus has launched an affordable housing business with the addition of industry veterans Brian Coffee, Reed Dolihite, and Marilyn Carl. They were previously with Regions Bank and helped grow its affordable housing department from a regional industry participant to a national competitor.
Coffee, senior director, established the affordable housing department at Regions in 2002 and oversaw its growth, originating loans, deposits, and investments for bank use, while also serving as a tax credit syndicator in markets around the country. He currently serves as vice president of the Affordable Housing Investors Council.
Dolihite, director, joined Regions in 2007 and was most recently vice president, relationship manager, with responsibility for equity and debt origination in Alabama, the Carolinas, and Georgia. He has extensive experience in capital structuring, tax credit equity investments, tax credit equity sales, and debt origination.
Carl, director, started with Regions in 2007 as a commercial real estate lender in the South Florida market and moved into an equity, and short-term debt, originations role in 2013, primarily working with developers based in Florida but also Missouri and Virginia. While working in a commercial real estate role at the bank from 2007 to 2012, she was appointed by then Gov. Charlie Crist to serve on the board of the Florida Housing Finance Corp. When her term was up, she moved to a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) role at the bank.
Synovus Financial Corp. is a financial services company based in Columbus, Ga., with approximately $48 billion in assets. Synovus provides commercial and retail banking, investment, and mortgage services through 298 branches in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee.
Bank of America Names Regional Executives
Bank of America Community Development Banking has named Iris Bashein and Karen Purcell as debt and equity executives for the South and North regions, respectively.
Based in Washington, D.C., Bashein most recently served as the Community Development Banking indirect equity originations manager, repositioning the platform to drive LIHTC production and leveraging syndicators to expand developer relationships. During her 16-year tenure at the bank, Bashein has held a variety of roles across the Community Development Banking, including asset management, investment analysis, permanent lending, and product development. She is a CPA and, prior to joining Bank of America, worked for several years at the CohnReznick accounting and advisory firm. Bashein represents Bank of America on the board of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition.
Purcell, who is based in Chicago, most recently served as sales performance manager in Commercial Real Estate Banking, where she provided sales support for the group platform nationally, consisting of 13 market teams responsible for delivering Bank of America products and advisory services to over 2,000 commercial real estate and community development bank clients across the country. Previously, Purcell served as the OREO regional market executive for six years, leading a group responsible for the sale of more than 1,000 distressed properties nationwide.
Walker & Dunlop Bolsters Multifamily Appraisal Business
Walker & Dunlop and GeoPhy announced the expansion of their multifamily appraisal business, Apprise, with the addition of Doug Koch as senior director and affordable practice lead, and Kelly Beigle as senior director.
Koch, based in Needham, Mass., will lead the company’s affordable housing valuation activities across the United States.
Prior to joining Apprise, Koch was manager and principal of Advisory Affiliates, where he participated in affordable and workforce housing development ventures arranging tax credit and private equity financing, assisting with organizational formation, and coordinating underwriting activities. During his career, he has completed thousands of multifamily property valuations, market studies, and investment due diligence assignments across 46 states and 200 markets.
Beigle, a specialist in affordable housing, is based in Bethesda, Md., and is focused on the Eastern region, including Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
She was previously a director in Cushman & Wakefield’s valuation and advisory group, leading the affordable housing specialty practice in the D.C. and Baltimore regions, where she provided valuation and consulting services to clients involved in the financing, management, and development of LIHTC, project-based Section 8, and HUD/FHA properties.
Apprise, a joint venture between Walker & Dunlop and GeoPhy, delivers USPAP/FIRREA multifamily appraisals. It covers more than 40 states and is targeting nationwide coverage by the end of the year.
Dominium Announces 10% Workforce Expansion
Dominium, a leading affordable housing owner, developer, and manager, has pledged to increase its workforce by 10% through its ALL IN For Hiring Talent initiative. Firm officials said they will hire more than 120 new employees, all with immediate start dates. The new roles will exist across the 22 states where Dominium has operations.
“We’ve seen firsthand through our residents how challenging the pandemic has been,” said Dominium managing partner Paul Sween. “We think increasing employment is a critical thing to do to support both families and the country’s economic recovery.”
Dominium is hiring caretakers, maintenance technicians, leasing consultants, community managers, and groundskeepers among other positions.
