Joint Center Appoints Managing Director
Eric S. Belsky has been appointed managing director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Belsky has served as executive director of the Joint Center for 12 years and has held teaching appointments in urban design and public policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to his Harvard appointments, he led the Housing Finance and Credit Analysis Group at Price Waterhouse, LLP, and served as director of housing finance research at Fannie Mae and senior economist at the National Association of Home Builders.
Nicolas P. Retsinas, who has led the Joint Center since 1998, will continue to be affiliated as director emeritus and will join the faculty of the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses in housing finance and real estate in emerging markets.
MSHDA Announces Changes
Keith Molin is leaving as executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA). He plans to leave the agency Sept. 30 when his contract expires.
MSHDA's board named Gary Heidel, director of program policy and market research, as interim executive director. He has been with the agency for 25 years and has played a significant role in implementing key policies.
Molin will continue to work for the authority, including assisting with the transition, through September. He leaves after serving in the top post since 2008. He received the Detroit Housing Commission Phoenix Award at this year's Michigan Conference on Affordable Housing.
Introducing Vitus Group
Seattle-based Modern Realty, Inc., the parent company of Pacific Housing Advisors and Allied Pacific Development, has changed its name to Vitus Group.
Pacific Housing Advisors has become Vitus Financial Advisors, and Allied Pacific Development has changed its name to Vitus Development.
With offices in Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Hawaii, and San Diego and more than 60 properties across the country, “Pacific” no longer reflected the breadth of the company's work, according to officials.
Led by Managing Director Stephen Whyte, Vitus develops nationwide and serves as a consultant to other developers.
CHFA Names Director of Commercial Lending
Steve Johnson has been promoted to director of commercial lending at the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). He leads the agency's multifamily lending, low-income housing tax credit allocation, and small business lending teams.
Johnson has been with CHFA since 1996, starting as a business fi- nance loan officer. In 1999, he was promoted to manager of business lending production, where he grew CHFA's production from $10 million to more than $100 million annually.
He is vice chair of the Colorado Enterprise Fund and a board member of the national Council of Development Finance Agencies.
Vogt, Bowen Announce New Market Research Firms
Rob Vogt and Patrick Bowen, who were partners in VWB Research, have launched separate real estate market research firms.
Vogt has joined forces with Chip Santer to form Vogt Santer Insights. For the past decade, Santer has headed Santer Communities, an urban infill development company.
The new firm will provide a full range of market feasibility studies along with mapping and demographic services.
Bowen leads the newly created Bowen National Research, a real estate research and consulting firm with staff members from VWB.
NCR Appoints SVP
Jeffrey S. Wolf has joined National Church Residences (NCR) as senior vice president of philanthropy and COO of NCR foundations.
In this newly created role, Wolf is responsible for establishing a comprehensive donor-centered, long-range fund-raising program to support NCR's mission to provide housing and healthcare services to low- and moderateincome individuals and families.
For the past nine years, he was president of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges, a nonprofit that supports its 34-member private liberal arts colleges.
Wolf also served as vice president of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation.
