Sheridan Announces Retirement

Patrick Sheridan will retire next year after a distinguished career in affordable housing.

Executive vice president for housing at Volunteers of America (VOA), he is planning to retire next August after 43 years in affordable housing and community development.

Patrick Sheridan
Patrick Sheridan

At VOA, he’s helped steer the organization’s housing efforts and build key developments across the country. The nonprofit is one of nation’s largest owners of affordable housing with roughly 21,000 units for low-income families, seniors, veterans, and others.

Previously, Sheridan was assistant deputy administrator for multifamily housing for the Rural Housing Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he was responsible for the implementation and management of the agency’s affordable multifamily housing programs. He also served as director of housing management at the Maryland Community Development Administration of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

Sheridan’s influence goes beyond the jobs he’s held. He’s served on the boards of the National Affordable Housing Trust, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, the National Housing Conference, and the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association. He has also been a longtime member of Affordable Housing Finance’s editorial advisory board.

McCormack Baron Salazar Appoints Senior-Level Executives

McCormack Baron Salazar (MBS) has named two senior-level executives in St. Louis, expanding the company’s expertise in innovative and transformative urban development.

Joseph Weatherly has been appointed senior vice president of development. With 18 years of experience in housing development and finance, he will lead business development, strategically building the firm’s national project pipeline.

He is relocating to St. Louis from Washington, D.C., where he has spent the past 17 years developing affordable and mixed-income properties locally and nationally for both for-profit and nonprofit development companies.

Jennifer Gontram has been named vice president of finance. Gontram will work in the development finance division, where she will structure and underwrite mixed-finance and low-income housing tax credit investments.

Previously with U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., Gontram is a St. Louis native with over 13 years of experience in development tax credit finance. She is a founding member of the Missouri Workforce Housing Association.

MBS is a leading developer, manager, and asset manager of economically integrated urban neighborhoods. Started in St. Louis in 1973, the firm has been an innovator of community development and urban revitalization in 47 cities, having built more than 22,000 high-quality homes for families, children, seniors, and veterans with total development costs of $4.2 billion.

Vesta Corp. Names Vice President

Robert Cuttle has been named vice president of Vesta Corp., a leading real estate firm specializing in redevelopment and management of multifamily affordable housing communities. In his new role, he will be responsible for property management operations of 47 properties and nearly 8,000 units in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and South Central regions.

Robert Cuttle
Robert Cuttle

Cuttle recently served as executive vice president at Trinity Management, where he was responsible for operational oversight of a portfolio of 7,800 affordable, market-rate, and commercial units in the Northeast.

He has more than 30 years of experience and is involved in the Institute of Real Estate Management. He is a past president of the Rhode Island chapter and served as a regional vice president for the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island chapters.

Since 2012, Vesta has more than doubled its size and has more than 250 employees.

Regions Adds to Affordable Housing Group

Andrew Blumetti has joined Regions Affordable Housing’s originations group as senior vice president, relationship manager, for parts of the Northeast region. He will work out of Regions’ New York office.

Blumetti will focus on sourcing and originating affordable housing transactions from New England through parts of the Mid-Atlantic region.

Andrew Blumetti
Andrew Blumetti

Previously, he served as managing director at The Bank of New York Mellon, where he was responsible for relationship management, originations, underwriting, and asset management of both debt issuances and LIHTC equity investing within the bank’s real estate division. Prior to that role, Blumetti was a senior client manager and vice president at JP Morgan Chase. Earlier in his career, Blumetti was a practicing architect for seven years specializing in multifamily and resort development.

Regions Affordable Housing is a national LIHTC fund syndication firm and a leader in affordable housing. Regions Bank is one of the nation’s largest participants in affordable housing finance through the LIHTC program and provides comprehensive real estate banking and capital management services to meet the debt and equity capital needs of developers and investors

Westbeth Artists Housing Names Leader

Ellen F. Salpeter has been appointed the first president and CEO of Westbeth Artists Housing in New York City.

Grace Roselli

She recently served as director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, where she oversaw the completion and opening of the museum’s acclaimed new permanent home in the city’s Design District. Her appointment to the new leadership position at Westbeth anticipates the institution’s 50th anniversary in 2020 and signals its ambition to play an even more vital role in New York’s ever changing cultural landscape.

Located in Greenwich Village, Westbeth provides affordable live-work space for artists and affordable space for nonprofit arts groups in New York City at its historic site at the former Bell Laboratories campus. Designed by architect Richard Meier, the site was converted into 384 live-work studios, along with commercial spaces including an art gallery, artists’ studios, and courtyard. It was the first and largest public and privately financed conversion of an industrial complex into housing for artists in the United States.

The Annex Group Expands Team

Joella Kudjoe has joined The Annex Group as an accountant. In this role, she is responsible for managing day-to-day financial information for the company with a specific focus on accounts payable.

Joella Kudjoe
Joella Kudjoe

Kudjoe brings over nine years of accounting experience to the post. Previously, she served as an account specialist for a promotional products and services company where she oversaw all accounting processes and financial duties.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, The Annex Group is a leading student and affordable housing developer with a focus on providing innovative, amenitized housing in emerging markets throughout the United States. The Annex Group has a portfolio of communities valued at more than $250 million.

DCHFA Announces Promotion

Jeff Cooper has been promoted to vice president of portfolio and asset management at the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA). In this role, he will organize and direct the activities of the portfolio and asset management department. In addition, he will oversee the operations of all associated activities pertaining to the construction, compliance, and the physical and financial monitoring of the agency’s multifamily portfolio.

Jeff Cooper
Jeff Cooper

Cooper joined DCHFA in December 2017 and has more than 20 years of experience in the multifamily/residential finance arena. Earlier in his career, he served as the chief of asset management for the Howard County Housing Commission and vice president and senior asset manager for Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital.

VCCDC Names Fund Development Director

Jill Shaffer has joined the Ventura County (Calif.) Community Development Corp. (VCCDC) as its new fund development director. She brings 35 years of nonprofit leadership experience to the role.

Jill Shaffer
Jill Shaffer

Shaffer has an extensive background in leadership and fund development having worked with several nonprofit organizations, including the YMCA, the Ventura County Leadership Academy, and Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County. She serves as a longtime member of the Ventura Downtown Lions Club and was recently honored with a prestigious Melvin Jones Fellowship.

Since 2001, VCCDC has worked to empower families through education and homeownership. It has originated over $118 million in mortgage loans, provided more than $7 million in downpayment assistance, provided education and one-on-one coaching to over 14,000 families and invested more than $9 million in community revitalization through its acquisition and rehab program. VCCDC is a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and a housing counseling agency approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.