Mercy Loan Fund Announces President
Jason Battista will become president of the Mercy Loan Fund (MLF) on May 1.
He joined the organization in 2009 and was recently recognized with a 40 Under 40 award from the Denver Business Journal. Battista, 29, will become the youngest president of a business center at Mercy Housing.
In 2014, Battista worked on the capital-raising side of the MLF business, achieving the goal of Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka membership and giving the fund immediate access to nearly $4 million in low-cost investments by year-end with the opportunity for much greater capital availability in the future. He did this while leading the team to a record $30 million in lending.
Over the last five years, the MLF has financed almost $100 million in affordable loans leveraging $500 million in total projects.
Julie Gould, current MLF president, will be leaving in May to pursue her next career in urban planning and documentary photography in the Washington, D.C., area. She has been a part of Mercy Housing for the past 14 years. In her time with Mercy Housing and MLF, Gould has raised more than $50 million in new capital, increased total assets by 50%, received a coveted Community Development Financial Institutions award four years in a row, and completed the group’s first community health center deal.
Klein Hornig Expands Its Tax Credit Practice
The Klein Hornig law firm has expanded its tax credit practice with the hiring of three team members.
Steve Paul is a partner in the Boston office. He brings more than 35 years of experience providing tax and business advice, representing developers, syndicators, and investors using federal and state tax credits and other incentives to develop affordable housing, preserve historic buildings, and finance other projects in low-income communities. He was previously a partner and longtime chair of the Tax, Benefits & Compensation department at Boston’s Palmer & Dodge and its successor firms (most recently Locke Lord Edwards).
Kathryn Galbraith Day is senior counsel in Boston. She focuses her practice on federal and state income taxation, including work with tax-exempt entities. She represents developers, syndicators, and investors in federal and state tax credit transactions and also joins the firm from Locke Lord Edwards.
Benjamin Funk is an associate in Washington, D.C. He joins Klein Hornig from Volunteers of America, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit providers of affordable housing, where he served as assistant general counsel. Funk has broad affordable housing experience, including Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing and operational and compliance issues for nonprofit sponsors of affordable housing
WinnResidential Names CFO
Cynthia Tanner is the new CFO of WinnResidential, the property management arm of Boston-based WinnCompanies.
She also works closely with the WinnCompanies board of directors to develop business strategies that support the overall mission, goals, and objectives of the company. Additionally, Tanner will be responsible for the management and control of accounting, technology, purchasing, asset and risk management functions, business systems, and finance-related functions.
Tanner served for four years as the chief accounting officer at Bozzuto Management Co., a mixed-use and multifamily property management firm.
RJTCF Hires Industry Veteran
Kelly Henderson has been named vice president, director of acquisitions for the Northeast region, at Raymond James Tax Credit Funds. She will focus on property acquisitions, managing existing business, and cultivating relationships with developers and investors.
Henderson brings nearly 20 years of experience in the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) business, most recently as senior vice president of legal affairs at another national LIHTC syndicator, where her focus was on up-front structuring of complex transactions, reviewing tax related issues, and negotiating the business terms contained in the lower-tier partnership agreement with all developer clients. She also was a member of the firm’s investment committee helping to assess deal risk and providing appropriate mitigation services to protect investor interests during the acquisition process.
Enterprise Homes Announces Promotions
Christine Madigan has been promoted to executive vice president of development, and Edwin “Ned” Howe II has been promoted to vice president at Enterprise Homes.
Madigan joined Enterprise Homes in 2001 and has been responsible for all aspects of rental and for-sale communities serving seniors and families in the mid-Atlantic region. In addition to managing the development team, she is responsible for its apartment investment program.
Prior to joining Enterprise, Madigan led the mid-Atlantic regional office of MetLife Real Estate Investments.
Howe began his career at Enterprise Homes in 2007 and has been instrumental in bringing new development opportunities to the firm. Prior to joining Enterprise, he was vice president of land development for the Maryland division of Beazer Homes Corp., a national home builder.
Headquartered in Baltimore, Enterprise Homes has completed more than 5,600 affordable and market-rate homes and rental residences in communities throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Northern California Developer Hires Asset Management Director
Resources for Community Development (RCD) has hired Nick Griffin as director of asset management, responsible for RCD’s portfolio of more than 50 housing properties and a dozen commercial spaces throughout the Bay Area.
In addition to overseeing the work of the asset management team, Griffin’s responsibilities include capital planning, financial management, business planning, and property workouts for loan modification and refinancing. Griffin was previously a relationship manager with Bank of the West, where he originated and underwrote community development loans and investments funded with housing tax credits.
TCAM Expands Team
Kathleen Evans has become an asset manager at TCAM, a Boston-based firm that provides asset management and advisory services to owners and funders of affordable housing and renewable energy.
Evans joins the company from Recap Real Estate Advisors and the Cambridge Housing Authority. She has extensive experience modeling public housing redevelopment and rehabilitation transactions, including transactions involving participation in the Rental Assistance Demonstration. Evans also brings expertise in the public housing Moving to Work demonstration and policy issues with respect to the operation and recapitalization of public housing portfolios.
TCAM said the addition reflects the company’s growing list of clients in the Consulting and Advisory Services group. Clients include state housing agencies, local housing authorities, nonprofit and for-profit owner/developers, and equity investors.
Nixon Peabody Adds to Team
Edward J. Campbell has joined the affordable housing practice at Nixon Peabody. He is based in the firm’s Los Angeles office.
Campbell’s experience includes serving as in-house counsel to HUD in California and Washington, D.C., where he was involved in the federal department's legal decision-making on many levels.
He represents clients in the financing, development, construction, and asset management of residential, multifamily, health care, and mixed-used projects. Campbell has in-depth knowledge of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan products and has handled several of the largest and most complex FHA-insured projects in the country. Campbell was most recently an associate with Cox, Castle & Nicholson.
Affordable Housing Specialist Joins CBRE
Kevin Morris has become vice president in the capital markets team of CBRE. He works in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., office, where he focuses on affordable housing.
Morris joins CBRE from Marcus & Millichap, where he began his career in 1996 as one of the firm’s first Fort Lauderdale–based brokers. He eventually earned the title of vice president, investments, and associate director of the company’s National Multi-Housing Group, and was a Top 10 producer in the Fort Lauderdale office several times throughout his career.
In 2008, Morris began focusing on affordable housing,
including project-based Housing Assistance Payment deals, rural development,
and general partnership transfers for LIHTC properties.
Candeur Hires Director of Asset and Portfolio Management
Leah Wood has become director of asset and portfolio management at Candeur Group.
She has 10 years of real estate experience, including seven years in the affordable housing industry.
Prior to joining Candeur Group, Wood was vice president of asset management for Boston Financial, where she monitored 70-plus low-income housing properties and was a member of the Special Asset Management Team overseeing "high-risk" properties for the firm. She also spent two years in the Boston Financial Acquisitions Group, evaluating and underwriting potential LIHTC investments with a focus on the California markets.
Candeur is an investment banking firm for the affordable housing industry providing consulting, advisory, and investment services to affordable housing developers, syndicators, and investors.
Arbor Hires Director for FHA Business
Arbor Commercial Mortgage has hired Ben Truitt as director, FHA, in the company’s Denver office.
A 17-year commercial real estate finance veteran, he will be responsible for providing capital for the refinance, acquisition, and construction of multifamily housing and senior housing by utilizing Arbor’s FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and creative structured finance loan products, including bridge, mezzanine, and preferred equity funding options
Truitt began his commercial lending career as an originator with GMAC Commercial Mortgage. Since then, through various roles with GMAC, PNC Bank, Red Stone, AmeriSphere, and ACRE, his health care and multifamily financing expertise has continued to grow and includes a HUD Multifamily Accelerated Processing designation. In his career, Truitt has been involved with the origination or underwriting of $570 million in closed loans.
The Franklin Johnston Group Hires Analyst
Warren D. Harris II has joined The Franklin Johnston Group as a business analyst. He started with the firm as an operations intern in 2014.
Harris’ duties include assisting in the preparation of income statements and yearly operating budgets for properties across the portfolio, as well as performing market research across multiple business lines used for decision making by the executive team.
Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Va., The Franklin Johnston Group develops and manages multifamily rental residences in the senior, luxury, and affordable housing sectors. The company owns and manages approximately 10,000 units at 57 properties from Northern Virginia to Georgia.
