People on the Move

CPC Appoints NYC Affordable Housing Leader to its Board

New York—The Community Preservation Corp. (CPC), a mortgage lender for multifamily affordable housing, announced the appointment of Felice Michetti to its board. An established leader in affordable housing, Michetti is currently chairperson and CEO of Grenadier Realty Corp.

Prior to joining Grenadier, Michetti devoted more than 20 years to public service. Beginning her career in NYC government as a city planner, she later moved to the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where she quickly rose through the ranks, holding successively senior level positions culminating in her appointment as commissioner. As housing commissioner, Michetti was responsible for developing and implementing NYC’s unprecedented $5.1 billion 10-Year Housing Program. This nationally acclaimed initiative successfully refocused the City’s housing efforts from a historical reliance on federal programs to the creation of the largest locally funded and administered housing program in the nation. She has also served as President of the NYC Housing Development Corp. A summa cum laude graduate of Fordham University and the Fordham University School of Law, she is an attorney and admitted to the New York Bar.

Oak Grove Capital Welcomes Ken Bowen as Senior VP

St. Paul, Minn.—Oak Grove Capital, a national provider of real estate financial services, has announced that Ken Bowen has joined the St. Paul-based lender as a senior vice president, focusing on new loan originations for the company’s market-rate multifamily debt platform.

Prior to joining Oak Grove Capital, Bowen was president of Red Mortgage Capital, where he spent 18 years focused on multifamily and seniors housing production. His experience includes a wide variety of roles, such as chief underwriter, head of multifamily production, and member of the Loan Committee and Asset Management Committee. Bowen has also served on Fannie Mae’s Affordable Housing Forum, Chief Underwriter’s Forum, and various working groups assisting Fannie Mae in new product developments and enhancements. Before moving to Columbus, Ohio in 1995, Bowen spent two years as chief lending officer of a savings bank in New York City that focused on commercial real estate lending, and 10 years in the fee appraisal business, earning the MAI designation in 1990.

Uniondale, N.Y.—Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC announced the appointment of Kevin Hern as vice president. Hern is responsible for originating multifamily and healthcare loans nationwide utilizing Arbor’s entire product line, including FHA, Fannie Mae, CMBS, Bridge, Mezzanine and Preferred Equity. He is based in the company’s Boston office and reports to Ken Fazio, senior vice president, national production manager.

Hern brings more than 26 years of commercial real estate finance and asset management and disposition experience to Arbor. Most recently, he was a managing director/principal at Boston Capital Funding/FAC in Boston and New York, where he was responsible for all aspects of business development on a national level, including origination, underwriting, debt/equity placement and correspondent/client relationships with regard to commercial real estate.

Previous to Boston Capital Funding, Hern held the role of vice president, commercial real estate, at Southern New Hampshire Bank & Trust/Bank of New England. In this position, he was responsible for business development within the New England Region for real estate loans up to $25 million.

Hern has originated more than $468 million in commercial loans in his career. He also has experience as a workout manager and within capital markets.

WinnCompanies adds Worcester City Manager O’Brien

Boston—WinnCompanies, a real estate development and property management company, has hired Michael O’Brien as executive vice president.

O’Brien, who submitted his resignation as the city manager of Worcester, Mass., began his new role on Jan. 6, and will be responsible for corporate management, strategic planning, and financial and client relationships at WinnDevelopment and WinnResidential.

As chief executive in Worcester, O’Brien successfully implemented multiple programs to spur economic development and improve neighborhoods. Worcester is currently rated one of the safest communities in the country, among cities with a population of 100,000 or more, and is experiencing more than $1.3 billion in planned or current economic development activity.

In Worcester, O’Brien spearheaded “Buy Worcester Now,” a new private-public partnership between the city, banks, lending institutions, local companies, non-profit agencies, realtors and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to generate new market demand for all available housing options in Worcester and to assist qualified, responsible buyers in purchasing a home. He also established five Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Areas, each focused specifically on issues relative to housing, code enforcement, commercial storefront improvements and job training.

Also under his leadership, the $563 million CitySquare project led to the completion of a $50 million campus for the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, a new Hilton Garden Inn, the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, the Regional Justice Center, a 500-space parking garage at the historic Union Station and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park.

Mill Valley, Calif.—Thompson | Dorfman Partners LLC, a developer, owner and manager of multifamily real estate, announced that Laurence Pelosi has joined TDP | Bay Area Partners LLC, a Thompson | Dorfman company, as a partner. Pelosi will leverage his 15 years of experience to expand the firm’s capital market activities and new development opportunities in major markets located in high-growth, technology-driven markets in California. Pelosi joins new Partner Bruce Fairty at TDP | Bay Area Partners. Pelosi is a co-founder and remains involved with Hatch Today, a co-working space environment in San Francisco, and McKinley Realty Partners, which is focused on acquiring single-family rental housing and land development. Pelosi was most recently a director with RBC Capital Markets, where he was primarily responsible for public finance, infrastructure and public/private partnerships. Previously, he was an executive director at Morgan Stanley, where he focused on the firm’s residential investments throughout the western United States and he also served as Director of Acquisitions at Lennar Communities. Pelosi began his career as a real estate and land use attorney in San Francisco.

Thompson | Dorfman Partners currently has more than 1,200 residential units in its growing pipeline or under construction in the Bay Area. Thompson | Dorfman Partners, in a joint venture with Ares Capital, is constructing a mixed-use 81-unit luxury apartment and ground floor retail development at 2655 Bush Street in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights neighborhood. TDP also broke ground on Triton Pointe in Foster City, a mixed-use development that includes 43,000 square feet of office space, 8,000 square feet of retail and a 166-unit apartment building. Triton Pointe is being developed in concert with CityView.

“There is no question multifamily development has become overheated in certain markets and, even in the Bay Area, we have quite a lot of development in concentrated areas but, if you look at the overall supply/demand dynamic, there is still a long term imbalance. Not to say the market will not have some ups and downs, but if you build the right product in this market, the demand over the short and long term is extremely strong,” Pelosi tells MHN.