NH&RA Tennessee Developers Symposium (2018)

Thom Amdur

Thom joined National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA) in 2004 and currently serves as its as Executive Vice-President and Executive Director. NH&RA is a national trade association and peer-network for affordable housing and tax credit developers and related professionals including: investors, lenders, public agencies and professional advisers. Thom directs the association’s day-to-day operations including legislative and regulatory advocacy, committee activities, conferences and events, publications, financial management and strategic planning.

Thom also serves as the Executive Director of the Tennessee Developers Council, a state-wide trade association for affordable housing developers and professionals active in Tennessee. In 2013 he spearheaded the launch of NH&RA's Preservation through Energy Efficiency Project, a major educational initiative supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Thom also serves on the Board of Directors for International Center for Appropriate & Sustainable Technology (iCAST) as well as the Advisory Board for its ResourceSmart program, a turn-key, cost-effective, green rehab provider for multifamily affordable and market-rate housing communities and nonprofit facilities.

Thom is a frequent speaker at affordable housing, sustainable development and tax credit industry events and has been published in a variety of industry journals including Tax Credit Advisor, Independent Banker, and the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credit Housing. Thom also serves as the Associate Publisher of Tax Credit Advisor, a monthly magazine for tax credit and affordable housing professionals and is an Executive Vice-President at Dworbell Inc., a boutique association management and communications firm in Washington, DC.

Thom was previously employed at a national lobbying firm focusing on financial services and technology issues. Prior to moving to Washington, Thom worked in media relations in the New York State Assembly and as a research assistant for New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen. Thom graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tufts University with a double major in Political Science and History.

Dwayne Barrett

Dwayne Barrett is a Member of Reno & Cavanaugh with a broad range of transactional experience on issues relating to affordable housing and federal and state tax issues, including: low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) developments, GO Zone tax credits, tax-exempt bond financing, tax increment financing, Affordable Housing Program (AHP) Funds, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, HOME funds, and mixed-finance transactions. His experience also includes drafting state legislation, structuring numerous joint ventures, and appeals of property tax matters.

Peter Bell

Peter Bell is President and CEO of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association, a 46 year old organization of real estate developers, lenders, equity investors, attorneys, accountants, nonprofit and public officials who are involved in the development, financing and operation of affordable housing under various federal, state and local housing programs. Mr. Bell has served as NH&RA's President and CEO since 1976. Mr. Bell is the owner and publisher of Tax Credit Advisor, a monthly magazine focused on real estate development utilizing various federal tax credits, including the low income housing tax credit, historic rehabilitation tax credit and the New Markets Tax Credit. Mr. Bell is also executive director of the Telluride Society for Jazz, a Colorado nonprofit organization that hosts the Telluride Jazz Festival, August 4-6 in 2017.

Michael Binette

Mike is a registered architect with more than 25 years of experience in coordinating and managing teams on complex projects in the multifamily, mixed use, postacute care and commercial markets. As partner, he has a value-based approach to design that seeks first to understand the client’s goals and then to identify strategic opportunities for greater return. Mike is a hands-on leader, and is involved in all facets of design – from masterplanning, space programming, design and planning to construction administration. His people management and organizational skills, combined with an extensive understanding of the construction process, he continually delivers projects efficiently and successfully. Mike’s award-winning work includes Arlington 360, and Bourne Mill Apartments, having earned recognition from the American Institute of Architects, the Boston Society of Architects, and the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association.

Amanda Bloomberg

Amanda is responsible for identifying, structuring and preliminary underwriting prospective federal/state HTC and NMTC investments. Prior to joining NTCIC, Amanda spent nine years at AEGON USA Realty Advisors in their Community Investment group where most recently she was an associate director originating, structuring and closing LIHTC and HTC transactions. She previously worked in their asset management department overseeing over 70 tax credit investments, representing approximately $1 billion in equity. Amanda earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Northern Iowa and is currently pursuing a Master of Science Degree in Real Estate and Infrastructure from Johns Hopkins University.

Dana Boole

Created in 1992 to help finance the development of affordable rental housing in North Carolina, CAHEC today is a nonprofit equity provider operating in ten southeastern and mid Atlantic states. Since the company's founding, CAHEC has raised and committed $2 billion toward the development of 29,000 units of affordable housing. Its core business is to provide tax credit capital to a variety of low-income housing, preservation, community revitalization, and renewable energy projects.

Dana Boole is the President and CEO and has been with CAHEC since 2001. His management responsibilities include (i) guiding CAHEC’s overall strategy and operations, (ii) accountability for CAHEC’s growth, furtherance of its non-profit mission and oversight of its financial condition, and (iii) provision of the leadership, vision and resources necessary to maintain the company’s strategic competitive advantage. His fund development responsibilities include (i) managing the company’s activities for low income, historic, new markets, and renewable energy tax credit investing, (ii) coordinating efforts to include multi investor and private label funds, and (iii) sourcing investors through a combination direct originations and broker relationships.

Mr. Boole received his bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Vermont and his M.B.A. in finance and strategy from the F. W. Olin School of Business at Babson College. He:
• currently serves as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council where he is (i) Chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Council and (ii) Co-Chair of the Legislative and Public Policy subcommittee, which provides advice to the Board of Directors regarding ways in which the Bank can enhance the effectiveness of its housing finance and community lending mission.
• recently served as a Class B Director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and was a standing member of its Human Resources and (Chair) Audit Committees.
• recently served as President of National Association of State and Local Equity Funds which has worked since 1994 to promote the efficient management of equity funds under the auspices of the low-income housing and new market tax credit programs.

Shane Branham

Shane D. Branham serves as the Director of Maintenance for WM&RE. Mr. Branham creates policies and procedures to ensure that the WM&RE property portfolio meets the highest physical standards and provides Service Technicians with guidelines to prevent, diagnose, and correct maintenance issues. Through communication with development and construction staff, improvements in design and construction are incorporated into future WM&RE communities. Mr. Branham was previously the Project Coordinator for Woda Construction, Inc. Prior to joining WM&RE, Mr. Branham was involved in construction management for Lifestyle Communities, Ltd. Mr. Branham graduated from The Ohio State University and holds a B.S. in Construction Systems Management.

Amy Broadwater

Amy Broadwater is a Partner in RubinBrown’s Real Estate Services and Tax Consulting Services Groups and leads the Nashville, TN Real Estate office.

In her role, Amy primarily serves real estate clients that develop or invest in Affordable Housing Tax Credit projects, historic rehabilitation projects, New Markets Tax Credit projects, renewable energy projects and real estate investment funds.

Brian Coffee

Kelan Craig

Kelan Craig is the Director Planning, Preservation and Development (PP&D) at the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), leading administration of the state’s low-income housing tax credit program, multifamily bond program and several gap financing programs. Prior to joining OHFA as Business and Project Administration Manager, he served as a Community Development Analyst at the Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA), working on compliance for several federal programs, including CDBG, HOME, CHIP, ESG, HOPWA, etc. Kelan also served as Housing Preservation Coordinator at the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), undertaking housing preservation program planning, implementation and evaluation as part of the Ohio Preservation Compact, a collaborative effort to preserve thousands of affordable housing units across the state. Before moving to Columbus, Kelan worked as a housing specialist at Freedom House, a homeless veteran's shelter in Portage County, Ohio and for the Portage County Regional Planning Commission. He completed two years of AmeriCorps service working closely with individuals served by the Portage County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Kelan earned a dual degree in Political Science and Economics from Kent State University and also holds Masters Degrees from Ohio State University in City and Regional Planning (MCRP) and Public Policy and Management (MPPM).

Donna Duarte

Jeff Englund

Jeff Englund is a Senior Managing Director for Greystone’s multifamily affordable housing finance platform. He is responsible for the oversight of affordable product lines within FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac agency lending programs and development of proprietary affordable housing lending products.

Jeff joined Greystone in 2005 to build a dedicated affordable housing finance team focused solely on low-income housing tax credit, tax-exempt bond and other affordable multifamily loan products designed to preserve this asset class nationwide.

Prior to joining Greystone, Jeff was part of the management team at Midland Companies/MMA Financial responsible for the credit underwriting of both the construction and permanent financing / equity on multifamily affordable housing projects with 9% LIHTC and Tax Exempt Bonds with 4% LIHTC equity.

Mr. Englund has over 20 years of multifamily affordable housing lending experience, received a B.A. from St. Cloud University majoring in commercial real estate and is a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser licensed in Minnesota and Florida.

Ted Fellman

Ted Fellman joined Raymond James in November 2012 and works with the National Housing Group, focusing on multifamily housing and relationships with state housing finance agencies . Previously, Ted spent 18 years with the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, where he served as the executive director for seven years. Ted earned an accounting degree from Tennessee Tech University and an MPA from Tennessee State University. He is a CPA, and is a registered Municipal Securities Representative (Series 52), a Registered Municipal Advisor (Series 50), and holds a Series 63 license in Tennessee.

Joyce Floyd

Tracey Glasscock

Tracey graduated from Brescia University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and is currently preparing to sit for her Certified Public Accounting license from the state of Kentucky. Tracey has a long history in the construction industry, having worked for a local Owensboro, Kentucky single family housing developer for 7 years and Clayton Watkins Construction Company for 10 years in the multi-family arena. Tracey has been with Wabuck Development Company for approximately 10 years working directly with the development’s collaborative planning, financial analysis and funding application process to help assure our development’s success. Tracey’s expertise in the construction and development process help assure that Wabuck Development Company stays at the top of its peer group.

Carr Hagan III

Carr Hagan is President of LHP Development, LLC and is responsible for overseeing all acquisition and development related activities for the company. Carr joined the company in 2002 after beginning his career in the affordable housing field as a Vice President of First Tennessee Housing Corp. Prior to taking over as President of LHP Development, he served as Senior Vice President and Director of Development for LHP’s predecessor, Lawler Wood Housing Partners, LLC, playing a key role in the company’s growth including development activities that accumulated 9,000+ units of multifamily holdings in eleven states with development costs totaling more than $600 million.

Carr is a member of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association Board of Directors as well as the Tennessee Housing Development Agency Multifamily Developers Advisory Board. He is a frequent speaker at NH&RA events and at other housing related forums. He served on the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of East Tennessee from 2006-2013, most recently as President from 2011-2013. Carr earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis.

Laurel Hart

Laurel L. Hart is Director of the Housing Finance and Development Division at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA). In this position, she manages several housing finance resource programs for the financing and/or development of both single family and multi-family affordable housing, including the Georgia Housing Credit Program, the DCA HOME Multi-family Program and the Community Housing Investment Program.

Mrs. Hart has a Juris Doctor from Chicago Kent College of Law. She is also a graduate of the Executive Development program at the University of Notre Dame.

Evan Holladay

Evan Holladay is the Development Director for LDG Development for multi-family affordable/workforce housing deals concentrating on Tennessee and Louisiana. To date, Evan has sourced and developed over $100 million, helping create 600+ units of new affordable housing. He’s worked in innovative financing – introducing and utilizing the first PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) in many jurisdictions, utilizing Renewable Energy Credits with LIHTC, and working with HOME, CDBG, Project Based Vouchers, and HUD 221d4 financing. Evan is an advocate for affordable housing and was recently featured in the book CRA at Forty: Views on the Present and Future of Community Reinvestment.

Bryan Hollander

Bryan Hollander is a director in the Syndication group at Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. He manages acquisitions activity, responsible for evaluating and bidding on multifamily affordable housing investments using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). He focuses primarily on sponsors based in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Southern Virginia, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Since joining Enterprise in 2011, Bryan has helped underwrite or secure approximately $500 million of Low-Income Housing and Historic Tax Credit equity investment in over 50 projects. Bryan has been involved with multifamily housing and development finance since 2007. Prior to joining Enterprise, he consulted developers, investors and local governments as an associate at the real estate analytics firm, RCLCO. Bryan holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, he served as a research assistant at the Center for Community Capital. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Ratliff Jeremy

Whitney LaNasa

Whitney LaNasa is the Director of the Tax Credit Services business line for Stonehenge Capital Company, a specialty finance company that provides transformational capital to communities across the country. She is responsible for overseeing tax credit origination, syndication and asset management for a wide variety of tax incentives, including but not limited to federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits, federal and state renewable energy tax credits, film, brownfield, low-income housing, mill and several other types of federal and state tax incentives. Prior to joining Stonehenge Capital in 2009, Ms. LaNasa was an attorney assisting clients in a wide variety of corporate, banking and regulatory matters. Ms. LaNasa received her joint JD and diploma in Civil Law from the Paul M. Hebert Law School at Louisiana State University and a Master of Laws in Taxation (LLM in Taxation) from the University of Alabama. In addition, Ms. LaNasa serves on the Board of Directors for the Historic Tax Credit Coalition and Preserve Louisiana.

Peter Lawrence

Peter Lawrence is Director of Public Policy & Government Relations for Novogradac & Company LLP. In this role, he coordinates the firm’s public policy and government relations work on low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), the new markets tax credit (NMTC), the historic rehabilitation tax credit (HTC), renewable energy tax credits, and U.S. Housing & Urban Development programs.

Prior to joining Novogradac & Company, Mr. Lawrence was the senior director of public policy and government affairs for Enterprise Community Partners where he led the execution of Enterprise’s policy and advocacy agenda. His primary issue responsibilities were tax (including advocacy on the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and the new markets tax credit programs as well as tax incentives to promote green and sustainable building), affordable housing preservation and rental housing policy.

While at Enterprise, he helped found the Affordable Rental Housing A.C.T.I.O.N. (A Call to Invest in Our Neighborhoods) Campaign, the big tent industry coalition bringing investors, syndicators, for-profit and nonprofit developers, and other LIHTC professionals in all 50 states together to advocate for the credit.

He has served on the board of directors of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, as well as the board of directors of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. Mr. Lawrence was also previously a legislative and policy associate at the National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA), focusing on the LIHTC, tax-exempt housing private activity bond programs, and government sponsored enterprises. Mr. Lawrence also was a housing policy analyst for the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities, where he worked on the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, a congressional fellow for Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island in his capacity as the Ranking Member of the Senate Housing and Transportation Subcommittee and a presidential management fellow for the Office of Policy Development & Research at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. In addition to his federal experience, he has served as an analyst for the affordable housing group of Chicago Metropolis 2020, and as an appointed member of the Interagency Taskforce on Homelessness of the city of Berkeley, Calif.

Ryan Lunderby

As Vice President and Project Partner, Ryan Lunderby is responsible for new project development, acquisition and financing. He is also responsible for analyzing new acquisition opportunities, determining project feasibility, overseeing design and construction, working alongside different partnership restructuring, and negotiating with lenders, investors and third party vendors.

Since joining Dominium in 2004, Mr. Lunderby has been involved with several acquisition/rehabilitation undertakings, as well as new construction and historic rehabilitation projects. Included in these projects is the re-syndication of Dominium's existing portfolio of original tax credit properties throughout the Midwest. Most recently, Mr. Lunderby has played an integral role in Dominium's growth into new markets through acquisitions of Year 15 tax credit properties and acquisitions of general partner interests from various financial institutions.

Since entering a production role with Dominium in 2010, Mr. Lunderby has closed on 40 properties totaling more than 5,000 apartment units.
Mr. Lunderby has a Bachelor’s degree in Real Estate Finance from St. Cloud State University. He is a member of the St. Cloud State Real Estate Alumni Association and Tennessee Developers Council.

Mr. Lunderby is a founding contributor to the Dominium Partners Charitable Fund which contributes to important housing and social service organizations in the communities where Dominium operates.

Andrea Ponsor

Andrea Ponsor leads policy efforts for Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, working with Congress, HUD, and other federal and state agencies to build support and remove barriers to the preservation and production of high-quality affordable rental housing.

Ms. Ponsor has 15 years of experience in the field of housing and community development and joined SAHF as Executive Vice President in 2016. SAHF's policy efforts promote efficient use of limited resources that support improved health, opportunity, and quality of life for low-income seniors, families, and disabled residents and more efficient use of energy and water in our members’ properties.

Prior to joining SAHF, Ms. Ponsor served as the Federal Policy Director for Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) where she led housing policy efforts. Previously she was a principal at Hessel, Aluise and Neun, P.C., a boutique law firm with a national affordable housing practice, where she represented lenders, developers and management agents in affordable housing transactions and policy matters.

Ms. Ponsor began her career as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Atlanta, GA where she focused on multifamily mortgage closings, property disposition, program enforcement and fair housing.

Ms. Ponsor holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Tulane University.

Mark Ragsdale

Trent Ridley

Rob Rotach

Rob Rotach, a VP Loan origination at Walker & Dunlop, specializes in the origination of multifamily loans through FHA/HUD, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Throughout his career, Mr. Rotach has been involved with the origination, underwriting, and closing of over $1 billion in total loan volume.

Previously, Mr. Rotach served as the deputy chief underwriter of the Walker & Dunlop FHA Finance group. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Rotach served as an AVP and senior FHA underwriter at Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital (formerly Reilly Mortgage).

Mr. Rotach earned his Bachelor of Science in financial economics from James Madison University.

Mark Straub

Darren Swanson

Darren Swanson is Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for Red Stone Equity Partners, where he is responsible for the origination, acquisition, financial underwriting, partnership structuring and syndication of tax credit investments throughout the Southeast. Darren has 12 years of experience in real estate finance, including commercial real estate and affordable housing lending and tax credit equity investing. Prior to joining Red Stone, Darren was a Senior Relationship Manager at Bank of America where he provided affordable housing developers with a variety of real estate secured loans, tax credit equity investments and other bank products and services. Darren received a Bachelor of Science in Biology, with a pre-med concentration, from Appalachian State University and holds Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Bradley Sweazy

With a career spanning more than 25 years in the housing industry, Bradley R. Sweazy serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the Louisiana Housing Corporation. Under his leadership, the LHC restored the homebuyer program that had been offline for 18 months and earned over $2 million in profits its first year. Brad was also instrumental in created the corporation’s first statewide homebuyer counseling program.

Brad has a passion for serving the community, and believes that by
building strong public-private partnerships we can make positive forward progress to improve housing, strengthen communities, and ultimately changes lives.

Dave Urban

Dave Urban currently serves as Director – Gulf Coast Region with RBC’s Tax Credit Equity Group, with a focus on originations activity in the Gulf Coast, Southeast and Illinois. He originally joined the group in 1998 and has worked on acquisitions and origination activity during his tenure. Cultivating relationships with both for-profit and not-for-profit developers, Dave has
closed on real estate equity transactions in more than 20 states, including Puerto Rico. Prior to joining RBC, Mr. Urban had over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance. He worked for TravelCenters of America in Cleveland, performing operations and budget analysis on over 85 locations, and assisted in determining the profitability of potential acquisitions.

Since joining RBC, he has worked closely with developers to close on a broad range of projects and providing assistance in securing construction and permanent financing, as well as developing and maintaining several long-term developer relationships. Mr. Urban has also worked closely with several state and local tax credit agencies and assisted in the development and servicing of equity investor relationships. A 1997 MBA graduate of Baldwin-Wallace University, Mr. Urban's background includes experience as a Controller and International Controller.

Ben Van Kleef

Ben is the Vice President of Legal and Tax for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority where he is general counsel and manages the allocation of LIHTCs. He has been with the agency since 2015. An Arkansas native, he received his bachelor's degree in International Relations at the University of Arkansas and his juris doctorate at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Cody Wilson

Cody Wilson is a Managing Director with Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia. With over 13 years of experience in municipal and corporate finance, Mr. Wilson has worked on over $5 billion of municipal finance transactions, primarily in the multifamily housing, senior housing and student housing sector. Mr. Wilson has worked on virtually every major type of multifamily housing bond financing, including various conduit financing structures, 501(c)(3) bond financings, private placements, FHA/GNMA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other credit-enhanced deals. Prior to joining Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Mr. Wilson worked for Anderson Growth Partners, a hedge fund specializing in less efficient markets and alternative investments. Mr. Wilson is a frequent speaker at multifamily housing and tax-credit conferences across the United States. In addition, Mr. Wilson authors a weekly newsletter entitled The Weekly Wrap and authors a weekly online publication for National Housing & Rehabilitation Association entitled Economic and Fixed Income Insights. Mr. Wilson received his B.S.B.A in Finance and his M.B.A. from Troy University where he graduated with honors.