Community Housing Capital Names COO
Lisa Getter has been appointed chief operations officer at Community Housing Capital (CHC), a Community Development Financial Institution created to facilitate the creation and preservation of affordable housing.
She will oversee CHC’s operations and compliance as well as strengthen the organization’s mission through the management of its capital, systems, people, and processes.
Getter brings more than 25 years of experience in affordable housing finance. Most recently, she served as vice president of real estate programs at NeighborWorks America, where she led national efforts to align capital and technical resources with the most pressing housing needs of the NeighborWorks network. CHC provides financing capital to developers in the network.
Her career also includes leadership roles at Fannie Mae in the American Communities Fund, single-family, and multifamily mortgage businesses, where she built expertise across underwriting, asset management, business development, pricing, customer engagement, and credit risk. She also has experience in corporate philanthropy, having managed Fannie Mae’s highest capacity philanthropic partnerships. Earlier in her career, Getter served as an underwriter at the Community Preservation Corp.
Beacon Communities Announces Promotion
LeAnn Hanfield Curtin has been promoted to senior vice president, development, at Beacon Communities. She will lead the development team in the firm’s Boston corporate office and oversee affordable and mixed-income residential projects in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Curtin also joins the company’s senior leadership team.
With more than 15 years of experience in real estate and affordable housing, she has successfully managed the implementation of over 3,000 residential units across New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic. Her work spans complex adaptive-reuse projects, mixed-use new construction, and complex rehabilitations of existing housing. Since joining Beacon, she has led a portfolio acquisition that expanded Beacon’s footprint in New York state and secured financing for multiple large-scale projects throughout New England.
Belveron Names Partner
Josh Plattner, chief investment officer, has been named a partner at Belveron Partners. He will continue to oversee the firm’s investment activities.
A 17-year industry veteran, Plattner joined Belveron in 2020 as managing director of acquisitions and has been instrumental in originating, structuring, and managing the firm’s affordable and workforce housing investments nationally. His contributions include playing a leading role in organizing Belveron’s past two capital raises, the most recent of which closed with $350 million in equity commitments.
He is also responsible for opening the firm’s New York City office and developing a deep bench within Belveron’s investment team.
Belveron is a privately held real estate investment management firm focused on the preservation and creation of affordable housing assets. With a total asset valuation of approximately $4 billion and a portfolio of over 30,000 units in direct-owned and majority-controlled entities, the company is one of the largest owners of affordable housing in the United States.
Cassin & Cassin Welcomes Partner
William J. Meléndez Díaz has joined the Cassin & Cassin law firm as a partner, focusing on the representation of lenders in the financing of multifamily properties through the Freddie Mac Seller-Servicer and Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing programs, with an emphasis on affordable housing.
Meléndez recently served as associate general counsel at Freddie Mac, where he played a key role in shaping and executing legal and business strategy for a high volume of Targeted Affordable Housing transactions, including 4% and 9% low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) deals, tax-exempt loans, and preservation rehabs. He also spearheaded Freddie Mac’s first initiative to develop a custom artificial intelligence (AI) agent for its multifamily real estate legal department, with the goal to enhance legal productivity and to pave the way for broader AI adoption within the organization.
Earlier in his career, Meléndez practiced at the Ballard Spahr and Krooth & Altman firms.
Attorneys Join Dinsmore & Shohl Firm
Attorneys R. Wade Norris, partner, and Reginald J. Norris, associate of counsel, have moved their practice to the national law firm Dinsmore & Shohl.
Wade Norris, recently a partner at Norris George & Ostrow, is an expert in multifamily housing bond finance. With nearly five decades of experience, he has played a pivotal role in thousands of transactions totaling billions of dollars across the country. He is based in Dinsmore & Shohl’s Washington, D.C., office.
He played a major role in creating the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) 11(b) refunding program, served as the agency’s private consultant on bond refunding policy, and advised on the disposition of HUD’s multifamily mortgage portfolio. Norris was also a principal architect in the creation of the country’s leading bank private multifamily private placement programs, the Freddie Mac multifamily tax-exempt structure, and Fannie Mae’s M.TEB structure.
Reginald Norris has also joined the public finance practice and works out of the Denver office.
Public financial analysts Melissa Harvison and Quinn Bero also join in the move. The team has deep experience in the 4% LIHTC program, a vital tool for financing affordable housing. They specialize in structuring tax-exempt private-activity bond transactions that qualify for the 4% LIHTC, helping developers and housing authorities maximize equity and minimize financing costs. Their work includes navigating complex federal tax regulations, coordinating with underwriters and bond counsel, and crafting innovative structures that align with evolving market and regulatory conditions.
Public Finance Team Joins Robinson+Cole
Ryan L. George, Ethan Ostrow, and Catherine E. Woltering have joined the Robinson+Cole law firm as partners.
George and Ostrow will be based in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, and Woltering will be a member of the firm’s New York office. Together, they bring decades of experience in public finance and reinforce the firm’s strategic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Joining with the partners are associates Cassandra M. Pereda, Victor O. Carlo, and Matthew J. Hood; paralegals Isabelle Yourick, Rosaura Fox, and Grace Burt; and legal administrative assistant Nancy Parada. Collectively, the team offers national experience advising on municipal bond financings and related practice areas.
George has practiced in public finance for nearly 25 years, focusing on lender and underwriter counsel roles in private placements and public offerings of tax-exempt and taxable municipal bonds. His work centers on private-activity bond financings for affordable multifamily rental housing, student housing, and health care facilities.
Ostrow advises as underwriter, purchaser, and issuer counsel in tax-exempt and taxable bonds with a focus on multifamily affordable housing financing. His work spans public offerings and private placements involving credit providers such as Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Ostrow’s experience includes 4% LIHTC transactions and 501(c)(3) and essential function bonds.
Woltering focuses on affordable housing transactions. With over 15 years of experience, she advises clients on public finance matters, drawing on a background in litigation, securities, and bankruptcy. Her practice includes structuring and closing debt financings for institutional lenders, bond underwriters, placement agents, and developers, including transactions credit-enhanced by FHA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
Robinson+Cole has also welcomed Tina Bhanshali, who joins as counsel in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Bhanshali primarily represents loan servicers in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conventional and affordable, securitized and non-securitized, multifamily housing loan transactions.