Boston Opportunity Zones Summit

Jacquetta Van Zandt, former campaign advisor for Mayor Yvonne Spicer of Framingham, now serves as Senior Advisor to Dr. Spicer, the first female African-American elected Mayor in the history of the Commonwealth. Born and raised in Boston, Jacquetta honed her political skill set on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. as well as various state and federal campaigns, and has become a respected voice at the table to aid in making significant decisions that impact communities of color. She continues working to bring about equal opportunities for women of color by casting a light on issues such as wage inequality, financial literacy, socioeconomic development, women’s empowerment, and a more diverse legislature.

Laura L. Canter is executive vice president and division director for the Finance Programs Division. Reporting to Ms. Canter are the Economic Development Lending, Investment Banking, Community Development and New Markets Tax Credit practices. The division serves governmental entities, private and public businesses, and nonprofit organizations with alternative financing products. Ms. Canter joined MassDevelopment in 1996. Prior to that, she was employed by State Street Bank and Trust Company, where she represented the interests of bondholders of distressed and bankrupt companies. She negotiated the workout and restructuring of more than $1 billion in publicly and privately placed debt. She holds an undergraduate degree in communications from Emerson College and a M.B.A. in finance from Bentley College. She a director of the Council of Development Finance Agencies and a former director of the Melrose Housing Authority.

Mr. Gronning is a Partner of Normandy and co-founder of the Normandy Real Estate Funds. Prior to Normandy, he held the position of Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley’s real estate investing division. During his 12 years at Morgan Stanley, he was responsible for a $13 billion asset portfolio that served more than 100 clients. He was also instrumental in raising over $2.6 billion in capital for the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds (MSREF) and integrating the Lend Lease real estate investment business into the company. Mr. Gronning, a Certified Public Accountant, earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business/Accounting from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Troy has 15 years of experience in audit and consulting, with a particular emphasis in real estate and financial services reporting, in accordance with US GAAP, IFRS, NCREIF PREA Reporting Standards and income tax basis. He is also an expert in accounting for asset acquisitions and complex leases and specializes in various tax-advantageous, in particular Opportunity Zones and government subsidized deal structures. Troy’s financial services background involves audits of private equity funds, which hold equity or debt interests in a variety of industries including technology, consumer products, personal services, real estate and renewable resources. His expertise includes complex valuations, mezzanine and first lender analysis, as well as, the evaluation of options. In 2018, Troy was selected as a senior analyst in RSM’s cutting edge Industry Eminence Program, which positions its senior analysts to understand, forecast and communicate economic, business and technology trends shaping the industries RSM serves. These senior analysts advise clients on conditions impacting middle market leaders. Troy’s focus is on the real estate industry.

Gilbert J. Winn is the Chief Executive Officer of WinnCompanies, an award-winning national multifamily development and management company dedicated to the highest standards of excellence. The company owns or manages real estate holdings valued at approximately $14 billion across the United States, including affordable, senior, mixed-income, market rate, military and mixed use properties. Founded in 1971 and headquartered in Boston, WinnCompanies is the nation’s fifth largest multi-family housing manager and its largest manager of affordable housing. Mr. Winn plays a leadership role in the creation, planning, implementation and integration of the strategic vision and growth of WinnCompanies on behalf of nearly 3,000 employees working in 22 states and the Disrict of Columbia. As CEO, Mr. Winn oversees three affiliates: WinnDevelopment, the company’s property development arm; WinnResidential, which manages multi-family communities; and WinnReisdential Military Housing Services, which manages privizated military housing. Prior to joining WinnCompanies, he was an Associate at Related Capital Company, a full-service real estate investment company based in New York City, where he originated and implemented more than $150 million of equity investments. Mr. Winn graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, earning a Bachelor of Arts studying History and Psychology.

Karen E. Kelleher is Executive Director of LISC Boston, which works with community organizations and residents to driving housing affordability and building strong, inclusive communities. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation is a national nonprofit organization and community development financial institution. LISC Boston brings deep local roots and the resources of a national organization to its work financing affordable housing and economic development, building community capacity and providing policy leadership and technical assistance in greater Boston and throughout Massachusetts. Before joining LISC, Kelleher served as Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (“MassHousing”), where she led a reinvention of the agency’s multifamily loan programs and policies, resulting in record lending volume and record levels of affordable housing preservation. Kelleher also led MassHousing’s rollout of several new programs, including its $100 million Workforce Housing Fund and, together with DHCD, a $100 million fund to preserve affordability for very low-income residents of at-risk Section 13A properties. Finally, she oversaw approximately $1 billion of single family lending to low- and moderate-income borrowers and launched MassHousing’s down-payment assistance program for first-time homebuyers. Kelleher also served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of The Community Builders, Inc. (“TCB”), a Boston-based nonprofit developer that transforms communities through housing development and community investment. While at TCB, Kelleher worked extensively on complex development transactions and building effective programs to leverage greater community impact, including tax credit investment funds, a neighborhood stabilization loan program, and TCB’s initial new markets tax credit allocation. She previously practiced affordable housing law at Nixon Peabody LLC and served as program counsel for Community Planning & Development programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Kelleher started her career as a teacher at Nativity Preparatory School, a middle school serving boys from low-income families living in Boston neighborhoods. Kelleher earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston College and her J.D. from Georgetown University. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute (Public Private Partnerships Product Council), Real Estate Finance Association, Massachusetts Bar, Boston Bar Association (former chair of Affordable Housing Committee), Real Estate Bar Association, and the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development. She has previously served on the investment committee of the Healthy Neighborhoods Equity Fund, and the boards of Nativity Preparatory School and the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Quaker Lane Capital is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE certification pending) founded by Carlos Febres-Mazzei, a Philadelphia native and longtime Boston resident. Carlos is a lifelong real estate professional, having spent the last 12 years raising debt and equity capital for real estate developers and institutional investors while at Eastdil Secured, CBRE, and HFF. He has over $19 Billion in total transaction experience in across the United States, most recently in Boston, Cambridge, San Francisco, and Seattle. Quaker Lane is focused on real estate investment, adaptive re-use of existing assets, and ground-up development of new product in urban locations in proximity to metro Boston and Philadelphia The newly created Opportunity Zone program offers a catalyst for more substantial and long-term investment in certain census tracts that are in need of entrepreneurial activity and job growth. Carlos has a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture with a focus in Urban Planning, and a full-time MBA, magna cum laude, from Babson College. He was awarded the Boston Business Journal “40 under 40” in 2012 and Urban Land Institute’s Global “40 under 40” in 2014.

Nick Ratti is a principal with CohnReznick’s Project Finance Consulting Practice in Boston, Massachusetts. He has more than 15 years of experience in the tax credit industry. Nick is currently responsible for developing and evaluating tax credit syndication structures, providing tax compliance advice, evaluating tax credit recapture or tax-loss reallocation issues, strategizing post compliance period exits and providing syndication advisory services. Nick has extensive experience structuring a wide range of Historic, Low-Income Housing, and New Markets tax credit and Opportunity Zone transactions for his developer and investor clients. Additionally, Nick is a frequent speaker at national conferences and seminars including but not limited to; CohnReznick New Markets Tax Credit Summit, National Housing and Rehabilitation Association, American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development, IPED Annual Historic Tax Credit Summit and the New Jersey Governor’s Conference. Education  Providence College: Cum Laude, Bachelor of Science, Accounting and Finance Professional Affiliations  Preservation Massachusetts, Executive Committee and Chair of LLC Committee  National Housing & Rehabilitation Association

Mr. Upton provides management leadership in the areas of acquisition, entitlement, finance, design and construction, third-party negotiations, administrative services and marketing and operations liaison. Mr. Upton has over 35 years of experience at the senior level management of integrated disciplines of real estate development process primarily related to office, retail, large public-occupancy, and residential product types. Over his career, he has completed well in excess of $2 billion of completed projects in both urban and suburban locations. In the past, Mr. Upton has held leadership positions with The Rouse Company, Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, Delaware North Companies, Huizenga Holdings, the San Antonio Spurs, EA Fish Associates and the Winn Development Company. As a partner in Upton + Partners, Mr. Upton recently completed an assignment as the Director of Project Development and Construction for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston American Wing expansion program in Boston and Arlington 360 in Arlington, Massachusetts. Mr. Upton is a graduate of Williams College, the Yale School of Art and Architecture and graduate-level real estate programs at Harvard University. He holds memberships with the American Institute of Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Board, the National Association of Industrial Office Parks, and the Urban Land Institute. He is a former trustee of the New England Home for Little Wanderers, Boston and the Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts.

Karl F. Seidman is an economic development consultant and Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His MIT courses have completed over 100 technical assistance projects for development finance organizations, 20 economic development plans, and 12 Main Street revitalization plans, including award-winning revitalization plans for New Orleans’ St. Claude Avenue and Boston’s Bowdoin Geneva, Hyde Park, Egleston Square, and Hyde-Jackson Square commercial districts. He previously served as Deputy Director and Chief Financial Officer for MassDevelopment, a state agency that finances and manages redevelopment projects. His experience includes the preparation of economic development and commercial district plans and strategies, the design, management, and evaluation of development finance and economic development programs, and the financing and supervision of complex development projects. Mr. Seidman’s accomplishments include: -Building a $120 million state real estate finance and development authority -Preparing over 25 local and regional economic development plans -Completing feasibility studies, market analyses, financing packages, and marketing plans for multiple development projects -Authoring laws that established two Massachusetts business finance agencies -Participating in national evaluations of federal and foundation economic and community development programs. An active leader in the economic development field, he is a founding director of the Boston Main Streets Foundation, a Past President of the Northeastern Economic Developers Association(NEDA) and former board member of the Council for Urban Economic Development (now IEDC). Mr. Seidman holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Amherst College. He is the author of Coming Home to New Orleans: Neighborhood Rebuilding After Katrina, Economic Development Finance (a comprehensive textbook for the field), Revitalizing Commerce for American Cities: A Practitioner’s Guide to Urban Main Street Programs, and numerous consulting reports.