Detroit Opportunity Zones 101

Matt Temkin is a managing member of North Coast Capital, and a founding member of North Coast Partners. At North Coast Partners, Matt built a framework for sourcing, acquiring, improving and managing multi-family properties in Detroit, developing an extensive network of contacts within the City, and a robust pipeline of development projects for North Coast Capital. Matt is also a founding member of the Opportunity Zone Early Movers Coalition assembled earlier this year by the Economic Innovation Group, and in that capacity has been working closely with the leading lawyers, accountants, investors and operators in the emerging Opportunity Zone space. The Coalition has been identifying statutory gaps and regulatory needs, advising the United States Department of the Treasury on draft regulations, and working to develop best practices for Opportunity Fund investment and fund management. Prior to founding North Coast, Matt practiced law with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in New York. Matthew earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School, and his B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Daniel Cousino has practiced commercial real estate law in Chicago, Detroit, and nationally for over a decade. In 2016, he founded Cousino Law to focus on representing and advising a distinctive collection of developers, owners, investors, and funds in large-scale, innovative, and particularly complex real estate transactions outside of the confines of a traditional law firm model. Since early 2018, Dan and his team have worked closely with developers, fund managers, and their investors to develop organizational structures and documentation to fully benefit from the Opportunity Zone legislation. Dan participates in the Opportunity Zone Early Movers Coalition formed last year by the Economic Innovation Group, which works to provide guidance to the US Treasury with respect to pending regulatory codifications aimed at clarifying and enhancing the sparse statutory framework. Dan was previously a partner at Honigman LLP in Detroit and an associate at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Chicago, and he earned a his law and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Michigan.

Mark J. Bennett is Managing Director of MJBennett, PLLC, an affiliate of Pappas Financial and The Enterprise Securities Company. Mark is an entrepreneur, attorney and FINRA-registered securities professional with 30+ years of experience in structuring, financing and executing sophisticated transactions with an emphasis in real estate and technology. Since 2015, Mark has been involved in the placement of more than $100 million of direct real estate equity financing in the City of Detroit and surrounding suburbs for six new multi-family construction and significant rehab developments consisting of more than 1,100 units, and a cumulative project value in excess of $275 million. Five of these investments involved Qualified Opportunity Funds under the new Opportunity Zone legislation. Mark has started five venture capital backed companies and partnered with others to raise more than $100 million in equity from private equity funds, corporate venture funds, individual accredited investors, family offices and venture capital firms, including Bain Capital. While in law school, Mark founded Toxicheck, which later merged with Environmental Data Resources Inc., the leading national environmental information services company and owner of the largest Sanborn Map Collection, which helps the real estate industry manage environmental risk and liability. Mark practiced law at Miller Canfield and has extensive legal experience in real estate, environmental, renewable energy and economic development incentives at the federal, state and local levels. At Miller Canfield Mark established the firm’s Climate Change Practice, where he participated in creating Michigan’s PACE enabling legislation. Thereafter, he co-founded Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, a national PACE building energy benchmarking and underwriting technology platform. Mark is a Member of the State Bar of Michigan and the Finance Committee of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and the United Jewish Foundation. He has published more than 40 articles and made numerous public appearances in a variety of market areas. He earned his BS in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa from Michigan State University, and his JD from the Wayne State University Law School.

Gordon Goldie is one of the leaders of Plante Moran’s Housing and Community Development Solutions Group. He has 31 years of experience primarily focused on providing tax consulting services to the real estate industry. He spends virtually 100% of his time assisting both profit and non-profit clients that are involved in real estate development projects involving tax incentives such as historic tax credits, New Market Tax Credits, Opportunity Zones, and Brownfield redevelopment incentives. He assists clients nationwide in identifying available tax incentives and structuring transactions to optimize the net benefit of the incentives while ensuring compliance with all applicable tax law requirements.

Mac is Senior Vice President of Originations for Mag Mile Capital, a Real Estate Investment Bank headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York, Orlando, Metro Detroit, Houston and Dallas. With a dual-presence in the Detroit area and Chicago, Mac’s expertise lies in originating construction, bridge, and permanent financing for developers and owners of office, retail, hospitality, self-storage, industrial and multifamily properties nationwide. Over the course of an eleven-year career, Mac has sourced, underwritten, originated and/or closed real estate transactions with total capitalizations in excess of $800 million. Over that time period, he has developed a reputation as a trusted advisor and tireless advocate for his clients, and he is a frequent panelist and author within real estate and capital markets circles. Before joining Mag Mile in 2017, Mac led Bank of America’s Midwest SBA platform, overseeing SBA 504 and 7(a) lending. Prior to that position, he worked for Birmingham, Michigan-based ValStone Partners, a private equity fund focused on alternative sectors including distressed debt, direct real estate development, and related special situations. During his time with ValStone, Mac served on the fund’s investment team that acquired a $75 million portfolio from publicly-traded Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), serviced a portfolio of performing and non-performing loans, managed 2,000+ units of senior housing, and worked closely with senior management and other stakeholders in the active repositioning of several real estate developments. He started his commercial real estate career in the credit area of SomerCor 504, Inc., a Certified Development Company and one of the largest issuers of SBA 504 paper in the country. When he left SomerCor in 2015, he was the lead originator on a team that was routinely named the largest government guaranteed lender in Chicago. Mac holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado, and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with concentrations in Finance and Economics. Either directly or through the firm, he is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), Urban Land Institute (ULI), the National, Michigan, and Illinois Self-Storage Associations, the Real Estate Investment Association of Chicago, the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce, and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.

David Dubensky is Chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Land Development (Ford Land), the real estate arm and wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Ford’s real estate portfolio consists of manufacturing, research and development, distribution and office properties. Appointed to this leadership role, Dubensky has global responsibility for real estate, engineering and construction, energy and sustainability, global design, facility management services workplace experience, and corporate services for Ford Motor Company. Under his leadership the Ford Land skill teams operate according to common processes and standards used across the world for facility construction, maintenance, and workplace experience. Prior to taking the helm at the Ford Land, Dubensky was President & Managing Director, Ford Motor Private Limited, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company with responsibility for Ford’s global business services operation headquartered in Chennai, India. Dubensky was formerly Director Corporate Strategy, Mazda Motor Corporation, Hiroshima Japan. Dubensky began his career at Ford Motor Company and has served in Ford's operations globally in various general management, finance, strategy, analytics, automotive credit operations and audit roles for the last 25 years - across the United States, Mexico and Japan. Born and raised in southeast Michigan, Dubensky earned a bachelor’s degree in Human Relations, and a master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Michigan State University. While in Chennai, Dubensky championed various social and civic programs within the community, led employee engagement programs and diversity initiatives. As chairman and CEO of Ford Land, Dubensky continues to champion similar initiatives and mentors many of Ford’s next generation managers.

Sarah has overseen the procurement or provision of public support to leverage over $2.5 billion of private investment in mid-western cities. In her most recent role, she directed the team at the DEGC responsible for attracting and facilitating development in Detroit. As a Detroit resident herself, Sarah is personally invested in the city’s revitalization. She has completed several historic renovations in the city’s North End and serves on the board of Central Detroit Christian CDC. She earned a BA from Wheaton College in International Relations; a Masters in Urban Planning and a Real Estate Development Certificate from the University of Michigan

Matt Reilein is the President and CEO of National Equity Fund, Inc. (NEF). NEF is one the nation’s leading nonprofit syndicators of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and a major lender and investor to support the creation and preservation of affordable housing. He leads a team of 170 industry experts who work to create and preserve affordable housing across the country. Previously, Matt was Managing Director of Community Development Banking at JPMorgan Chase. Matt is Board Chair of the Chicago Community Loan Fund, and serves on the Boards of the Metropolitan Planning Council and the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Ms. Galbraith Kohn is a Senior Vice President within CBRE’s Investment Properties/Institutional Properties. With over 25 years of commercial real estate experience, Ms. Galbraith Kohn is widely recognized as one of the area’s leading investment professionals. Focusing her efforts on advising clients on the acquisition and disposition of office, retail and industrial properties, Ms. Galbraith Kohn’s extensive client base includes insurance companies, advisors, REITs, developers, private equity groups, lenders, special services and major corporations. Throughout her career, Ms. Galbraith Kohn has successfully sold over 16.0 million square feet valued in excess of $3.5 billion. Prior to joining CBRE, Ms. Galbraith Kohn was a Director with Cushman & Wakefield. Ms. Galbraith Kohn received her B.A. from Michigan State University and M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. She is an active member with Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).