Registration Questions

Call: 202-684-2034
Email: eventregistration@bisnow.com

Request Speaker Information

Speaker Topics

Tell us a Little More

Speakers and Panels

Impact Investing Through Opportunity Zones

Understanding the program and identifying how to maximize investment and development to grow economies and build communities

Peter Nitze

Peter Nitze

President & CEO

Nitze-Stagen

Tim Shoultz

Tim Shoultz

CEO

SMARTCAP

Maiko Winkler-Chin

Maiko Winkler-Chin

Executive Director

Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority

Roger Valdez

Roger Valdez

Director

Seattle For Growth

Orla O’Connor

Orla O’Connor

Principal

KPMG

Jeff Schoenfeld
Moderator

Jeff Schoenfeld

CEO

J-Max Real Estate

Peter Nitze

President & CEO

Nitze-Stagen

As President & CEO, Peter oversees all aspects of Nitze-Stagen’s integrated real estate investment and property management activities, as well as its portfolio of properties located in the greater Seattle market, including the iconic SODO Starbucks Center. He brings 25 years of experience in the successful management and growth of companies at every stage of development to his current role. Peter is a co-founder of The Alliance for Safety, Affordability and Preservation (ASAP!), a cross-sector coalition of key stakeholders advocating for legislation to ensure the orderly upgrade of over 1,145 seismically vulnerable unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle while also creating incentives for owners to help pay for these upgrades. He has also co-founded OZ Navigator which is focused on investing in Opportunity Zone real estate projects in Seattle that catalyze neighborhood revitalization. Peter serves on the Board of Bellwether Housing, a not-for-profit focused on creating housing affordability in Seattle. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, hiking, cycling and other outdoor activities with his four children and two grandsons. He holds a BA degree from Harvard and two master’s degrees in engineering from Stanford.

Tim Shoultz

CEO

SMARTCAP

Tim Shoultz, SMARTCAP’s Chief Executive Officer, focuses on SMARTCAP acquisitions and development,

where he applies rigorous standards in risk analysis. Tim founded SMARTCAP in 2014 after a successful

career in technology to focus on his passion for real estate. During his 15 years at Microsoft, Tim worked

in the Windows organization as a principal-level development manager. He ran an organization

responsible for large-scale data analytics and quickly realized he had a knack for leadership and building

a successful company culture. Tim bought his first building in 2010 and successfully launched his first

syndication in 2011 which led him on the path to starting SMARTCAP in 2014. Over the last 13 years, Tim

has completely over $650MM in transactions and deployed nearly $250MM in private equity. Tim has

also launched a successful commercial construction company with a focus on industrial, office, medical,

retail, and general commercial projects. Tim has a passion for his job, travel, skiing, and rock climbing.

Maiko Winkler-Chin

Executive Director

Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority

Maiko is Executive Director of the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda), whose mission is to preserve, promote and develop the Chinatown International District as a vibrant community and unique ethnic neighborhood. She is responsible for the overall direction and sustainability of the organization. Maiko previously served as the SCIDpda’s Director of Housing and Facilities, responsible for asset and property management, as well as a member of the SCIDpda’s real estate development team.

Maiko has 20 years community and economic development experience including asset management, property management, real estate development and finance. Prior to joining SCIDpda, Maiko worked with SouthEast Effective Development (SEED) in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Her work focused on economic development in the Columbia City neighborhood, as well as financing and management of affordable housing rehabilitation projects.

Maiko graduated from University of Washington with a Master of Public Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Puget Sound. She is the Secretary (and a past president) of the board of the National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development, chairs the City of Seattle’s Housing Levy Oversight Committee, and serves on a variety of task forces and committees.

Roger Valdez

Director

Seattle For Growth

Roger Valdez is the Director of Seattle For Growth. Over the past two decades Roger has worked at the state, regional, and local level on issues ranging from public education to public health. He was Neighborhood Development Manager for the City of Seattle and managed King County's efforts to implement Washington's ban on smoking in bars, restaurants, and other work places. Most recently he was housing director at a local non-profit, managing and developing affordable housing.

Orla O’Connor

Principal

KPMG

Orla is a Tax principal based in the San Francisco office providing tax

consulting and compliance services to asset management clients, with a

specialization in Patient Capital/Evergreen Structures, Impact Investing,

Cross-border Structures, and the Real Estate Industry.

Professional and industry experience

Before joining KPMG, Orla most recently served as legal counsel in the

Washington, DC office of Goodwin Procter, where she advised real estate

and private equity clients on transactions, private letter rulings, and tax policy

matters.

Previously, Orla served as acting special counsel to the deputy chief counsel

(technical) at the Internal Revenue Service, where she reviewed over forty

published guidance projects, and while an attorney advisor in the Financial

Institutions and Products Group was part of the working groups responsible

for the "Basket Notices" designating certain derivatives as reportable

transactions, and guidance related to regulated investment companies'

investments in commodities, and dividends on convertible debt.

Prior to that, Orla was lead global tax counsel at The Carlyle Group, where

she implemented the firm's publicly traded partnership structure, structured

non-US funds investing in Asia, Latin America and Africa, and was lead global

tax counsel for transactions across the firm's private equity, real estate and

global market strategies businesses, and was a vice president in the tax

planning and advisory group at Goldman Sachs in New York and London,

where she was lead counsel for real assets taxation (including transaction

advice for real estate private equity, distressed debt and loan origination,

global infrastructure investing and tax credit investing for balance sheet) and

fund structuring (including external private equity, fund of funds -primaries and

secondaries, open-end real estate fund, separate and managed accounts)

and had oversight of US tax for European and Asian businesses.

Orla started her career at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and also

previously worked as a foreign service officer in Mumbai, India.

Orla earned her law degree from Columbia University and her undergraduate

degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.

Jeff Schoenfeld

Moderator

J-Max Real Estate

Jeff started his career as a “serial entrepreneur” launching four start-up companies during the span of 1985 to 2002. Additionally, Jeff actively invested in several early stage venture backed companies, while most were failures, a few winners such as Starbucks and Isilon lifted the portfolio to a positive return. In 2003 Jeff partnered with Greg Smith and they formed Urban Visions. Over the next five years, together they purchased several significant properties in the downtown core and SODO and Jeff learned the art of Real Estate investing and Development. Now Jeff manages his own portfolio of properties at J-Max Real Estate along with the properties owned in partnership with Urban Visions. The combined portfolio includes six properties located in the O-Zone with a total value in excess of $200M. In his free time, Jeff enjoys Golf, Skiing and the outdoors with his wife and two children

OZ Tracts in Seattle & Puget Sound

Examining the region's approved OZ tracts. What can residents, investors, and developers expect?

Gregory Genovese

Gregory Genovese

Principal & President

Sound West OZ Fund I, LP

Bill Truax

Bill Truax

Founder

Galena Opportunity Fund

Allen Alley

Allen Alley

Co-founder

Obsidian Opportunity Funds

Chuck Depew

Chuck Depew

Director

National Development Council

Matt Drinen
Moderator

Matt Drinen

Director, Tax Credit Services

CLA

Gregory Genovese

Principal & President

Sound West OZ Fund I, LP

As Principal and President of Sound West Realty Capital, Mr. Genovese leads and manages all aspects of the company’s real estate securities operations. Throughout his 30 years in the real estate and securities industries, Mr. Genovese has held executive management and distribution leadership roles resulting in over $4B in new equity investments for some of the country’s preeminent real estate securities, raising new investment equity for various REIT, Private Placement, 1031 TIC / DST, Debt and IPO offerings.

Due to his experience and expertise in such diverse areas of the financial securities industry, Mr.Genovese has been called on by some of the nation’s most-noted and well-regarded media formats from television to podcasts, as well as radio and all manners of print media. Mr. Genovese has appeared on and contributed to CNBC, Fox Business, GlobeSt.com, REIT.com, REIT Café, Business News Network and many other broadcast and print outlets. He continues to accept interview requests from premier publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, National Real Estate Investor, Associated Press, Forbes, Real Estate Finance & Investment and Financial Planning- among other national, regional and local newspapers.

Mr. Genovese earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics with an applied concentration in Investment and Business Economics from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA as well as completed advanced postgraduate studiesdegreesfrom both Claremont Graduate University (1987) and Stanford University (2002-2003). Mr. Genovese is a registered representative with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), holding Series 6, 7, 22 and 63 licenses and is an active member and contributor to NAREIT (National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts), ADISA (Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association), IPA (Investment Program Association), as well as a life member of the FPA(Financial Planning Association). In addition, Mr. Genovese is a founding shareholder of Bay Commercial Bank headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA and Alpha Omega Winery in Napa, CA.as well as a board member for the U.S. chapter of the international Right To Play organization (a charity that uses sports and play to enhance child development in disadvantaged areas in the U.S. and abroad.), and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

Bill Truax

Founder

Galena Opportunity Fund

Bill Truax is President of Galena Opportunity Fund. Based in Idaho, the Galena Fund is a developer-driven investment fund leveraging its real estate development expertise to maximize investor returns by placing capital directly into residentially-anchored mixed-use developments in underserved markets. Galena’s specialization is maximizing of Opportunity Zone investments, managing the intersection of OZ investors with active real estate development in underserved markets throughout the Intermountain Northwest.

Allen Alley

Co-founder

Obsidian Opportunity Funds

Allen Alley has been a successful entrepreneur, engineer and a general partner of one of the premier US venture capital firms. He is one of the few people who has invested in and co-founded companies that grew from startups to have public market capitalizations of more than $1 billion. His expertise spans software as a service, computer graphics and semiconductors.

Allen is hard to categorize. He is a republican who worked for a democratic governor. He drives a Smart Car and a Corvette. He loves cars but also walked 400 miles across Oregon in his campaign for Governor. He has extensive experience building global companies and is as comfortable eating tonkatsu in Tokyo, hotpot in Chengdu, ribs in Cincinnati or Taco Bell in Portland.

Allen co-founded Obsidian Opportunity Fund with his partner David Brown in 2018. Obsidian has developed a unique patient equity capital solar project investment strategy that maximizes the benefits of Opportunity Fund/Zone investing.

The foundation of Allen’s career is a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue and product engineering at Ford and Boeing.

Allen Alley has been a successful entrepreneur, engineer and a general partner of one of the premier US venture capital firms. He is one of the few people who has invested in and co-founded companies that grew from startups to have public market capitalizations of more than $1 billion. His expertise spans software as a service, computer graphics and semiconductors.

Allen is hard to categorize. He is a republican who worked for a democratic governor. He drives a Smart Car and a Corvette. He loves cars but also walked 400 miles across Oregon in his campaign for Governor. He has extensive experience building global companies and is as comfortable eating tonkatsu in Tokyo, hotpot in Chengdu, ribs in Cincinnati or Taco Bell in Portland.

Allen co-founded Obsidian Opportunity Fund with his partner David Brown in 2018. Obsidian has developed a unique patient equity capital solar project investment strategy that maximizes the benefits of Opportunity Fund/Zone investing.

The foundation of Allen’s career is a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue and product engineering at Ford and Boeing.

Chuck Depew

Director

National Development Council

Chuck Depew is a Director for the National Development Council, a national non-profit that provides economic and community development assistance to local governments. For more than 30 years NDC has worked with local jurisdictions on multiple housing and economic development efforts. Chuck provides technical assistance in project finance, development negotiation and housing finance to communities throughout the Northwest, including Utah and Wyoming and Northern California. In addition, he teaches commercial and housing real estate finance nationwide in NDC’s leading training program. Prior to his tenure at NDC, Chuck was Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Development for the City of Seattle. He has over 30 years of experience in public finance, housing, economic and community development.

Mr. Depew has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Planning from the University of California, at Santa Cruz; and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Washington.

Matt Drinen

Moderator

CLA

Matt Drinen has over 8 years’ experience in finance and banking with respect to New Markets & Historic Tax Credits, and Opportunity Zone Investments. Matt has experience in analyzing, underwriting, managing, restructuring, and compliance requirements for New Markets & Historic Tax Credit and Opportunity Zone Investments

Prior to joining CliftonLarsonAllen, Matt spent 6 years at US Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC) where he his most recent position was as an Officer in Asset Management. Matt managed a portfolio consisting of over $1 Billion in total commitment. At USBCDC, he was responsible for ensuring USBCDC’s investment returns were realized as underwritten. As an Asset Manager, Matt was involved in restructuring and modifying USBCDC’s investments. He was also responsible for creating and developing processes and procedures as to how USBCDC’s investments should be monitored for performance and compliance risks.

At CLA, Matt Drinen leads the New Markets Tax Credit practice and leads the Opportunity Zone Fund practice with Luke Pope.

Summary

1. What are Opportunity Zones and what is a Qualified Opportunity Fund? What are the benefits of investing in OZs and how does OZ investing work?

2. How do developers, investors, and civic organizations expect OZ projects to spur economic development in Seattle and the surrounding Puget Sound region?

3. How do the OZ opportunities in Seattle & Puget Sound differ from other parts of the country and what makes the tracts in the Puget Sound unique?

4. Of the real estate tracts designated as Opportunity Zones in the state of Washington, which are most ripe for investment and what makes them more desirable (and possibly profitable) than the others?

5. What benefits / challenges does the regulation create for investors and what groups are best positioned to take advantage of the program?

Venue

Kimpton Hotel Monaco Seattle
1101 Fourth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101

Ballroom: Paris Ballroom, Lobby Level


$12 Discounted Valet Parking

Agenda

Time Activity
3:30 PM
4:30 PM
Coffee, Breakfast, & Networking
4:30 PM
5:15 PM
Impact Investing Through Opportunity Zones

Understanding the program and identifying how to maximize investment and development to grow economies and build communities

5:15 PM
6:00 PM
OZ Tracts in Seattle & Puget Sound

Examining the region's approved OZ tracts. What can residents, investors, and developers expect?

6:00 PM
6:30 PM
More Coffee!