South Florida Affordable Housing Summit

Daniel M. Lopez is the Founder & President of Leverage Live Local, a real estate development advisory firm specializing in the creation and preservation of attainable housing through the Live Local Act. Drawing on deep operational insights from years of hands-on multifamily development and management, Leverage Live Local implements strategies that balance financial feasibility with community impact through innovative tools and services. Over the course of his career, Daniel has successfully delivered nearly 2,000 attainable housing units across Florida. Since the dawn of the Live Local Act, he has secured entitlements and tax exemptions in seven counties, demonstrating his ability to navigate complex legislative and regulatory environments. Prior to founding Leverage Live Local, Daniel held pivotal roles at McDowell Housing Partners, and Landmark Companies. He is a Founding Partner of MCP Residential, a member of the Coalition of Attainable Housing Providers and a Housing Credit Certified Professional.

As Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Falcone Group, Alfonso Costa Jr. oversees the development of multifamily apartment communities and condominium projects, leading public-private partnership opportunities as well as the company’s operational and strategic initiatives. His current pipeline of mixed-use development projects includes more than 2,000 residential units and 200,000 square feet of retail & self-storage, with a total value exceeding $1 billion. Such projects include “Block C-East” at Miami WorldCenter, and the “Horizon of Oakland Park,” a mixed-use public-private-partnership with the City of Oakland Park. Prior to joining the Falcone Group, Alfonso served as Deputy Chief of Staff & Opportunity Zones lead for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he oversaw policy for the $50 billion annually-budgeted Cabinet agency, which maintains a wide range of housing and community development programs, a $1.3 trillion mortgage insurance portfolio, and approximately 7,000 employees across 57 offices nationwide. As an expert on the bi-partisan Opportunity Zones program, he held the title of Chairman’s delegate and HUD’s lead representative on the Federal Government’s inter-agency Opportunity and Revitalization Council, and for his efforts he was recognized in the Opportunity Zone Magazine’s “Top 25 OZ Influencers” list for both 2020 and 2021. A former 5th-grade teacher as a Teach for America corps member, Alfonso is now an active social advocate through philanthropic & academic volunteer efforts on both the local and national levels. In his home State of Florida, he is the Program Chair of ULI Florida’s Affordable & Workforce Housing Council (AWHC), Advisory Board Member & recent Chair of the Nova Southeastern University Master’s in Real Estate Development (MSRED) Program, recent Member of the City of West Palm Beach Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, Heart & Spirit Society member for the Boca Helping Hands food-giving non-profit organization, and an In Jacob’s Shoes of Hope Hero member for the shoes/socks/school supplies non-profit organization. Nationally, he serves as a Member of the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board, National Housing Taskforce, Housing Advisory Council Member of the Bipartisan Policy Center, Board Member of the Home Builders Institute, and Full Member of the Urban Land Institute. He earned his law degree from Harvard University, master’s degree from the University of Oxford, and bachelor’s degree from Yale University, where he played both Division-I basketball and Division-I lacrosse while serving as Chair of the Yale Athletic Department’s Thomas W. Ford Community Outreach Committee.

Michael Liu has over 40 years of experience in housing policy and finance beginning from his service as a Delegate to the 1978 Hawaii State Constitution Convention. His career has also included service with the federal government as U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Small Community and Rural Development and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing. In the private sector, he practiced real estate law for 13 years, and held executive officer positions with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, Bank of America (FSB), and Dutko Grayling. Prior to joining Swerdlow Group, Michael served as senior advisor on housing to the City of Miami’s City Manager, which followed a 9-year term as Miami-Dade County’s Public Housing and Community Development (PHCD) Director, the largest housing agency in the State of Florida. Among many accomplishments, Michael can point to creation of HUD’s Capital Fund Financing Program (like the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD)) a financing tool that involves leveraging private sector funds with public housing subsidy) that raised over $2 billion in its first 18 months of private sector funds for investment in public housing; expansion of the Native American home mortgage program 184 to assist with homeownership on non-tribal lands; establishment of RAD as the formal basis for the redevelopment approach for all of public housing in Miami-Dade County; improving PHCD’s 7 year public housing sub-standard designation to standard after 1 year; and establishing the redevelopment of public housing sites “Liberty Square/Lincoln Gardens” and the Senior Campus (now known as River Parc), developments that will involve in over $1 billion in equity, debt, and grants, and upon completion result in over 15,000 new and/or total rehabilitated units. Michael is a graduate of Stanford University (BA) and the University of Hawaii’s Richardson School Law. He is a member of the Hawaii and Washington, DC bar associations.

Moderno is a real estate company focused mainly on the development of residential urban projects and creative commercial spaces in Fort Lauderdale & Miami. Moderno manages over $250 million in development projects, totaling over 1,000 apartment units, 50,000SF of commercial spaces which are under construction or planning stages.

Hugo Pacanins is Partner and Chief Executive of Pinnacle's Market Rate Division. With a track record spanning 17 years in multifamily development, Hugo has played a pivotal role in the development of more than 7,000 residential units and 500,000 square feet of commercial space, exceeding $2 billion in development costs.

Matthew Martinez is the President of Beacon Hill Development Group, a Miami-based real estate private equity firm founded in 1999. Under his leadership, the firm has become a recognized leader in the development of workforce housing, with a particular focus on Florida’s “Missing Middle”—working families often underserved by traditional housing markets. Matt holds both a B.S.B.A. and a graduate degree in International Studies from The Ohio State University, where he graduated summa cum laude and was honored with the prestigious Presidential Scholarship—one of only three awarded annually for graduate study. In addition to his real estate career, Matt is the author of three books on real estate investing and two children’s books. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his wife and two sons.

Dennis Quolke is the president and Co-founder of Name Development. His team focuses on high-end boutique developments leveraging the live local act and combining all elements in their mixed use project, Trident Residence, which contains For-sale condos, Apartments, and retail all in the same building. Making the project financially attractive required creative positioning and complex structuring. Leveraging Live Local was the only way this project would be feasible, given the density and height bonuses. He uses his team's 10 years of combined experience underwriting projects, ranging from multifamily developments to large industrial projects into the space of high-end boutique real estate developments.

With 30 years of experience in construction, David has helped build Groom Construction into the company it is today. David has managed hundreds of construction projects that vary in size and complexity, both as a project manager and a project executive. Along with assisting his brother, Tom, in the day-to-day management of the company, David also leads the generation of new business for the company. Dave’s current projects focus on ground-up commercial buildings as well as several tenant fit-out projects.