Tampa Bay Multifamily Summit

Max Cruz oversees the Development department of Housing Trust Group, responsible for overseeing multifamily real estate development of affordable housing and market rate communities. Max Cruz has over 18 years of real estate and development experience. Over the course of his career he has entitled, developed, and overseen construction of over 3,200 rental homes across Florida and closed on over $500 million of rental financing. He has also overseen the development of over 2,300 for-sale homes and $136 Million of for-sale financing. Prior to joining Housing Trust Group, he was a Vice President of Development for the Related Group’s luxury market rate division responsible for all aspects of real estate development from entitlement to completion. Before Related, Mr. Cruz was the Vice President of Development and Finance for the Cornerstone Group for over 12 years. At Cornerstone, he was responsible for not only the development of the communities, but all aspects of their financing. Mr. Cruz graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelors Degree in Finance.

Arturo Peña is a Vice President of Development at Related Group, overseeing a variety of developments across the firm’s portfolio. Arturo has played an instrumental role in Related’s ongoing expansion across Central Florida, spearheading numerous award-winning market-rate apartment communities. In his present role, Arturo oversees the development of market-rate communities, condominium towers, workforce housing, and mixed-use developments, primarily in the West Palm Beach and Tampa Bay regions. His current projects under construction are the waterfront Icon Marina Village in West Palm Beach and Manor West River in Tampa. Over his 20 years at Related, Arturo’s marquee developments include the 400-unit Manor Riverwalk and 340-unit Icon Harbour Island in Tampa, the 382-unit Manor at Flagler Village in Fort Lauderdale, and the 162-unit SofA project in Delray Beach. Many more of Arturo’s projects have broken multi-family sales records in both Broward and Hillsborough Counties, receiving awards from the Urban Land Institute (ULI), National Association of Home Builders, Florida’s Best, and the South Florida Business Journal. Arturo has also been named Related’s “Employee of the Year” on multiple occasions. Prior to joining Related, Arturo served as Project Manager for an architectural firm specializing in high-rise condominium towers throughout Florida; he also served as the firm’s liaison for over a dozen high-rise projects. Arturo holds a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Miami, with Minors in Business and Building Structures; he continues to play an active role in several of the University’s alumni associations. Arturo also serves on Related’s Philanthropic Committee and is Vice Chair of the ULI Florida Multifamily Product Council.

As Vice President of Development, Crystal is responsible for the expansion of Milhaus' footprint in the Florida market. This includes identifying unique opportunities to build the development pipeline and oversight of the entitlement, design, preconstruction and development processes. EXPERIENCE: Crystal brings a range of experience to Milhaus that encompasses everything from acquisitions, business development, asset management, leasing, to the repositioning and dispositions of multifamily retail, office, industrial asset categories. Prior to joining Milhaus, she served as Head of Real Estate (South Florida) for Sonder and a Senior Associate at Starwood Property Trust. Crystal was also identified as an emerging leader in the real estate and land use industries for the Southeast Florida/Caribbean region through her selection to participate in the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Leadership Institute Class of 2019-2020. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Finance from The University of Tennessee-Knoxville followed by her Masters of Science, Real Estate with a concentration in Real Estate Finance and Investments from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. WHAT WHAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT IN YOUR ROLE? I am passionate about seeing the potential for an area or site and being a part of the tangible process to transform it through development.

Jay Curran joined Crescent Communities’ Multifamily team in 2013 and currently oversees all multifamily investments for Crescent’s East Region, including Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Crescent’s East Region consists of north of $1.75 billion in investments (over 7,000 units) in operations, under construction or in development. Prior to Crescent, Jay served as Vice President of Development for Archstone, and led development of luxury multifamily communities throughout Texas and Florida. Jay’s experience in developing multifamily projects began while he was at Novare Group, where he managed the development of high-rise residential and hospitality projects in excess of $400 million. Prior to Novare, he served as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group. Curran serves on the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement of Georgia and the National Multifamily Housing Council. Jay earned an MBA from Duke University and bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Kansas University.

Andrew provides design leadership and expertise to our Stantec Miami office. Honed by over 20 years of experience and a wide variety of complex projects, clients, and teams - he always strives to deliver an experience which is uniquely crafted for the community which it will ultimately serve. His passion for Architecture is always evident as he guides our firm’s creative vision through collaboration, rigorous attention to detail, and willingness to dream. Firmly holding the belief that high design should be profitable, buildable, and beautiful - Andrew enjoys creating lasting professional relationships and is always searching for ways to add value, inspire our communities, and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.

Michael E. Boutzoukas concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial real estate, real estate development, leasing, financing and business transactions. Michael provides clients with general consultation and guidance in legal matters to business clients, leveraging his own transactional experience with the firm’s specialists in taxation, employment law and securities to serve his clients’ needs. Mr. Boutzoukas’ peers call upon him to assist them with their clients’ real estate and business transactional disputes to gain perspective on the best course of resolution. In 2009, he joined the approximately 450 Florida attorneys Board Certified in Real Estate Law. Board Certification by the Florida Bar is the highest level of recognition of an attorney’s competency and expertise in the areas of law approved for certification by the Supreme Court of Florida. Since 2018 Michael has been recognized by his peers as among the Best Lawyers in America© for Real Estate. Michael is actively engaged in the broader real estate community and regularly speaks before realtors, attorneys and businesses groups on commercial and residential real estate transactions, leasing issues, title matters, and ad valorem tax valuation challenges. He also volunteers his time holding positions with the City of Clearwater, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church and the Bay Area Real Estate Council. The Clearwater City Council appointed Michael to the Community Development Board. In that capacity, he conducts design review, evaluates historic applications and reviews requests for land use plan changes and rezoning. The Board serves as Local Planning Agency to review and advise City Council on the City’s Comprehensive Plan. He previously served on the Code Enforcement Board. At his church, Michael has served in leadership roles and as general counsel since 1993 and most recently elected President of the community for 2017.

FRANK GUERRA is a Founder and Principal of Altis Cardinal as well as Altis, LLC. Prior to that, Mr. Guerra was Principal and President of Neo Development and Neo Holdings. Mr. Guerra has overseen development and construction of several high-rise and mid-rise residential projects totaling over 3,000,000 square feet (over $775 million) as well as property and asset management of residential and office assets in excess of 2,000,000 square feet. Altis Cardinal has developed particular expertise in the multifamily space having acquired or developed over 2,000 units throughout Florida, Texas and Nevada. Previously, Mr. Guerra led a distinguished legal career – most notably practicing real estate law at Bilzin Sumberg in Miami. Mr. Guerra graduated with a law degree with an emphasis in real estate and transactional law, and Master’s in Business Administration with a concentration in finance, both from George Washington University. Frank Guerra is a licensed attorney and member in good standing with the Florida Bar.

Greg Minder has been a leading participant in the revitalization of downtown Tampa and surrounding Tampa Bay communities since 2004. As founder and principal of the intowngroup, Greg is responsible for creating iconic multi-family, urban buildings framing the Tampa cityscape including Meridian, Skypoint, Element, AER and 500 HI. His mission is to generate sustainable urban growth by meeting the housing needs of a diverse downtown population. He extends that mission beyond his own business into serving the greater community at large. He is the Chairman of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, a coalition of business and community leaders working to create an 18 to 24-hour urban center where people can learn, live, work and play.

Sloan G. Stevens, CCIM is a Director with Hunt Real Estate Capital, a subsidiary of Hunt Companies and is based out of Hunt's Birmingham, Alabama office that has closed over $10 Billion of Multifamily transactions. A native of Birmingham, Sloan is a multifamily mortgage banker specializing in the origination of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA Multifamily mortgages nationwide. Prior to joining Hunt, Sloan spent six years with Atlanta- based Cadence Bank N. A. where he was Senior Asset Manager responsible for the management and disposition of over $600 Million of bank owned assets across all asset classes. He also spent fifteen years as a successful entrepreneur in the hospitality industry as an owner/operator and turnaround management consultant. A former member of the Board of Directors for the Alabama CCIM Chapter, current Executive Committee Member of the Urban Land Institute Alabama District Council, Member of the Board of Directors for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and fundraiser for the Alabama Ballet, Sloan is committed to being a leader within his community. Before setting out as an entrepreneur Sloan attended Auburn University where he majored in Finance, is a Certified Commercial Investment Member, and holds a Certificate of Real Estate Development from New York University.

Bruce Gago heads FCP’s South Florida office as Senior Vice President– Acquisitions, where he sources multifamily investments and works closely with the company’s commercial and structured investment teams on transactions in those sectors.

Jin Liu represents real estate investment trusts (REITs), national builders, resort developers, other developers of large commercial and residential projects, pension funds, and other institutional investors in the purchase and sale of both improved and unimproved property, business planning and implementation, transaction structuring, equity investment, and a variety of financing transactions. Jin also represents banks, other institutional lenders, loan servicers, and other financial institutions in a wide range of loan transactions, loan sales, workouts, and disposition of real estate. Jin has experience advising developers and financial institutions with respect to Florida condominium filings and condominium-related due diligence issues. Jin is a bicultural and bilingual attorney who received legal education in both the United States and China. She has represented international clients — and, in particular, Chinese clients — in EB-5 investment immigration related development projects and a variety of other commercial transactions. Jin currently chairs the firm’s Development Industry Group.