Q: What appealed to you about this job?
A: The opportunity to jump on with a great name and platform I’ve known throughout my career in Texas—with its roots in Texas—to help them build a residential presence in the southeast.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish in your new role?
A: Near-term goals will be to look at ground-up development as well as opportunistic repositioning to build up a portfolio and a team to tackle residential and mixed-use projects.
Q: What do you see as a significant challenge for the multifamily industry in the coming years?
A: The large challenge with the ebbing economy is that we are not going to be able as developers to rely on strong rental growth as we have seen in the past. We’re probably going to go through a somewhat modest growth pattern for a period of time.
Q: What was the best career advice you ever received?
A: Our business has become easier to research with all the tools available online, but we need to question what we don’t know. Every real estate deal is different. There is going to be something in the deal that you don’t know; you have to figure out what that is.
Former assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Orlando J. Cabrera has been named CEO of nonprofit affordable housing developer National Community Renaissance. “Cabrera’s extensive experience in all aspects of affordable housing dovetails with National CORE’s mission to preserve and develop affordable housing nationwide,” said Jeffrey Burum, chairman and founder of National CORE. Cabrera served as HUD’s assistant secretary for public and Indian housing from November 2005 to January 2008.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based WRH Realty Services has promoted Cynthia Haines to chief operating officer. Haines will be responsible for the development of new business and property operations and will oversee the operations of the entire portfolio of owned and fee-managed apartment communities. Since 2005, Haines has been a senior vice president for WRH Realty Services.
Henry L. Hirvela is the new executive vice president and chief financial officer of San Francisco-based BRE Properties. Hirvela succeeds Edward F. Lange Jr., who was promoted to chief operating officer last year. Hirvela will be responsible for all corporate-related accounting, treasury, and finance activities; investor relations; capital formation; internal audit and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance; and information technology services.
Michael L. Canfield has joined Irvine, Calif.-based residential land development and investment company Foremost Communities as senior vice president of land acquisitions. Canfield comes to Foremost from SunCal Cos., where he led the acquisitions department. In his new role, Canfield will help identify development properties in key markets and will coordinate acquisition strategy with Foremost’s principal investment partner, an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group Global.
DOC-Economou, based in Pittsburgh, Pa., has appointed Mark Dellana as executive vice president of development and construction. Dellana will be immediately involved in work toward DOC-Economou’s development of a $240 million mixed-use site on approximately 7 acres of property at the intersection of Baum Boulevard and Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh’s East End. Prior to joining DOC-Economou, Dellana was executive vice president of development and construction at the Soffer Organization in Pittsburgh.
Mission Residential Management, a unit of Oakton, Va.- and Austin, Texas-based Mission Residential, has added four senior executives to help shore up a growing staff. The group—Thomas Casey, Denise Johnson, Cecille Santos, and Michael J. Zink—all report to Jeffrey A. Goldshine, who joined as president in January. Casey will serve as senior vice president of maintenance services; Johnson as vice president; Santos as vice president of marketing and training; and Zink as vice president of property management.
John Frederick has joined Indianapolis, Ind.-based development and construction firm Lauth as vice president of office and industrial development in the company’s Orlando, Fla., office. Frederick joins Lauth following three years as vice president and Florida district manager at RREEF, a real estate acquisition and management company headquartered in New York City.
Phoenix, Ariz.-based multifamily real estate company Alliance Residential Co. has announced its appointment of Adam Paul as city partner for the Mountain Division. Paul brings a wealth of experience in residential real estate development and acquisition activities valuing more than $700 million. At Alliance Residential, he is responsible for identifying development opportunities and working through entitlement, design, and construction and lease-up of new Alliance Residential communities in the Salt Lake City, Utah, region. Prior to joining Alliance, Paul owned his own development management firm.