EDGE Communications from the
Portfolio Management Frontline
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October 2022
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION UPDATE
By: Andy Dalton, CIO
Innovation At CREA we believe that in the coming years, technology and innovation will become key differentiators in this market and we plan to be the syndicator leading the charge to become more efficient, flexible, and responsive to you, our partners. But instead of just charging forward throwing money at expensive technology, in 2021 CREA spent some intentional time evaluating our current people, processes, and tools. As expected, that review brought to the surface a few of our own bad habits, which, if left alone, will greatly hinder growth and innovation.
early in their running career, like a lack of strength or flexibility. In the short term, these habits don’t have an impact on anything, but as the volume and intensity of the workload increases it is inevitable that negative consequences, like injury, will occur. “Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.” Businesses, regardless of industry, are no different than runners. We have all formed some bad habits over the years, often to compensate for something, like the proper resources or technology. These habits function just fine for a while, but when the intensity and workload increases, creating scale becomes quite difficult.
Bad Habits As a lifelong runner and former High School coach one thing is true of every runner, they all have bad habits. Most of these bad habits were formed as a natural response by the athlete to compensate for something
Do either of these sound familiar to you?
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EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: MATT DITTMER
In a precarious time of rising construction costs, material scarcity and labor shortages, it is perhaps the best course of action to turn away from the traditional model of housing development and construction in favor of something new. And that is exactly what the Pacific Companies has elected to do in their new affordable housing development... PROPERTY IMPACT STORY: HARMONY ON SANTA BARBARA
Matt Dittmer, SVP, Fund Management, is celebrating 10 years with CREA, having joined the portfolio management team back in December of 2012. While he began as a Fund Analyst, Matt’s hard work and dedication has resulted in his current leadership roles as both a Senior Vice President and as an asset for the whole team. Learn more about Matt...
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P2-3 PROPERTY IMPACT STORY P4-5 EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT, CONT. P5 FOUNDATION UPDATE
P6 INFORMATION TECH UPDATE, CONT. P7 CREALIVE RETROSPECTIVE P7 CREA IN THE NEWS
P8 NEW HIRES P9 AWARDS AND RECENT EVENTS P9 GOOD-TO-KNOW INFO
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PROPERTY IMPACT STORY: THE HARMONY ON SANTA BARBARA
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development which has been designed with community growth in mind. In addition to the creation of 82 affordable homes, residents of Harmony will have access to services
and labor markets, and NIMBYism have long prevented affordable housing communities of this kind from being developed in the area. After years of determination, Harmony is finally changing that, largely due to the progressive
LIHTC is, in its most basic essence, a meeting of the public and private sectors. To bridge the housing needs gap, the federal government incentivizes investors and developers to create affordable housing by awarding tax credits. While high-quality properties are created through this model, it is often the developments that draw most heavily from a cooperative relationship between local government and developers that are best equipped to serve the specific locality in which they are built. This private-public relationship is essential to the story of Harmony on Santa Barbara, which is currently being built in Naples, Collier County, Florida by Miami-based developer McDowell Housing Partners. Harmony on Santa Barbara fits neatly into an area in great need of affordable housing solutions – it also acts as a transformative
which will include adult educational opportunities as well as health and wellness programs. These features amount to something much more than
“... the Harmony exemplifies the public- private partnership that creates transformative developments.” - Mike Boyle, SVP & Originator
actions of County Commission and staff.
“It’s encouraging to see local governments actively looking for meaningful and practical ways, such as public/ private partnership we executed on The Harmony, to expedite and incentivize new workforce and affordable housing developments,” said Shear.
just an apartment; the finished product will provide an environment which is designed to support and improve the quality of life and well- being of its residents. Collier County is one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country. Chris Shear, COO at McDowell, stated that a multitude of factors, including high land cost, limited zoning, tight construction
Collier County has aimed to create new
A rendering of the Harmony on Santa Barbara, a workforce housing development in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. This affordable development is the first of its kind in Collier County, Florida. Once completed, the Harmony on Santa Barbara will offer the community 82 affordable homes.
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workforce housing as a means of accommodating and supporting essential workers who keep their community running but were quickly being priced out of the market. They opened up an RFP process in late 2019, with McDowell being selected from a competitive field of 10 respondents to develop the 3.78-acre county-owned parcel. McDowell entered a 99-year land lease with the County where they committed to develop the property for families earning at or below 80% of the County’s area median income, amongst several other design and operational commitments that specifically fulfilled the municipalities’ needs and desires. McDowell, one of Florida’s most productive workforce and affordable housing developers, quickly secured competitive gap financing and housing tax credits from Florida Housing Finance Corporation that
were essential to sufficiently source $25.4 million development.
There are, of course, various reasons why certain developments may not suit the needs or lifestyles of those who call the community home. However, it seems that affordable housing developments have routinely fallen victim to these disagreements in Collier County. Thankfully, as The Harmony proves, the pitfalls of this clash of interests can be minimized or entirely avoided by working in tandem with local governments who understand the holistic needs of a community. “The process of creating low- income housing is always one of collaboration, but the Harmony exemplifies the public-private partnership that helps create so many transformative developments,” Boyle said. Read more Property Impact Stories Online >>>
CREA’s Mike Boyle, SVP, Acquisitions has seen firsthand the time and effort that has been put into making an affordable development in the affluent Naples market. For many years, it was a running conversation for Boyle and Shear that such a housing development would be near impossible to bring to fruition in the area. Some have been steadfast in their opposition to new developments in the area for years, something that the local Naples Daily News noted in their article, “Got Nimby?” in 2006. The article quotes the then-president of Habitat for Humanity of Collier County as saying, “NIMBY (Not In My Backyard)-ism […] is keeping Collier County from resolving an affordable housing crisis.”
Chris Shear, COO at McDowell, has put in years of effort to secure an affordable housing deal in the area despite some roadblocks along the way.
An overhead shot of the Harmony on Santa Barbara development site in Naples, FL.
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EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: MATT DITTMER, CONTINUED ...continued from page 1
You’ve been around the block a time or two at CREA. Can you provide a little background on your role here, what you do and how it’s changed over the years? As a SVP in Fund Management, I am responsible for managing our Funds post-closing. This includes managing capital, providing quarterly reports, and assisting in the preparation of the Fund audits and tax returns. I started out as an Analyst in Fund Management, so I went from doing the initial prep of everything and asking questions to doing the final review of everything and answering questions. Well, I actually still ask questions too. You’ve been a trusted member of Fund Management for 10 years! Congratulations on your recent anniversary with CREA! What keeps you challenged and engaged in your current role? There is always something new to learn. The IRS helps out with that; they aren’t afraid to make changes each year. Not only do I enjoy learning new things, I also really enjoy teaching others. That is why I was excited to take the lead in Fund Management’s training program. I have learned so much from everyone here at CREA over the last 10 years. I’m happy to help others get that same chance. The headlining article of this issue of CREA Edge was from our Chief Information Officer, Andy Dalton.
What role does technology play within Fund Management and how has it improved at CREA, specifically in the recent few years? What were some IT wins for your group? I think the biggest wins for Fund Management have come from automation. Whether it is exporting and importing thousands of data points in our models by clicking a button or using “robots” to pull dollar amounts from tax returns, IT has helped us save countless hours. When I started 10 years ago, there was a lot of manual data entry. By automating those processes, we are able to focus more time and energy on analyzing the data, not just copying it from one place to another. Fund Management has a nickname: FUNd Management. What is it that puts the FUN in FUNd Management? Definitely the people! Whether it’s getting together after work or just joking around in our group chat, I think we all have fun being around one another. I hope the fun spills out to other departments, but FUNd Management is a pretty tight-knit group. Tax season is around the corner… again… what do you do to keep your sanity during this incredibly busy and stressful time? I have a vegetable garden in my backyard. So when I’m working from home I go out there and get some fresh air. It’s relaxing just being in the
sun and playing in the dirt.
You have an awesome family which includes two boys! What do you enjoy doing together as a family during your spare time? We watch a lot of movies together and have family game nights, both video games and board games. We’ll have an occasional Nerf battle or round of laser tag. When it’s nice outside we all like to go on bike rides, fish, and play soccer or basketball.
The Dittmer family enjoying a recent outing.
Random Questions & Awesome Answers
Favorite sport to PLAY and favorite sport to WATCH? I like to play tennis and watch football. You can go anywhere in the world, all expenses paid: where would you go and what would you do?
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I would probably go to some private island with a nice sandy beach and do absolutely nothing.
Management, we don’t get to see the actual properties like some of the other departments do. So it was nice to see the real reason we are in the affordable housing industry. When you spend so much time reviewing tax returns and generating reports, it’s easy to forget that at the end of the day, all of us at CREA are helping to create homes for people. And meeting Mo Vaughn.
Best way to spend a Sunday? Church and football.
What’s your favorite CREA memory or experience? I have gone on a couple volunteer outings to our properties. In Fund
Matt Dittmer joined CREA employees during CREA’s Summer volunteering outing at the Commonwealth Apartments in Indianapolis.
CREA FOUNDATION UPDATES & MILESTONES Entering its second year of operation, CREA Foundation held an Induction Ceremony at IUPUI on August 22nd to gather and celebrate the inaugural class of 10 CREA Scholars and wish them a successful first year. CREA Foundation is proud to provide scholarship funds and wraparound services to these enthusiastic young adults residing in our affordable housing properties and other low-income communities to attend college, overcome barriers to success, and create opportunities to further their learning and development. Following the CREA Scholars Induction Ceremony, CREA Foundation hosted the CREA Foundation Scholarship Golf Classic on September 27th at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Club in Indianapolis, supported by more than 22 partners. This event raised over $100,000 to help our next class of CREA Scholars cross the finish line. In addition, CREA Foundation is eager to continue its mission with the goal to add another partnership with a southern California university and is looking forward to hosting another golf outing in that area during 2023. The Foundation continues to make exciting efforts towards its mission. None of the aforementioned events and milestones would be possible without the support of our trusted donor partners. If you or your organization is interested in contributing to post-secondary students facing financial hardship, you can learn more by visiting CREALLC.com/Foundation.
Jeff Whiting, Chairman and CEO, speaks with lUPUI leadership at August’s Induction Ceremony about the scholarship program.
IUPUI’s CREA Scholars gathered in August for their Induction Ceremony, celebrating their achievements and diverse goals.
Jeff Whiting and Charles Anderson, Co- President, took to Brickyard Crossing during the inaugural CREA Foundation Golf Classic.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION UPDATE, CONT.
that we can have a single view of our “customer” and all communications therein. Investment Memo v2 Completely the Investment Memo to both improve the audience experience and automatically populate with real- time data for partner review. Tenant File Tracker Streamlining our internal processes of gathering, processing and reporting on tenant data. redesigning Tax Return Automation Scanning the pertinent information from tax returns and audits directly into our financial models and database so that we can more easily and quickly report back to you. Model Enhancements Enhancing all Lower Tier and Upper Tier models and integrating that model data with our internal
database. This consolidation will set the groundwork for the following initiative and many to come. CREA Analyze Migrating our current reporting system to a DIY reporting platform which will allow CREA to be more flexible and responsive to your information needs. Committee Dashboard Digitally transforming our closing process into a single web enabled dashboard so that we can remove the current bottlenecks, clean up communication and create scale. SharePoint Migration Migrating from an on-premise network file architecture to SharePoint, which is cloud-based, so that all data and files can be accessible in real time from anywhere, securely. Investor Grids Creating applications to collect all possible information being requested by our partners into a single data source so that it can be readily available via a single data request. INNOVATION The annual ritual of setting new resolutions may still be a few months away, but CREA isn’t waiting. We are excited about the progress already made in replacing our bad habits. Moreover, we are confident that these efforts and others to come will improve your experience and success as our partners.
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• Repetitive processes that rely upon highly skilled employees performing manual tasks. • Siloed data being stored in disparate systems which don’t communicate with each other INITIATIVES In 2022, we focused most of our technology efforts on cleaning up the previously mentioned bad habits and instead creating good ones. The following is a brief synopsis of some of these initiatives where you will observe two primary goals: 1. Rethinking business processes and whenever possible inserting or replacing with automation. 2. Consolidating data so that it can be more easily and reliably shared both in and outside of CREA. CREA Link Implementing a CRM (Contact Relationship Management) tool so
Andy Dalton (far right) with members of the IT team during last month’s CREALive event.
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2022 CREA LIVE: RECAP & RETROSPECTIVE
It was great to bring CREALive back this year for the first time since 2019, as well as host employees from across the country at our headquarters in Indianapolis. The objective of this event has always been to gather, learn, hear from colleagues and enjoy the company of everyone in the CREA family. What started off as a half day meeting and dinner reception quickly expanded into a variety of
department meetings, trainings and friendly competitions throughout the entire week. The hope is that each CREA employee was able to take something away from the experience, whether it was a new understanding of how the transaction of a lifecycle works or meeting someone face-to-face for the first time. CREA’s mission is people
centric and connecting in person only strengthens the motivation to continue our meaningful work together. “This is the power of gathering: it inspires us – delightfully – to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: In a word, more alive.” - Alice Waters
CREA IN THE NEWS: CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS
sessions, book clubs and speakers, to the development of our Inclusion Advisory Council and establishing CREA Foundation, Inc., read about our “Culture of Good” on pages 31A & 35A here!
Indianapolis Business Journal Arvetta Jideonwo, Executive Director of CREA Foundation and Head of Social Impact at CREA, had the privilege of sharing our social impact and diversity, equity and inclusion journey with the Indianapolis Business Journal for their Business Cares: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion issue. From offering educational
Tax Credit Advisor Co-Presidents Charles Anderson and Tony Bertoldi were featured in the July 2022 Tax Credit Advisor Leadership Issue, contributing to a conversation about the new wave of leadership reshaping the affordable housing space as CREA makes exciting new executive hires. TCA subscribers can read the article here.
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GET TO KNOW OUR MOST RECENT NEW HIRES!
Daniel graduated from Taylor University in 2022 with a BS in Finance and BA in PPE. He enjoys outdoor recreations, reading, and music.
with friends, have family time, and play soccer.
Ian Cavanaugh Fund Analyst Indianapolis
Jacob Rowland Financial Analyst Indianapolis
Ian Graduated in May 2022 from the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, with a major in Finance and a minor in Economics. When not working he enjoys listening to live music, traveling, and enjoying nature.
Payton Hodson Orr Fellow Indianapolis
Jacob graduated in May 2022 with a double major in Finance and International Studies and a minor in Economics. He played varsity basketball and lacrosse in high school. He loves spending time outdoors hiking, hanging out with his family, going for runs with his puppy and playing pool with friends.
Payton Hodson graduated in May 2022 from Valparaiso University with a BA in Psychology, BA in Spanish, a minor in humanities and as a Christ College Scholar. She also played on the Division I Women’s Golf Team. Outside of work, she loves golfing, reading, traveling, volunteering, and using her Spanish in new ways.
Tim Fuson Admin Assistant Indianapolis
Tim is a native of Bloomington where he graduated from IU back in 2012, with a degree in Film Studies. Since then, he has worked in the retail and wedding industry, as a manager and wedding planner. Outside of work he enjoys camping, exploring local food with his boyfriend, and watching as many horror movies as possible.
Claire Williams Orr Fellow Indianapolis
Rajvir Mann Fund Analyst Indianapolis
Claire joined CREA after graduating from Butler University in May 2022 with a BS in Finance. Outside of the office, she can be found trying a new workout, reading the latest predictable rom-com novel, or exploring new spots in Indy with her close friends. Find our full team online here.
Rajvir is a recent IUPUI Kelley School of Business graduate with a BS in Finance. His love for Finance has inspired him to a pursue a career in the business world. Outside work, he likes to play video games, hang out
Daniel Gerber Orr Fellow Indianapolis
CREALLC.COM
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AWARDS & KUDOS
Mary D. Stone Apartments, AHF Readers Choice - Rural Winner Developed by Pennrose, LLC, Mary D. Stone Apartments is a historic rehabilitation project that converted and preserved the cherished elements of a nearly century-old former school building into 55 affordable homes for seniors (62+ years) in Auburn, MA.
Hale Kalele – American Planning Association’s 2021 Best Practice Award Developed by the Kobayashi Group, LLC (their first LIHTC project) through investments from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC), Hale Kalele is a newly constructed high- rise offering 200 environmentally-conscious affordable rental units for families, with a juvenile services facility in Honolulu, HI. Osborn Commons – LEED Gold Homes Awards: Outstanding Affordable Project Developed by Woda Cooper Development, Inc., Osborn Commons offers 63 affordable units—7 for those with disabilities—in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Woda utilized green building methods, using recycled content as materials, low-emissions paint, continuous insulation, energy efficient doors and more.
Senior Residences at the Machon – 2022 Vanguard Award (NAHMA) Senior Residences at the Machon, located in Swampscott, MA and developed by B’nai B’rith Housing New England, Inc., is a rehabilitated affordable multi- family housing development that offers 38 one-bedroom one-bathroom LIHTC units for seniors (62+ years), with available supportive services. Vincent’s Village – LEED Gold Homes Awards Vincent’s Village provides 93 affordable homes for seniors (55+ years), with on-site health and wellness services in Nanuet, NY. This award recognizes Vincent’s Village’s sustainable and energy-efficient building practices which ensure environmentally responsible, healthy and resilient homes.
GOOD TO KNOW
In January, the IRS issued Notice 2022- 52, which provides for some relief for qualified low-income housing properties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IRS released new final regulations for the Average Income Test on 10/7/2022. Stay tuned for upcoming decisions regarding these regulations! Read more about the AIT regulations here >>>
Read more about IRS Notice 2022-52 here >>>
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