Michaels Development Company President Robert Greer Tapped to Chair National Advocacy Group for Affordable Housing
Marlton, NJ, March 3, 2010—Robert Greer, president of Michaels Development Company, the nation’s leading affordable housing development company, has been appointed vice chair of the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Housing Credit Group, the premier trade association for developers and other professionals working in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit industry. He will assume chairmanship of the group in 2011.
This is the second time that Greer, a long-time member of the National Association of Home Builders, has been tapped to chair this important group, which serves as the voice of private, for-profit tax credit developers in front of Congress and the Executive Branch. The group’s mission is to move tax credit developer priorities forward in NAHB, a trade group representing more than 100,000 professionals in the home building industry.
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, enacted by Congress in 1986, provides a financing vehicle for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing. Hailed as an effective public-private partnership, the program offers tax incentives to investors willing to provide equity for the development of affordable housing. Their investments allow affordable housing owners and developers to offer quality housing at below-market rates to households who earn 60 percent or less of an area’s median income. Since its inception two decades ago, the LIHTC program has been the primary catalyst for more than 1 million units of affordable housing across the country.
One of the first private development companies to participate in the program, Michaels Development is the nation’s largest owner of LIHTC communities and one of the industry’s most active development companies.
“The recession and the credit crunch have put many tax credit developers under stress during the last two years, making it very difficult to find investors, and, as a result, many new affordable housing developments are in jeopardy,” explained Stillman Knight, president of the Knight Company and the 2011 chairman of the NAHB’s Multifamily Board of Trustees. Knight sought Greer out for the Housing Credit Group chairmanship. “We are delighted that Bob, who enjoys such tremendous respect in the industry and who heads one of the industry’s most successful companies, is willing to serve in this important role for the Housing Credit Group,” Knight said.
As Chairman, Bob will help the group set priorities and ensure that issues of importance to tax credit developers across the country will be included in the national political agenda. Currently, the Housing Credit Group is leading the effort to have the tax credit exchange program extended and to increase the pool of investors in low income housing tax credits. The Housing Credit Group is also focused on ensuring that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s rental housing assistance programs, including Section 8 and project-based assistance, receive adequate funding. Editor’s Note: A Photo of Robert Greer is available from Laura Zaner upon request to lzaner@irmmgmt.com
About the Michaels Organization: Michaels Development Company is one of six integrated real estate companies that comprise The Michaels Organization, which is headquartered in Marlton, NJ. Dedicated to excellence in affordable, mixed-income, and military housing, the Michaels Organization has developed, financed, or acquired more than 40,000 apartments since its founding by housing pioneer Michael J. Levitt in 1973. Michael’s property management company, Interstate Realty Management, currently manages 33,000 units in 27 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Michaels Military Housing develops and manages family housing at five military bases in Kansas, Arizona, Florida and Maryland.