Opportunity Zones 101: San Francisco, South Bay & The Peninsula

Bringing a wealth of experience in real estate acquisition, development, leasing and financing, Todd has overseen over $1 billion in real estate throughout his career. With a degree from Santa Clara as a Juris Doctorate, Todd is a passionate deal maker at heart and is inspired by structuring joint ventures and complex business deals that take him to the places he loves. Prior to joining the JMA team, Todd practiced law at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe along with Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory. He also served as JMA’s primary outside counsel for over six years in addition to representing other large institutional and development clients throughout the United States. Todd sits on the Advisory Board of Squaw Valley Holding Company, the board of a private educational institution in San Francisco and is a member of and contributing author to the California State Bar Real Property Section and various other real estate and investment trade groups. Todd is also passionate about sports and athletics having captained the rugby team during his time at Boston College. Education: B.S. from Boston College; Juris Doctorate from Santa Clara University

Responsible for developing more than $3.5 billion in real estate projects, including over 2,300 residential units in the California Bay Area, Hayden has experience in acquisition, contract negotiation, due diligence, risk assessment, financing, construction, and disposition of multifamily, single family and large mixed-use and master planned developments. He maintains relationships with a broad network of property owners, enabling him to identify and acquire prime investments. Hayden also has expertise navigating projects through the entitlement process by working with elected officials, community groups, and political organizations to gain support and get projects approved.

Jeffrey Diener is a partner in the Real Estate practice of Paul Hastings and is the vice-chair of the firm’s San Francisco office. Mr. Diener represents private equity funds, investment banks, investors and developers in the acquisition/disposition, finance, development, management, operation and restructuring of real estate assets and businesses throughout the world. His experience also includes structuring and implementing joint ventures, partnerships and management agreements and representing secured and unsecured creditors, buyers, and debtors in various distressed company situations and bankruptcy matters. Mr. Diener previously has been resident in the firm’s Tokyo and London offices and he has experience working with clients throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe.

Orla is a Tax principal based in the San Francisco office providing tax consulting and compliance services to asset management clients, with a specialization in Patient Capital/Evergreen Structures, Impact Investing, Cross-border Structures, and the Real Estate Industry. Professional and industry experience Before joining KPMG, Orla most recently served as legal counsel in the Washington, DC office of Goodwin Procter, where she advised real estate and private equity clients on transactions, private letter rulings, and tax policy matters. Previously, Orla served as acting special counsel to the deputy chief counsel (technical) at the Internal Revenue Service, where she reviewed over forty published guidance projects, and while an attorney advisor in the Financial Institutions and Products Group was part of the working groups responsible for the "Basket Notices" designating certain derivatives as reportable transactions, and guidance related to regulated investment companies' investments in commodities, and dividends on convertible debt. Prior to that, Orla was lead global tax counsel at The Carlyle Group, where she implemented the firm's publicly traded partnership structure, structured non-US funds investing in Asia, Latin America and Africa, and was lead global tax counsel for transactions across the firm's private equity, real estate and global market strategies businesses, and was a vice president in the tax planning and advisory group at Goldman Sachs in New York and London, where she was lead counsel for real assets taxation (including transaction advice for real estate private equity, distressed debt and loan origination, global infrastructure investing and tax credit investing for balance sheet) and fund structuring (including external private equity, fund of funds -primaries and secondaries, open-end real estate fund, separate and managed accounts) and had oversight of US tax for European and Asian businesses. Orla started her career at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and also previously worked as a foreign service officer in Mumbai, India. Orla earned her law degree from Columbia University and her undergraduate degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.

Mr. Hall is a co-founder of Pacific Oak Companies, comprised of Pacific Oak Capital Advisors LLC, Pacific Oak Capital Markets Group LLC, and Pacific Oak Holdings LLC. Mr. Hall is also co-founder of Willowbrook Capital Group, LLC, an asset management company and KBS Capital Advisors, an SEC registered investment adviser. Prior to co-founding KBS Capital Advisors in 2005, Mr. Hall served as a managing director with Credit Suisse First Boston, where he managed distribution strategy and business development for the Principal Transaction Group’s real estate securities portfolio. In this capacity, his two primary business unit responsibilities were mezzanine lending and commercial real estate development. Before joining CS First Boston in 1996, Hall served as a director in the Real Estate Products Group at Nomura Securities. He was responsible for the company’s distribution and trading of fixed-income commercial mortgage-backed securities. Hall spent the 1980s as a senior vice president in the high-yield department of Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Beverly Hills office where he was responsible for the distribution and trading of the group’s high-yield real estate securities.

Gavriel Kahane is the Managing Partner of ODG (Opportunity Development Group) and the CEO & Co-Founder of Arkhouse Partners. ODG is a real estate investment firm launched by JDS Development Group and Arkhouse Partners that utilizes the ‘Opportunity Zones’ tax incentive program to target opportunistic development and redevelopment projects. Prior to founding ODG, Mr. Kahane worked as the Director of Operations and Finance for the Sapir Organization. During his tenure at Sapir, Mr. Kahane managed over $3.6 billion in financing, acquisitions and dispositions on behalf of the company. He also oversaw leasing of more than 2.5 million square feet of commercial office space and led negotiations with tenants including Credit Suisse, Sony, William Morris Endeavor, Coca-Cola, Fidelity and Yelp. Mr. Kahane closed the sale of 11 Madison Avenue, the highest grossing single-asset sale ever recorded, to SL Green Realty. Mr. Kahane joined Sapir after serving as a Vice President at Meridian Capital Group, where he structured and placed large CMBS and balance sheet loans. Mr. Kahane began his career in New York real estate at Africa Israel USA, where he learned the fundamentals of real estate investment, construction and development. During those very pivotal and turbulent years for U.S. real estate, Mr. Kahane developed a prudent investment outlook that continually informs his market-sensitive investment approach. Mr. Kahane serves on the executive Young Leadership board of AMIT, as well as Mensa Investment Special Interest Group. Earlier this year, he was recognized as a 40 under 40 CEO & Executive of New York by the Young Jewish Professionals. Mr. Kahane received his BA from Yeshiva University, where he graduated with honors in Economics and Philosophy.

Julie Treppa is a versatile, highly experienced practitioner with expertise in a broad range of tax-related issues and controversies involving federal, state and other taxing authorities She began her tax career as an IRS auditor in the exam division. Following law school, she has advised clients on an exceptionally broad range of tax-related subjects, including transaction planning, fund formation, equity incentive programs, and deferred compensation matters under Code Section 409A. Julie is particularly experienced in developing strategies to help investors, developers, businesses, and non-profit organizations use tax incentives and tax credits to achieve financial goals while supporting social, environmental, and other community-based priorities. Two areas in which she has special expertise are New Markets Tax Credits and Opportunity Zones, both of which are designed to induce investments in specified low-income communities. In her practice, Julie has utilized these vehicles for clients on a broad range of projects, ranging from the development of local commercial office buildings and healthcare facilities to a fish processing plant in Alaska and the conservation of a salmon sanctuary in Northern California. As a practitioner, Julie emphasizes developing a deep understanding of a client’s business, and arriving at tax plans that supports their specific business objectives. Her goal is to develop practical, real-world tax minimization strategies that are both innovative and effective.

Michael Williamson Chairs the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group and is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. His practice includes finance, equity investments, opportunity zones, tax credits, real estate fund formation, syndicated investments, and portfolio and syndicated credit facilities, including asset-based lending, secured and unsecured credit facilities, municipal and project finance. Michael represents project sponsors, funds, lenders, borrowers, and investors nationwide in financing, structuring and syndicating office, hotel, industrial, and multifamily projects. His projects involve tax credits, foreclosures, work-outs, opportunity zone investments and workouts or restructuring partnership disputes. He lectures frequently on financing issues, opportunity zones, historic preservation, tax credits, and real estate transactions. Michael is active in community affairs in his hometown of Pasadena. He serves as chair of the City Planning Commission and on the Board of Zoning Appeals, and is founder, past president and vice president of development of Heritage Housing Partners, a nonprofit for-sale housing developer.

Mike Ballard has been involved in the construction and real estate industries for more than three decades, as a developer, financial consultant, or an advisor. He is known for his excellent contacts with business, government, and real estate executives throughout the West. Mike has served or advised many major real estate companies including Forest City Development, Lennar, CBRE, Sundance Bay, MJW Investments, Greenspun Corporation, Thomas & Mack Company, the Molasky Group of Companies, Union Pacific Realty, Realty Management, Inc. (RMI), Carefree Senior Living, and several municipalities. Mike started his career working for two international CPA firms, Laventhol & Horwath, CPAs, and McGladrey & Pullen, serving primarily construction and real estate firms. Most recently, he has been involved in financial support or the development of apartment communities or state-of-the-art data centers. Currently, Mike is also a partner in the firm of Ascent Multifamily, which provides outsourced accounting services to multi-family firms representing more than 28,000 units throughout the U.S. Mike oversees the Tax Credit, Consulting, and Business Development segments of the firm. Prior to Ascent, Mike was a consultant to Enhanced Capital and Stonehenge Capital related to their New Markets Tax Credit and/or SBIC funds. Mike was a founding member of the board of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV and also helped with the formation of the local NAIOP and Construction Financial Management Association chapters. In 2010, Mike was named one of the “Top 20 Visionaries” in Nevada by Nevada Business magazine. He has served on the boards of many for-profit companies and a bank. Mike is the founder and has served twice as chairman of a Shark-Tank like group called the Vegas Valley Angels. He is also a former board member of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University and the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival. Mike is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Mike is married and the father of four adult children. His interests include sports, travel, genealogy and family history, movies, and reading biographies.

Mr. Upton founded Upton+Partners in 2009 to pursue unique real estate opportunities. Since inception the firm has developed over $700 million of projects, including the award winning Arlington360 mixed-use project, the expansion of LogMeIn’s world headquarters, the development of Ocean 650, a 230 units residential development, as well as the expansion/renovation of the America’s Wing of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Currently the firm has over $300 million of mixed-use projects in its pipeline and approximately $170 million are located in in Opportunity Zones. Mr. Upton is an accomplished real estate executive with over 25-year years of experience in all facets of real estate development and investment. He has been associated with over $1.8 billion of investment and real estate development across a variety of asset classes, including the development of over 700 multifamily residential units in metropolitan Boston.

Ted Conrad is a project manager with the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, focused on shepherding large development projects through complex approvals with maximum public benefits. Ted previously worked in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Public Policy and Finance developing the City’s $11 billion annual budget and prior to that worked in renewable energy development with Silverado Power. Ted holds a BA in Geography from UCLA and a Master in Urban Planning from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Craig Mizushima is the Chief Impact Officer for the Housing Trust Silicon Valley. The Housing Trust is the single largest nonprofit lender for affordable housing in the greater Bay-area. The organization’s financing has leveraged almost $200 million in financing supporting the creation of 17,000 new homes. Its programs help everyone from those experiencing homelessness, to renters and first-time home buyers, and the development of ADUs. The Housing Trust is exploring the feasibility of establishing its own Opportunity Zone Fund.

Daniel Palmer leads operations and mid-Atlantic projects for Blueprint Local, a new venture that aims to be the premier platform for people to invest meaningfully in their own community. Blueprint is working with a series of partners to support real estate and operating businesses in distressed communities, using the Opportunity Zone benefit to focus these efforts on economically distressed areas. Prior to launching Blueprint Local, Daniel led the national expansion of Startup in Residence, a program that matches local government teams with entrepreneurs to solve civic problems. He has also managed local government innovation projects in South Bend, Indiana, and worked as a strategy and operations consultant.

Bryan Shaffer is Principal/Managing Director of George Smith Partners where he focuses on delivering solutions to address his clients’ real estate capital requirements. Mr. Shaffer works hard to arrange structured financings for multifamily and commercial properties, including acquisition, refinance, construction, bridge and permanent loans. Mr. Shaffer has successfully structured both debt and equity placements for private entrepreneurs and institutional clients. He has been able to utilize his prior vast and diverse experiences in owning, operating, developing commercial real estate to help him succeed in capital raising for multi-family, affordable, office, retail, industrial, hospitality, data centers, healthcare/medical and senior facilities sectors to provide the best options and structure for his clients. In his career, Mr. Shaffer has been deeply involved in over $8.5 billion in real estate transactions, including the structuring or arranging over $3 billion of debt and equity placements and the repositioning and sale of $2 billion of properties for a Japanese institutional investor, Mitsui Real Estate Sales/Mitsui Fudosan. His focus is understanding the needs of clients large and small, so with his team, they can provide the best solution in the market. Mr. Shaffer closed transactions with every type of capital provider including Banks, Insurance Companies, Family Offices, Private Equity Firms, Bond Funds, CTL Lenders, Funds, Community Development Lenders, and Institutional Investors. He serves on the direct investment committee for Clearinghouse, CDFI and has advised two family offices. Prior to serving as a Principal and Managing Director at George Smith Partners, Mr. Shaffer ran his own global investment advisory company, led dispositions for the world’s largest real estate owner, created a global trade association and operated projects for several development firms. He has served as a contractor for the United States Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), as an Expert Witness and California Superior Court Receiver.