DC Metro Affordable Housing Summit

Bob Murphy is the Managing Principal for MRP Realty. He has over 34 years of experience in commercial real estate operations, ownership and investment. He joined Trammell Crow Company (TCC) in 1987, managing the firm’s regional operations for many years as Principal. Bob’s last role with TCC was area president of the development and investment group in the Mid-Atlantic where Bob and his team completed $1.8B of investments totaling over 10 million square feet. He co-founded MRP Realty (MRP) in 2005, capitalizing on his in-depth knowledge of Mid-Atlantic real estate markets, extensive network of capital relationships, and his reputation as a collaborative and creative partner to drive the firm. Under Bob’s leadership, MRP has deployed nearly $7.8B of office, residential/mixed-use and industrial developments and acquisition investments with an active pipeline totaling over 8 million square feet. He has actively participated in leadership roles at NAIOP and ULI and at various charitable activities during his career; currently serving on the board of Habitat for Humanity of Washington D.C. Bob received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Notre Dame; his M.B.A. in Finance at Columbia Business School; and was an officer in the United States Army.

Christopher E. Donald was appointed Interim Executive Director in January 2020. As Interim Executive Director he is responsible for the overall supervision, coordination and strategic direction of the District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency. Mr. Donald joined the Agency in October 2016 as the Senior Vice President of Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood Investments. He served as part of DCHFA’s senior management team. His primary responsibility was to manage the day-to-day operations of the Multifamily Lending and Neighborhood Investments (formerly Public Finance) department and assist the Executive Director & CEO with the development of multifamily programs, products, polices and strategic planning.   Mr. Donald has over 15 years of experience in real estate finance, community building, development, land entitlement and construction.  He’s entitled over 1MM square feet of mixed income, transit oriented, amenity rich housing.   Mr. Donald specializes in acquisitions, entitlement, community visioning and deal structuring.  He has completed over $1 billion in real estate financing over the course of his career and renovated over 1,000 multifamily units and entitled and underwritten almost 3,500 multifamily units throughout Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.   Mr. Donald has also acquired and programmed commercial space for small local businesses and retailers. As the Director of Development at the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, Mr. Donald underwrote and structured $60MM in low-income housing tax credit transactions. Over the last several years he has provided underwriting services to the Office of State Superintendent for Education for the District of Columbia and financed over $300 million in improvements for public charter schools using New Markets Tax Credits, Tax Exempt Bonds and other tools. Mr. Donald began his career in finance at Lehman Brothers in the Municipal Finance Group and underwrote $200MM in revenue bonds for the District of Columbia. Prior to his tenure at DCHFA, Mr. Donald served as the Principal and Co-Founder of The Leidesdorff Group.   The Leidesdorff Group (TLG) is a diversified real estate advisory firm focused on the regeneration of urban communities within the Mid-Atlantic region.  As a principal of TLG, Mr. Donald focused on distressed and disinvested urban communities.   Mr. Donald is a member of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the Board of Directors of the African American Real Estate Professionals of DC (AAREP-DC) and the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND). He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

A founding member and owner of SCG Development and its affiliated company Stratford Capital Group (the “Company”), Steve is responsible for the management and oversight of the Company’s property development activities. Committed to developing high quality affordable and workforce housing to support healthy, diverse communities, the Company has participated in the capitalization and development of over 290 properties comprising 35,000 apartment units across 45 states. SCG Development has active development projects in 12 states and maintains offices in Tysons, Virginia and Peabody, Massachusetts.  Steve is a frequent panelist at industry events and guest lecturer at various colleges and universities. He is a graduate of the University of Richmond with a bachelor’s degree in finance and holds an MBA from The George Washington University. Steve is a 35-year resident of northern Virginia and currently lives in Vienna with his wife, 3 kids and a dog.

John is a Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager within KeyBank Real Estate Capital’s Community Development Lending and Investment Group. He is a member of the Group’s management team tasked with expanding the Bank’s affordable housing platform from 12 to 50 states. Based in Manhattan, John focuses on establishing and expanding relationships with real estate investors and owners of affordable housing based in the eastern US. Throughout his tenure at the Bank John has served in many functions including working in the Bank’s Income Property Group, Asset Recovery Group, and Private Equity Group. Over his career, he has closed over $1.5 billion in multifamily housing loans throughout the nation. John has expertise in a wide variety of asset types, including Affordable Housing, Market Rate Apartments, Manufactured Housing, Student Housing, and Seniors Housing. Additionally, he is highly experienced in complex deal structures including acquisition/rehabs, tax exempt bonds, low income housing tax credits, new construction, and permanent financing options through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD. John is a 2006 graduate of Morehouse College by way of Houston, Texas. While at Morehouse he graduate Cum Laude with a Bachelors Degree in Finance and a minor in Economics. John currently serves as a Board Member of Bridge Street Development Corporation and serves on the Steering committee of the New York Chapter of the Real Estate Associates Program.

Colette Dafoe is the office managing partner of the firm’s DC office, and focuses her practice on all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, representing owners, investors and developers in acquisitions, sales, leasing, financing and development of commercial real estate. Her practice involves drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, leases and loan documents and performing due diligence and other site acquisition services.

Nina Janopaul has been President/CEO of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) since 2007. APAH is a non-profit, community-based, award winning, affordable housing developer. Ms. Janopaul oversees all elements of APAH’s real estate development, operations, advocacy, services, and governance. During her tenure, APAH has grown its portfolio to fifteen multifamily rental properties with 1360+ units, valued at almost $250 million with another 800 units in development. APAH is known for its nimble and effective real estate development, for pioneering innovative supportive housing partnerships and its community impact. Under Ms. Janopaul’s leadership, APAH has received numerous awards, including the Charles Edson award for best urban development in the country; the Urban Land Institute—DC’s best Housing project; Developer of the Year from the Housing Association of Non-Profit Developers; Best Nonprofit by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and the Arlington Community Foundation’s Prize for Impact and Innovation. Before joining APAH, Ms. Janopaul was a principal at Capital Strategies Consulting, Inc. and provided services to a variety of organizations, including Enterprise Community Partners. Prior to 2000, she was the National Director of Development for Hostelling International – USA (formerly American Youth Hostels). Ms. Janopaul received a Bachelors of Arts Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University. She serves on the Virginia Housing Development Authority’s Northern Virginia Advisory Committee. She is a past President of HAND, a regional housing association and received the Virginia Housing Coalition’s 2013 Innovations in Leadership award.

Robert A. Goldman has been President of Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) since 2001. He also has worked in housing policy at the federal and local levels. He is a recognized expert in affordable housing and in 2017 was selected as Practitioner of the Year by the National NeighborWorks® Association. Goldman is a past president and current member of the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND), as well as a member of the Community Development Network of Maryland. He has served on the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Washington Housing Initiative Council, the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission, the Wheaton Redevelopment Steering Committee, and the Long Branch Task Force. Prior to joining MHP, Goldman worked as a Senior Development Officer at the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation (ESIC) where he was involved in syndicating low-income housing tax credit projects. He received his Juris Doctorate from UCLA Law School, his master’s degree in Real Estate from Johns Hopkins University, and his bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University. A native Washingtonian, Goldman lives in Montgomery County, Md., with his wife and daughter.

As Managing Partner, Brett Meringoff’s responsibilities include leading the company’s acquisitions and development activities, with a focus on large-scale redevelopment and mixed-income housing, as well as the strategic direction of the company. Prior to joining Fairstead, Brett was Senior Vice President and development partner at WinnDevelopment, one of the oldest and largest affordable housing developers in the country. Under Brett’s leadership, projects entitled, in development and completed, totaled more than 4,900 units in 19 properties. At the time of his departure, there were 5 projects totaling nearly 1,000 units in the predevelopment pipeline. In 2019, Brett was appointed by Governor Northam to the Board of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. He also currently serves on the Board of the Latin American Youth Center in Washington DC, which has been providing educational and recreational programs for youths in the DC metropolitan area for nearly 50 years. Brett previously served on the Green/Energy Committee of the National Leased Housing Association, the Young Leaders Education Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), DC Real Estate Group, the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisory Board (MARAB), and as a ULI Mentor. Brett received a Bachelor Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Washington, DC, Office Managing Partner Jeff Lesk is as a nationally recognized finance attorney. He works with investors, lenders, sponsors, developers and other private and public industry stakeholders to finance high-impact, socially oriented community developments.

Joseph LeMense is the managing director of community development & nonprofit banking at United Bank, the largest headquartered community bank in Greater Washington. With over 40 years of experience, LeMense guides the Bank’s nonprofit business development and lending initiatives throughout the Bank’s markets in eight states and the District. He focuses on providing personalized financial solutions to mission-based organizations involved in community development, affordable housing, education, social services and trade associations. LeMense joined United Bank in 2004, most recently serving as a senior vice president of commercial banking. In this role, he developed and managed long-term lending relationships, primarily in the nonprofit, biotech and government contracting industries. LeMense’s areas of expertise include tax exempt bond finance, tax increment finance, Property Assessed Clean Energy (“PACE”) financing and Low Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC”) and New Market Tax Credit (“NMTC”) financing. A fifth-generation Washingtonian and fourth-generation graduate of Georgetown University, LeMense is a board member of the Jubilee Housing Advisory Board and a former mayoral appointee to the D.C. Public Charter School Credit Enhancement Fund Committee. He is an active volunteer and advisor with the Georgetown University Alumni Club of Washington, D.C. as well as a guest lecturer at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. A 2015 graduate of Leadership Montgomery, Joe was also a charter member and past president of the Metro Bethesda Rotary Club.

Winell Belfonte is a partner in CohnReznick’s Affordable Housing and Not-for-Profit and Education Industry practices. She serves as the partner in charge of the Firm's New York office affordable housing practice. In this capacity, she is the lead service provider and business advisor to her clients and accountable for the dissemination and implementation of technical issues for affordable housing and not-for-profit clients. Winell has 30 years of experience providing services to a broad range of clients. Her extensive experience comes in the areas of audit, accounting, and tax for not-for-profit and for-profit clients including real estate developers, investors, syndicators, contractors, and property managers, as well as charities and foundations. Her business advisory expertise includes strategic planning, the design and implementation of internal control structures, financial analysis, budgets, regulatory compliance, and investor requirements. As a frequent speaker, Winell has become well known for her technical expertise. She has spoken to many not-for-profit and affordable housing audiences and graduated from a nine-month community leadership program with Leadership of Greater Washington in 2010.