Director of Special Projects & Workouts for the Division of Preservation and Portfolio Management

About the Agency: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) promotes quality and affordability in the city's housing, and diversity and strength in the city’s neighborhoods because every New Yorker deserves a safe, affordable place to live in a neighborhood they love.

• We maintain building and resident safety and health
• We create opportunities for New Yorkers through housing affordability
• We engage New Yorkers to build and sustain neighborhood strength and diversity.

Your Team: The Office of Development (OOD) leads the agency’s effort to create and preserve affordable housing as a critical part of Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness in collaboration with other HPD offices as well as other city, state and federal agencies. The OOD is comprised of seven divisions that administer a range of programs. These divisions include New Construction Finance, Special Needs Housing, Building and Land Development Services (BLDS), Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation, Preservation Finance, Portfolio Management and Conversions, Compliance and Enforcement and Housing Incentives.

HPD’s Division of Preservation and Portfolio Management oversees two divisions.

The Division of Preservation Finance administers multiple financing programs including the Multifamily Housing Rehabilitation Loan Program (HRP),), Participation Loan Program (PLP), Housing Preservation Opportunities Program (HPO), Neighborhood Pillars Program, the Third Party Transfer Program (TPT), Multi-Family Preservation Loan Program (MPLP), Community Partnerships for Affordable Renovation Program (CPAR), the Lead Hazard Reduction and Healthy Homes Program, HUD Multifamily Program (HUD MF), and LIHTC Preservation (“Year 15”) Program. The Division also oversees programs to provide technical assistance to multifamily owners. These programs facilitate the financial and physical viability, as well as affordability of privately-owned multi-family and single-family buildings throughout New York City.

The Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions (PMC) comprises of four teams, including Conversions, Requisitions, and Construction Monitoring. PMC is responsible for overseeing a large pipeline of HPD projects financed across the Divisions of New Construction, Special Needs Housing, Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation, and Preservation Finance. The division is responsible for proactively managing projects from closing through construction to permanent loan conversion and transition to other teams within HPD.

The position is responsible for overseeing the strategic management, restructuring, and resolution of troubled or underperforming affordable housing assets within the City’s portfolio. The Director will oversee and supervise a team of multiple staff.

Your Impact: As the Director of Special Projects & Workouts, you will focus on delayed and troubled capitally funded projects and work collaboratively with internal and external partners to create a clear path to project stabilization. The work involves multiple internal and external partners, including developers, general contractors, tenants, and lenders, and may also involve coordination of rental subsidies, rent increases or resolution of issues related to housing code, legal, underwriting and/or other issues. The ability to prioritize, track, shepherd, and trouble-shoot a complex workload and efficiently work with partners to create solutions within tight deadlines is critical.

Duties include coordinating with the relevant team leadership to oversee workouts for troubled projects that may include new City assistance, implementation of tax exemptions, modifications of deal terms from the original closing, technical assistance, or other necessary interventions. This role’s tasks will include liaising with internal and external stakeholders and tracking and monitoring stabilization targets There will be significant contact with developers, tenants and affordable housing lenders and an opportunity to work directly and indirectly on multiple projects. This position will work across multiple teams and require broader coordination across multiple teams within HPD.

Your Role The Director will be responsible for making recommendations for resolving delayed projects, including efficient use of additional City capital and other resources and resolving construction-based delays. The role will also include focus on improving the overall productivity and work quality of the unit, developing and systematizing best practice standards, and ensuring optimal quality control, transparency and efficiency.

This role involves direct engagement internally with multiple teams including HPD Asset Management, and the Portfolio Management and Conversions teams as well as other loan program areas. Interaction with external partners will be a large part of this role with direct relationship management of borrowers, investors, lending partners, and other state, city, and federal regulatory agencies. The role of Director will be to make recommendations for projects considered in workout status, which may include sizing new or increased City capital loans, modifications of deal terms from the original closing, or other necessary interventions. This role’s tasks will include liaising with internal and external stakeholders to obtain results and bring preserve affordable housing outcomes Your Responsibilities Responsibilities include making recommendations for resolving troubled capitally funded projects, including efficient use of additional City resources to stabilize troubled projects. Other duties may include standardizing and documenting procedures, creating and implementing tracking, reporting and other management tools, training staff, trouble-shooting complex, multi-stakeholder projects, improving communications templates, exploring technological solutions, and strengthening relationships with internal and external partners. As needed, you will participate in hiring new team members, training and mentoring, providing constructive feedback (including regular performance appraisals), and resolving human resources related questions and concerns.

Additional duties will include, but not be limited, to the following:

• Analyzing delayed projects to troubleshoot and resolve so the projects are back on track for resolution.
• Resolving project delays and/or projects that are in financial workout status.
• Supervise and provide technical and procedural assistance to project management and other staff assisting with workouts production, as needed
• Coordinating project management and tracking related to monitoring and reviewing distressed capitally funded projects.
• Acting as a liaison with developers, financial institutions, not for profit organizations and governmental agencies to promote and create affordable housing and to move delayed development projects forward
• Representing the Programs in meetings with internal and external partners; When directed by supervisors, communicate with interagency partners and external parties to facilitate program goals and policies
• Reviewing legal documents for accuracy in regard to program policy and negotiated deal terms;
• Counseling designated developers in program policies, regulations, and assisting to resolve issues related to their projects.
• Reviewing, analyzing, and commenting on underwriting and preservation proposals submitted by project sponsors for project workouts and making recommendations to senior staff about feasibility
• Producing detailed reports, memoranda, presentations, and written correspondence regarding projects, programs, or other special projects, as needed
• Perform or supervise general project management duties for a range of capitally funded preservation transactions, as needed, including preparing recommendations for workouts, and managing workouts including but not limited to requests for additional City capital and other resources if necessary
• Advanced financial modeling with an emphasis on affordability analysis, real estate tax benefit analysis, and cash flow projections
• Reviewing and analyzing mortgage notes, regulatory agreements and other related documents requiring understanding and applying of complex regulations
• Coordinate special projects, conduct policy analyses, initiate research and make recommendations that relate to the management and operations of the program, issues facing the workout portfolio specifically, and other issues as requested by the Associate Commissioner for the Division of Preservation and Portfolio Management.

Preferred Skills

• Extensive management and operational experience, including underwriting, financial modelling, and construction/capital needs experience in housing.
• Experience in affordable housing finance modeling and underwriting, complex deal structures (LIHTC, HUD, and bond-financed projects), and workouts or restructures of distressed assets.
• Demonstrated experience successfully tracking multiple pipelines and projects
• Experience reading and interpreting legal documents including regulatory agreements, mortgages, and partnership agreements
• Demonstrated track record of problem solving
• Demonstrated work with coordinating multiple stakeholders, including government entities
• Strong analytic abilities and communication skills, both written and spoken
• Ability to work well in a fast-paced environment with multiple stakeholders and priorities
• Familiarity with NYC government, knowledge of housing development/lending, Section 8/rental subsidies, and/or knowledge of HPD development programs
• Real estate development, law, finance, project management or related experience a plus
• Excellent MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and MS Outlook skills Authorization to work in the United States is required for this position. The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development does not provide sponsorship for international employees for visa applications, extensions, or status changes, including H-1B visas. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they meet all qualifying requirements for this position at the time of application.

Please Note:

a finalist for this position must have filed for the Open Competitive Associate Housing Development Specialist exam #4122 or promotional exam #4570. In addition, the position is open to applicants who are already permanent in the Associate Housing Development Specialist title, or permanent in another comparable civil service title. Candidates must indicate their permanent civil service title(s) on their resume when applying.

Minimum Qualifications

1.A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and three years of full-time satisfactory professional experience in the development, appraisal, financing, negotiation, or disposition of real estate, or in real estate law, or in urban planning or analytical or coordination work related to housing programs; or

• A four year high school diploma or its educational equivalent approved by a State's Department of Education or a recognized accrediting organization and seven years of full-time satisfactory experience as described in "1" above; or 3.A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. Graduate study in the field of urban studies, city planning, business or public administration, finance, architecture, engineering or other related fields may be substituted for up to one year of the required experience on the basis of 30 credits equaling one year of experience. Graduation from an accredited law school may be substituted for one year of the required experience. However, all candidates must have at least two years of experience as described above.

Residency Requirement

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.