Assistant Commissioner, Division of Portfolio Management and Conversions

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.
  
  

HPD is entrusted with fulfilling these objectives through the goals and strategies of “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness,” Mayor Adams’ comprehensive housing framework. To support this important work, the administration has committed $5 billion in new capital funding, bringing the 10-year planned investment in housing to $22 billion the largest in the city’s history. This investment, coupled with a commitment to reduce administrative and regulatory barriers, is a multi-pronged strategy to tackle New York City’s complex housing crisis, by addressing homelessness and housing instability, promoting economic stability and mobility, increasing homeownership opportunities, improving health and safety, and increasing opportunities for equitable growth.

Your Team

The Office of Development leads the agency’s effort to preserve and create new affordable housing opportunities across the City of New York following the Mayor’s Housing Plan. As the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Portfolio Management and Conversions, you will oversee and facilitate the successful completion and conversion of the HPD’s financed affordable housing pipeline and ensure a smooth handoff to HPD’s Office of Asset and Property Management and other units as appropriate.

Your Role

Your role will be to work in close coordination with other divisions within the Office of Development and across HPD, including HPD Legal, Marketing, Asset and Property Management, and Fiscal, and in partnership with the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), and other City, state, and federal agencies. You will be a voting member of the HPD Credit Committee and will work closely with HPD Legal in the review of regulatory amendments and loan adjustments that occur post-initial loan closing and in conjunction with loan conversion. You will have primary responsibility for managing all post-closing and pre-conversion engagement and negotiations with developers, lenders, and other development partners from the private and non-profit sectors. You will contribute to and at times lead development of agency strategy and public policy on such topics as compliance with regulatory agreements, implementation of rental assistance, evaluation of existing programs, conversion process improvements, and lowering risk ratings in HPD’s portfolio. You will be responsible for developing, maintaining, and growing a team dedicated to this work.

Your Responsibilities

Responsibilities include:

• Initiate and set Division direction and goals including the structuring of key staffing placements and the processes necessary to manage all aspects of post-closing, construction, and pre-conversion process including but not limited to monitoring the construction process, managing requisitions, ensuring rental assistance and project rental achievement, and working with development teams to meet all close-out and conversion requirements including clearing violations and addressing title issues, executing amendments to commitments, regulatory, loan and other documents, trouble-shooting complex work-outs, communicating on multi-stakeholder projects and employing reporting metrics.
• Track and report out on the division’s activities.
• Establish and implement the division’s annual goals to support the completion and conversion of HPD’s financed project portfolio in consultation and collaboration with other Office of Development leadership.
• Lead and develop a team responsible for activities including loan conversions, loan close-outs, workouts, rental subsidy, rent restructuring, construction oversight, and other operations. Ensure quality and consistent in operations.
• Coordinate with multiple internal divisions and HPD leadership, as well as external partners including developers, owners, lenders, and syndicators.
• Field and respond to inquiries, both internal and external, about division activities. As part of this effort, the Assistant Commissioner will be responsible for prioritizing potential issues and making sound recommendations to the Deputy Commissioner.
• Ensuring cost-effectiveness by leading efforts to ensure timely completion and conversion of projects, including implementing protocols to ensure efficient use of public subsidies.
• Identify projects that require workouts, craft recommendations to stabilize projects, and work with staff in Preservation Finance, Homeownership Opportunities and Finance, New Construction Finance, and Special Needs Housing to secure additional financing or other resources as needed.
• Fostering innovation in the creation of new process, financing models and deal structures to address the needs of complex workouts of projects prior to conversion and other policy priorities.
• Ensuring a successful hand-off to other internal and external partners upon completion and other conversion, including Asset and Property Management, Fiscal, and loan servicers.
• Contributing to the development, implementation, and tracking of strategic plans for the Office of Development and the Agency.
• Other responsibilities and initiatives as may be required to ensure the success of the division, the Office of Development, and the Agency.
  
  

Preferred Skills

The position requires a strong background in real estate finance, with experience in community development and construction a plus. All candidates should have:

Extensive knowledge of financial tools and theory as well as facility in the use and analysis of financial models

Demonstrated knowledge of real estate development in New York City including construction and conversion requirements

Demonstrated experience in establishing operations and procedures to ensure successful outcomes.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Excellent analytical, organizational, and quantitative abilities

Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects in a timely manner

Demonstrated management and supervisory experience

Strong track record of working with the affordable housing development industry

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/.

Residency Requirement

New York City Residency is required for the duration of employment

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.