Mark Fogarty Author Archives

The pandemic put a lot of stress on the retail sector, as health-conscious consumers turned to online shopping and started skipping trips to the local mall.

Developers of Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects are used to the concept of complicated capital stacks for their deals.

The California city of Santa Barbara is an affluent place. Oprah Winfrey lives there. President Reagan had his ranch there. But its commercial district was starting to look ragged post-pandemic, with stores going out of business due to online competition from Amazon and others.

John B. Cruz III is a raconteur. You’ll learn a lot from listening for an hour to this dignified, elderly developer, head of the Cruz Companies in Boston.

It would be nice if affordable multifamily housing could be financed all in one shot, but it never is.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program was a big idea: to raise money to rehabilitate crumbling old public housing properties by raising private equity and converting the buildings into project-based Section 8 developments.

“Failure to launch” is a term sometimes used to describe young people who haven’t yet found their place in adult life.

The sound environment around a housing project can be a great addition to the amenities of a property – or an albatross around its neck.

Belongó. It’s an evocative term, containing not only the English word “belong” but a Cuban one meaning to cast a spell.

Faith-based affordable housing development is on the rise, and a good example of it can be found in Tacoma, WA where Shiloh Baptist Church is turning two parcels of land it owns into 60 units of housing for vulnerable populations.

Since the Briscoe School in Beverly, MA was a functioning educational facility as recently as 2018, it is likely that at least some of the seniors soon to be living in its adaptive reuse as housing will have memories of learning the Three Rs there (reading, wRiting and aRithmetic).

For those in affordable housing considering their legacies, there is the example of Philip Freelon to consider.