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McCormack Baron Salazar wishes health, happiness and success to you and yours in 2015

December 31, 2014 | McCormack Baron Salazar

As 2014 comes to a close, McCormack Baron Salazar looks back on a year of innovation, change and a continued pioneering spirit to transform and uplift the lives of families and children through rebuilding communities.

Transforming more lives: We expanded our national development footprint into Detroit, MI, Washington, D.C and Galveston, TX and added a new state to our activity when we were selected as part of a team to work in Hawaii.

Uplifting more communities: We continued to improve our high-quality management services through the adoption of an innovative training and employee development program. In addition, we have increased our capacity for fee-managing third-party properties and are pleased to announce the new name of our management firm: McCormack Baron Management.

Protecting the earth and saving disposable income for our residents: We have rebranded and expanded the services of our sustainability and renewable energy affiliate, Sunwheel Energy + Sustainability, which now includes green building and green management services in addition to renewable expertise.

Innovating for families: From the John and Jill Ker Conway Residence in Washington, D.C. that will provide housing to disabled veterans to the Cedars and the Villas in Galveston that will provide safe, sustainable, resilient and affordable homes for families displaced by Hurricane Ike, we continue to explore innovative ways to solve challenges in funding, designing and constructing urban communities that serve residents from diverse backgrounds. We are pleased to share our many accomplishments of 2014.

McCormack Baron Salazar celebrated the following groundbreakings and grand openings of communities across the country:

Groundbreakings / Closings:

  • The Strathmore Apartments in Detroit, Michigan

  • Taylor Yard Seniors, Los Angeles, California

  • Carroll Ave. Seniors, San Francisco, California

  • The John and Jill Ker Conway Residence, Washington, D.C.

  • The Villas on the Strand, Galveston, Texas

  • The Cedars at Carver Park, Galveston, Texas

Grand Openings:

  • North Sarah-Phase II, St. Louis, Missouri

  • Flance Early Learning Center, St. Louis, Missouri

  • Amalie Terrace Apartments, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

  • Mercer Commons, Cincinnati, Ohio

  • Marrero Commons, New Orleans, Louisiana

In addition, we were parts of teams that received two $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants – in Columbus, Ohio and in Pittsburgh, PA.

MBS Urban Initiatives CDE helped to close on the Historic Tax Credit and New Market Tax Credit-financed Fairmont Creamery, which will result in the old creamery facility rehabilitated into a mixed-use development including ground floor retail and affordable housing. The building is fully leased and held a grand opening celebration on December 15, 2014. The CDE also provided consulting services (including assisting with sourcing New Market Tax Credit allocation and the financial closing process) for the St. Bernard Project, a $7 million mixed-use facility that will provide job training, a national not-for-profit headquarters and commercial retail space located in the New Orleans’ Choice Neighborhood.

Also in New Orleans, the Recovery School District’s Wheatley School opened its doors for students on August 27, 2014, including the only edible schoolyard in New Orleans. The Flance Early Learning Center opened its doors to its first children on June 2, 2014, bringing mixed-income early childhood education to the Northside of Saint Louis.

The CDE has completed the unwind of our first three New Market Tax Credit financed investments and assisted with the unwinding of the Big Brothers / Big Sisters building in Saint Louis.

McCormack Baron Asset Management provides services for over 37,000 apartments across the country. Recognizing significant opportunities to improve performance in the McCormack Baron Salazar-developed portfolio, McCormack Baron Asset Management successfully refinanced 6 projects, with another dozen under evaluation for refinance, restructuring or resyndication opportunities in the coming year.

McCormack Baron Ragan Management Services is now McCormack Baron Management. In addition to managing multiple lease-ups in the St. Louis, Miami, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Durham, New Orleans, and Los Angeles market places, McCormack Baron Management was appointed third party fee-manager for approximately 2,000 apartments throughout the country with additional contract awards nearing finalization. McCormack Baron Management’s new third party fee-managed communities include private market rate and commercial developments, affordable housing communities, and public housing communities. McCormack Baron Management continued to seek new ways to provide additional value added services to their clients via the expansion of McCormack Baron University with new curriculum, creation of a new National Director of Marketing position, launch of a new state-of-the-art Lead Tracking and Revenue Management technology, and expansion of a new robust expense management and procurement process designed to maximize each community’s financial performance.

Sunwheel Energy + Sustainability Sunwheel Energy Partners rebranded to Sunwheel Energy + Sustainability to demonstrate increasing capacity in sustainability services. In addition to managing over 3 Gigawatts of solar panels installed in low-income communities across the country, Sunwheel helped more than 400 new McCormack Baron Salazar residences earn Enterprise Green Communities and Energy Star certification.

The achievements listed above would not have been possible without the dedication of our employees, partners, and residents. Thank you for all the hard work that makes the dream of home into reality for families across the country.