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The Housing Partnership Announces key promotions and new personnel

Bookmark and Share Charlotte, NC - May 17, 2017

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, Inc. (The Housing Partnership) is pleased to announce the promotion of Kim Graham to senior vice president of outreach and fund development and Larry Samuels to vice president of construction project management. Additionally, the organization has added new staff – Karen Batten-Balas as senior vice president of residential development and construction and Boris Henderson as vice president of commercial real estate development and special projects.

“Over the last 28 years, The Housing Partnership has been a consistent producer of affordable housing in the Charlotte-metro region, and we are committed to helping the City achieve its goal of providing 5,000 affordable units in three years by relying upon our professional staff,” said Julie Porter, president of The Housing Partnership. “The challenges facing nonprofit affordable developers today require an experienced staff with a diverse skill set. Our promoted staff and new additions have a wealth of knowledge in neighborhood revitalization, real estate development, construction management and community stabilization.”

Graham joined The Housing Partnership in 2011. In her former role as vice president of community engagement, she managed key initiatives including faith-based and arts partnerships while assisting neighborhoods in securing grants for improvement projects. Graham recently led revitalization efforts in Druid Hills and garnered a $500,000 Catalytic Grant from NeighborWorks® America for a wide-range of community stabilization projects. In her new role, she will lead efforts to increase access to opportunities such as property tax relief for seniors and youth workforce development in neighborhoods along the Statesville Avenue Corridor as well as other target areas.

Samuels started with The Housing Partnership in 1996 and has worked his way up through the ranks in the construction department. He has worked on almost every housing rehabilitation and new construction project over the past two decades. Most notably, Samuels streamlined the contractor bid process while ensuring record percentages of minority, women and small business enterprise (MSWBE) participation in developments. In his new role, he will work to increase outreach to MWSBEs and subcontractors.

Batten-Balas was formerly the senior vice president of construction with Wood Partners where she was responsible for construction operations and multi-family projects in Charlotte, District of Columbia, Georgia and Florida. During her tenure with Wood Partners, she was responsible for a total of 48 apartment communities totaling 10,000 units. Most recently, she started a construction division for Trammel Crow in Arlington, Virginia. Batten-Balas will oversee a revamp of process workflow to ensure continuous improvement of construction project management.

Henderson worked for the former Wachovia Bank where he underwrote and structured class A commercial loans. During Wachovia’s transition to Wells Fargo, he was a work-out specialist for troubled commercial real estate loans, assessing the overall risk and relationship credit for a portfolio of office, retail, industrial and multi-family properties. Since then, he has served as a consultant to smaller financial institutions, assisting them in managing loan portfolio risk. Henderson will manage the conversion of vacant or blighted parcels to viable commercial zones and cultivate essential partnerships for the creation of retail centers in target communities.

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