About The Finch Group

How did The Finch Group get to today?

The Finch Group (“TFG”) founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1981 and relocated to Boca Raton, Florida in 1997, controls a group of associated single-purpose entities, each of which handles an aspect of the development, ownership and/or management of:

(1) government assisted, affordable, market rate and/or luxury multifamily residential rental properties;
(2) hospitality properties;
(3) commercial properties.

During its tenure in Boston, TFG was involved with over 10,000 apartment and condominium units ranging from affordable ($40,000) to luxury ($3,000,000), using 1996 valuation.

In 1996, when TFG’s condominium division was sold, TFG was the largest operator of condominiums in New England. The cumulative valuation of the properties in which TFG was involved exceeded $2 billion.

The experience and expertise gained from a combination of the development and marketing skills associated with the higher-end residential rental and ownership product, and 30+ years of its principals developing affordable and subsidized housing, gives TFG the broad knowledge base that is required in acquiring and repositioning underperforming and distressed property.  This focus is TFG’s unique specialty.

A significant part of TFG's success can be traced to its principals who have an expertise in repositioning and restructuring underperforming properties, and a majority of whom have worked together, and relied upon each other, for years.

TENURE

Wesley E. Finch, Chairman Founder 1981
Rosanna P. Tartaro, Chief Operating Officer Joined 1994
Robert A. James, Jr., Esq. Executive Vice President Joined 1981
Dennis H. Blackinton, CPA, Treasurer Joined 1985
Christina P. Alletto, CPM President, Signature Housing Solutions, Inc. AMO  Joined 1981
Ernest J. Palazzolo, COO, TFG Hotels & Resorts Joined 1988
Max P. O’Brien, Vice President of Construction Joined 1990
Gabriel S. Grossman, Vice President Joined 2005
Liza A. Finch, Director of Marketing Joined 2003

The particular strength we have as a group is based on our different but very complementary experiences and talent.

From its inception in 1981, TFG has established an impressive track record by applying its extensive experience in evaluating, developing, rehabilitating, marketing, and managing affordable multi-family residential; mixed-use, high-end residential; hospitality and office properties. Our entrepreneurial attitude is set on implementing well thought out business plans, on a property specific basis, that realistically reflect the strengths and weaknesses of each individual situation.

In the early 1990's, as a result of the New England Real Estate Crisis (after successfully and amicably working through its own financial restructurings), and drawing on lessons learned from earlier work on distressed subsidized housing properties, TFG became one of the Northeast's pre-eminent problem project workout organizations.

It is the lessons learned in the past that have led TFG to where it is today.
By way of example:

• 1973 – 1975 Wesley E. Finch, as operating director of his former employer, was retained by Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency to take over, workout and reposition 929 House, 929 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts and 808 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, Massachusetts. These two projects totaling 500± units were repositioned and today, over thirty years later, provide quality, affordable and market rate housing in the area between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University
   

• 1983 – 1985 TFG tackled a financially distressed 423-unit, HUD-financed, high-rise, rental property in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Chestnut Hill. TFG stabilized the property and converted it to condominiums (the first HUD-financed building to be converted to luxury condominiums in the United States). Today, over twenty years later, the property, called The Towers of Chestnut Hill, remains the pre-eminent luxury condominium in the Chestnut Hill area.
   

• 1993 – 1995 TFG was brought in by a group of mortgagees, who had foreclosed on their debt, to develop, construct, market and manage the revitalization of the Somerset Hotel located on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s historic Back Bay. Built at the turn of the century, the old Somerset Hotel had seen better days. Two developers had walked away from the deal and a third was foreclosed out. With TFG’s broad market knowledge and its sense of the product that would sell at this location, it was able to revive the grand old property as housing. This helped stabilize a key Commonwealth Avenue block, between Massachusetts Avenue and Kenmore Square, that was in danger of becoming a college campus extension, and triggered significant new investment in the area. Within 18 months, the property was renovated and the first phase of the project sold out. TFG redesigned the second phase to suit appropriate target market groups, oversaw construction, and successfully sold out the complex. Today units in the building are selling at prices approaching $1,000,000.
   

• 2003 - 2005 In November, 2003, TFG, working with its long-term joint venturer, Daejan, PLC (a London Stock Exchange listed property company) took over the operation of 513 severely distressed rental units contained within a 774 unit condominium association in Lauderhill (just west of Fort Lauderdale), Florida. TFG also manages the condominium association. Units within the property were generally selling in the low $70,000’s in November, 2003. By November, 2005 similar units were selling in the mid $160,000’s, with “after bubble” sales prices in April, 2007 now starting at $140,000+.