TFG’s Government Assisted Housing Background

TFG specializes in the management, restructuring and revitalization of affordable, subsidized and assisted housing.  TFG is uniquely qualified to participate in the structuring and restructuring of transactions on both the debt and equity side.  This combination has established TFG as a premier player in the Government Assisted Housing industry.

Our principals  have played an integral role in the business and political life of assisted housing since the 1968 National Housing Act and the 1969 Tax Reform Act combined to create the private sector low and moderate income housing industry.  More notably TFG’s Chairman and Founder, Wesley E. Finch, initially as a CPA and tax expert, structured transactions; followed by ten years of hands-on experience in developing, constructing and managing subsidized housing; before he founded his own company in 1981.  Mr. Finch brings an enormous level of experience to restructuring and revitalizing distressed subsidized housing.

A more complete description of TFG’s involvement in the subsidized and affordable housing field follows, however, generally speaking  Mr. Finch has been developing, privatizing, structuring, constructing and operating affordable housing properties since the third transaction ever financed by the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (“MHFA”) in 1971.  For over 30 years he has been an active participant in both the public and private sector life cycles of subsidized housing.

From:   

  • the third and seventh transaction ever developed by the MHFA in 1971, to
  • the first two management takeovers and workouts of distressed subsidized housing projects in Massachusetts in 1975 and 1976, to
  • the first total debt and equity restructuring of a New York State Urban Development Corporation project in 1979, to
  • being appointed by Secretary Pierce to serve as Chairman of the Special HUD Study Group on Government Subsidized Housing – Distressed Property Workouts in 1981, to
  • being appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis to the Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Housing Financing Agency in 1983, (reappointed by Governor Dukakis in 1986 and by Governor Weld in 1991), to
  • being named in 1983 as a technical advisor to the United States House of Representatives Manpower and Housing Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations. In this capacity he addressed Congress on how private sector equity can meld with the federal government’s commitment for improved maintenance of the country’s affordable housing, to
  • serving as Chairman of the re-syndication subcommittee of the MHFA’s Advisory Board in 1984. The subcommittee’s charge was to find a workable plan for securing private sector equity capital for the purpose of recapitalizing an aging affordable housing inventory, to
  • working on the creation of the Housing Preservation Act of 1987 which was enacted by the Congress and signed by President Reagan to
  • serving on the 11 member Bi-Partisan Task Force created by Senator George Mitchell (D-Maine) and Senator John Danforth (R-Missouri) in 1987 to streamline how the existing housing tax credit could produce additional housing, to
  • assisting the Director of Housing for New York State in 1988 in his testimony to the Ways and Means Committee on adapting the various congressional positions to form one meaningful package of housing initiatives and tax incentives for the protection and preservation of the country’s affordable housing, to
  • appointed by President Clinton to the Transition Team, Department of Housing and Urban Development Cluster (1992-93), Andrew Cuomo, Chairman.
  • participating in the creation of the 1993 Permanent Extension of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, to
  • acting as a technical advisor Senators Mack (R-Florida) and Kerry (D-Massachusetts) to the U. S. Senate Banking Committee, Housing Sub-committee, in helping to structure the 1993 Housing & Community Development Act, to
  • being appointed to a 15 member Bi-Partisan task force established through the United States Senate Banking Committee in 1995 to focus on the future of HUD, to
  • structuring the first resident ownership model for the resident acquisition (September, 1997) of a HUD owned property using the initial “Up-Front” grant program combined with tax exempt bonds, Home Funds, private sector equity and Federal Home Loan Bank Funds, to
  • advising HUD’s Community Builders on promoting affordable housing by the creative adaptation of troubled housing through resident initiatives in 1998, to
  • receiving HUD’s Best Practices Award in 1999 for the financial structuring that leveraged an Up-Front Grant to a successful revitalization of a previously HUD owned property, Ginger Ridge Apartments, 934 units, Calumet City, IL, to
  • receiving a second HUD’s Best Practices Award (Regional) in 2000 for representing a Resident Group in its acquisition and rehabilitation of a 248 unit previously HUD owned property in Pasadena, Texas, to
  • with the Bi-Partisan support of Governor Taft, Senators Voinovich and DeWine, Congresswoman Tubbs Jones and Mayor White (Cleveland), structured the $115,500,000 funding for the redevelopment of a former severely distressed HUD owned property, Longwood Apartments, located on a 40 acre site in Central Cleveland (the 282 unit Phase I closed in 2001, the 206 unit Phase II closed in June, 2003 and the 141 unit Phase III closed June 14, 2004), to
  • after 17 years of NIMBY type resistance, TFG in 2001 finalized plans for an 84-unit affordable townhome development, Millennium Hills, Melville, Long Island. This unique transaction, the results of a settlement between the local and federal governments, consists of 34 affordable For-Sale townhomes, 10 For-Sale public housing units and 40 public housing rental units.  Construction on this project started mid-July 2002.  Completion was October, 2004.
  • receiving special recognition from the Congressional Black Caucus in 2003 for TFG being the catalyst in changing Cleveland, Ohio’s Central Neighborhood with the construction of Arbor Park Village including an array of educational and social services;
  • assisting in the structuring of Empire State Development Corporation’s new Project Retention Loan and, as new owner, closed on the State’s initial loan in June, 2005. The loan supported a complete rehabilitation and financial restructuring of the 553 unit, $25,000,000 Charlotte Harbortown Homes property, Rochester, New York.
  • working in a joint effort with a London Stock Exchange listed property company completed in August, 2005, the revitalization, rent-up and stabilization of a prior severely distressed 513 units of rental housing contained within a 774-unit condominium complex in Lauderhill, Broward County, Florida. A typical two bedroom, two-bathroom condominium that was selling in the mid-$60,000’s in November, 2003, when TFG took control of the property, is, in October, 2005, selling for $140,000 – $150,000.
  • working with the City of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, helped structure the “negotiated sale” of Forest Ridge Apartments, a HUD owned, boarded-up 150-unit property. The City of Winston-Salem acquired the property on August 30, 2005 for ten dollars ($10.00) and received a $3,306,417 HUD Upfront Grant to assist with a $10,000,000+ total renovation of Forest Ridge into a quality mixed-income housing resource.  TFG will own and operate the property pursuant to a certain agreements with HUD and the City.
  • completing in October, 2005, a five-year $115,500,000, 629-unit redevelopment of a prior severely distressed formerly HUD owned housing project in the Central Neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. TFG delivered the new multi award winning Arbor Park Village on time and on budget.
  • creating the structure of over three-quarter billion dollars of low income or assisted housing properties.