Project Manager, Conversions for the Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions

City of New York • New York, NY

2d • $62,868 - $77,500

About The Position

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) oversees housing standards across all 3.7 million homes in New York City. As the nation’s largest municipal housing agency, HPD is responsible for building and preserving affordable housing, protecting tenants from harassment and displacement, and holding landlords accountable across the five boroughs. Under Commissioner Dina Levy and the Mamdani Administration, HPD is pursuing an ambitious housing agenda focused on the needs of New York’s tenants. With a broad set of tools including standards enforcement, tenant resources, and the creation of new affordable housing, HPD is committed to making New York City a more affordable place for renters and homeowners alike.

Your Team:

The Office of Development (OOD) leads the agency’s effort to create and preserve housing in collaboration with other HPD offices as well as other city, state and federal agencies.

The Office of Development is composed of eight divisions that administer a range of programs:

- New Construction Finance
- Special Needs Housing
- Building and Land Development Services (BLDS)
- Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation
- Preservation Finance
- Portfolio Management and Conversions
- Housing Incentives
- Compliance and Enforcement

The Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions manages development projects after closing with an initial loan to ensure adherence to program and accounting requirements, conversion of construction loans to permanent financing, deployment of rental assistance to tenants prior to project stabilization, and timely completion of these HPD-assisted projects. The division administers multiple programs including Conversions & Rental Assistance, Requisitions, and Construction Monitoring & Completions. These programs facilitate the financial and physical viability, as well as affordability of privately-owned residential buildings throughout New York City. The Division plays a key role in implementation and successful completion housing projects originating from loan programs throughout HPD’s Office of Development.

The Conversions unit within the Division oversees the conversion of construction loans to permanent financing, a critical checkpoint for HPD to ensure that development teams have adhered to program requirements, and to set up these projects for long-term success for decades to come. The unit also oversees rent restructuring, a process through which HPD resets rents in a project, and which is a critical tool to ensure housing affordability and long-term project stability. This involves managing due diligence requirements, managing multiple stakeholders to overcome barriers to achieving these milestones, establishing new rent stabilized rents, and other tasks.

Your Impact:

As a Project Manager, Conversions, you will have the opportunity to manage the intake, assessment, legal files, and conversion to permanent financing of New Construction and/or Preservation projects with HPD financing, followed by a successful transfer to Asset Management. The Project Manager will be responsible for learning and understanding different HPD program requirements and ensuring projects are compliant with requirements upon conversion. You will also play a critical role in implementing rent restructuring for projects that require it, which ensures rental achievement for projects preparing for permanent financing, continued housing affordability for residents, and the long-term stability and success of residential buildings housing predominately rent-stabilized tenants. The Project Manager will also have the opportunity to recommend policy, process, and engagement improvements towards greater program efficiency. These efforts will help drive the Agency’s housing production goals by ensuring that the unit starts are successfully completed, rented and converted in accordance with program requirements.

Your Role:

As Project Manager, Conversions, you will be responsible for managing all aspects of rent restructuring and conversion implementation within deadlines and in accordance with currently applicable laws, codes, policies, and procedures. Project Managers will work closely with others within the Division, in other Divisions, with external partners, and in some cases with housing residents to carefully and efficiently review and analyze program requirements and legal documents; to review, produce, and ensure correct submissions to HPD of rent rolls; to draft and distribute tenant communications and rent orders; and to facilitate permanent loan conversion and corresponding data entry and documentation. The Project Manager will also be responsible for managing internal and external stakeholder relationships including coordinating meetings and maintaining accurate records of updates and progress.

Requirements

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties described above; or
• High school graduation or equivalent and six years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties as described above; or
• Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least one year of experience as described in "1" above.

Nice To Haves

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
• Research and analytical skills;
• Keen attention to detail and organizational skills;
• Strong facility with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint);
• Proven interest in community development, urban planning, affordable housing or real estate finance
• Knowledge of New York City affordable housing and private lending programs
• Ability to read and understand loan documents and experience with budgeting and project scheduling
• Demonstrated capacity for performing and prioritizing multiple tasks, using independent judgment, and conducting difficult negotiations while maintaining professional decorum

Responsibilities

• Performing general project management duties for a range of capitally funded transactions, such as troubleshooting projects in construction, facilitating project completion, managing loan conversions, and preparing recommendations for work-outs;
• Performing careful review and analysis of a large volume of project documents and sponsor submissions, ensuring needed corrections are implemented as needed, and producing clear and accurate tenant communications and rent orders for your own projects, and for other projects the Program is overseeing;
• Ensuring compliance and consistency in implementation of rent restructuring within federal, local and regulatory guidelines;
• Proactively and pre-emptively highlighting challenges, missing information, delays, problems and other issues that may affect a conversion or rent restructuring, and coordinating the necessary actions to resolve;
• Tracking status of projects’ progression through necessary steps of rent restructuring, of documentation received, as well as of correspondence generated and distributed to partners and residents;
• Performing liaison functions externally and internally between tenants, developers, HPD colleagues and other community stakeholders to ensure smooth coordination of conversions and implementation of rent restructuring;
• Reviewing and analyzing mortgage notes, regulatory agreements and other related documents requiring understanding and applying of complex regulations and requirements to individual projects;
• Financial modeling using Excel with an emphasis on preserving affordability, real estate tax benefit analysis, and cash flow projections;
• Providing programmatic and technical guidance to external partners and HPD colleagues to ensure successful conversions and rent restructuring;
• Maintaining conversions checklists and necessary coordination with stakeholders to meet compliance;
• Monitoring and proactively encouraging the removal of building code violations as needed;
• Building and preparing the legal file for closing or rent restructuring in accordance with checklist templates and other requirements, ensuring all information is accurate, complete, well-organized and timely;
• Working with HPD’s legal department to collect and prepare loan closing documentation, and to implement updates to rent restructuring processes;
• Maintaining accurate records of updates and calculations, and of key project and process documentation;
• Demonstrating an understanding of and investment in the time sensitivity of most of the above processes, an ability to meet deadlines, and an aptitude at manage multiple projects and processes in a timely manner.
• Working on special projects as needed.
• Tracking workflow and assisting with team projects.
• Handling both financial modeling, internal collaboration with colleagues, and external client relationships.

Benefits

• The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level