Sr. Project Manager of Real Estate Development and Asset Management
As a core member of a small and effective team, The Kelsey is looking for an experienced project manager to drive forward our mixed ability, mixed income multifamily communities in the Bay Area and beyond. They will support our housing pipeline through partnerships with our development partners, ensuring The Kelsey’s mission of inclusive, accessible, affordable housing is reflected in the ultimate product. As a steward and representative of The Kelsey’s mission, the ideal candidate has experience working housing finance, takes a collaborative approach to problem solving, and is looking to join a high growth organization committed to inclusion and equity.
About The Kelsey
We are a disability forward housing organization that accelerates and advocates for housing where people with and without disabilities, of all incomes and backgrounds thrive. Our approach both develops housing in practice and changes policy through advocacy, community organizing, and field building.
We are:
- Inclusive: We center our work on the lived experience of people with disabilities as well as their families and caregivers. Our housing developments are inclusive; so is our staff, board, consultants, and partners.
- Collaborative: Through engagement with diverse cross-sector partners, we have advanced housing development, sponsored legislation, and hosted programs with leading organizations in real estate, affordable housing, advocacy, philanthropy and disability rights.
- Relentless: We pursue our mission with a never-ending drive. In our first three years of operations we secured two prime-located Bay Area sites, unlocked over $50M in funding, secured over 240 homes in our pipeline, and convened over 300 stakeholders.
- Transparent and Iterative: We’re a learning and sharing organization. While focused on the problem of the lack of inclusive housing, we’re open with different strategies, skills, tools, and models needed to solve and to share what works (and what doesn’t) transparently with others in our field.
More about us from Google, the San Francisco Chronicle, Harvard, and our project with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
About the Role:
This Project Manager will partner with our CEO, COO and our real estate development partners to support our housing pipeline, organization capacity, and strategic growth.
Move Forward Existing Housing Pipeline (50% of time) – We have over 240 homes in our pipeline in San Francisco and San Jose. In both cases we are partnering with an experienced developer who is the lead project management. It is mission critical these first two projects are aligned with the vision of The Kelsey – a community where residents across incomes are connected in a mutually supportive space. The Project Manager’s role is to ensure that vision is executed against while maintaining feasibility for the project. Some areas where you’ll represent The Kelsey:
- Support real estate partners on public financing applications and approach
- Positioning project to philanthropic partners, lenders, and tax credit investors
- Support real estate partners on finance close activities; own philanthropic lending close process
- Submit monthly draws to pre-development lender (accounting managed by real estate partner)
- Represent The Kelsey in value engineering processes, property management and other cross-partnership discussions
- Work with The Kelsey’s Manager of Housing Services to design and execute services plan
Identify and Oversee New Pipeline Projects (25%) – We are targeting to have a small site identified and entitlement/financing strategies in place by the end of 2021. This work will be supported by a Real Estate Associate (currently part-time) who is owning the site search and financial analyses:
- Oversee Real Estate associate and provide strategic oversight of financing and entitlement strategy
- Work with technical partners to identify structural/architectural possibilities that are both cost-effective and accessible
- Work with financing partners to determine a capital stack that leverages concessionary lending sources
Support Field Building Efforts (25%) – As a growing, learning organization, we are actively testing where our organization can have the biggest impact to create more disability-forward housing. This role would also contribute in real estate-adjacent areas:
- Support services model pilot program in Oakland
- Contribute to technical assistance programs for disability organizations
- Market and promote to-be-released Inclusive Design Standards
- Provide real estate perspectives for California and federal housing policy advocacy
We would love to see your application if you:
- Have led project management for at least a portion of the affordable housing development process from entitlements, financing, construction, lease up, to property management
- Understand the financing process for developments using low income housing tax credits (LIHTC)
- Interested in developing a disability-forward small sites model project
- Are comfortable with complexity and making progress when complete information is not available
- Are passionate about inclusive and equitable communities, social innovation, and disability justice
It is mission-critical that our team includes people with lived experiences and diverse perspectives related to our work. We strongly encourage people with disabilities, Black, Indigenous, Latina/o/x, Asian American and Pacific Islander and people of color, LGBTQIA+ persons, and people with lived experience with affordable housing and/or housing instability to apply.
Starting in Fall 2021 we will be working in person 2-3 days a week out of San Francisco.
How to apply:
We recognize that each individual can bring a unique set of skills to our organization. Even if you don’t meet these requirements 100%, send us your resume at hello@thekelsey.org.
With your resume, please send us a short note answering the following questions:
- What part of our mission excites you the most?
- From your past experience, what part of the housing development process do you enjoy the most and why?
- (Optional) How would your lived experience or identity inform your work at The Kelsey?