Affordable Housing Development Associate (may start Part-Time while in school)

Overview

The Walters Group (“Walters”), a real-estate development firm specializing in high-quality affordable housing funded through Low Income Housing Tax Credits, is looking for a Development Associate to start immediately to support development activities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Both full-time and part-time candidates will be considered for an immediate start date. Walters is open to a part-time Development intern in their final year of graduate study (approx.. 8 – 10hrs per week), with the prospect of joining our team full-time upon graduation.

Our office is located in Haddonfield, New Jersey, directly across from the Haddonfield PATCO station, and is easily accessible from Philadelphia.

Walters is also open to the candidate working remotely, as needed.

The individual in this role must above all be organized, capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously with limited oversight. Development projects will involve both the new construction of multifamily and senior (55+) developments, as well as the acquisition and substantial rehabilitation of existing large-scale apartment buildings.

Some key tasks associated with this position will be:

– Evaluating potential project sites, utilizing publicly-available land use, demographic, and
environmental information;

– Conducting municipal-level housing policy research;

– Applying for HOME, HUD, FHLB, and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit applications;

– Assisting with pre-construction activities, such as coordination of third-party professionals (such as appraisers, architects, and engineers), as well as assisting with the due diligence requirements of public and private financing sources;

–  Developing presentations related to overall marketing and proposal responses.

We are looking for a strong candidate with a broad array of skills, rather than specific expertise. In particular:

– A strong level of reading comprehension and attention to detail;

– The ability to think analytically with respect to federal, state, and local policy;

– Exceptional organization skills and the ability to proactively manage several competing deadlines;

– General graphic design skills for the development of presentations and proposals;

– Knowledge and experience working in a Windows operating environment (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). In this role, you will be expected to maintain an elaborate database in Microsoft Excel of municipal and county-level data pulled from a variety of sources, including ACS data, for determining which locations may be a good fit for new affordable housing development;

– Knowledge of shapefiles and how to find them online and utilize them in either Google Earth or ArcGIS is preferred, as mapping is part of most grant applications as well as necessary for analyzing environmental constraints of potential sites;

– Comfort with public speaking at community meetings is desirable, but not required;

– Master’s degree with a focus in real estate, finance, engineering, urban planning or a related field is preferred.

Overall, the ideal person for this role will be comfortable taking full ownership of their work and will be comfortable communicating their findings weekly to the development team. Walters is a small company, so you will have the opportunity to participate in high-level discussions related to the company’s development trajectory regularly and have a meaningful impact in the development of our new communities. There is a clear path for upward growth and expanded responsibility in this role.