Urban Action Community Development

Bill Struever

President

Nationally prominent as a leader in large scale urban mixed-use development, Carl (Bill) Struever has 50 years’ experience directing complex construction and real estate development projects primarily in low-income communities. Bill was the driving force behind trend-setting comprehensive neighborhood transformation in cities across nine states and has successfully put over 10MM SF of derelict buildings back into productive economic use. His iconic projects on the Baltimore waterfront, downtown and throughout its neighborhoods are an important catalyst to rebuilding the city’s economy. An advocate of the Jim Rouse mantra that “doing good is good business” and an evangelist for “the triple bottom line”, Bill leads UACD in investing in projects that deliver both economic and social impact. He’s served as President of the Downtown Partnership, Chair of the Baltimore Metropolitan Private Industry Council, and Vice Chair of the Baltimore Board of School Commissioners. Mr. Struever is currently on the Enterprise Foundation Leadership Council, the University of Maryland Foundation Board, the Waterfront Partnership and the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance. He has won many awards including “Outstanding Business Volunteer” from President Reagan, Master Entrepreneur of the Year, and CEO of the Year from Smart CEO Magazine and Outstanding Business Leader from Baltimore Business. Mr. Struever received his Bachelor of Arts in Urban Anthropology from Brown University.

Tabitha Atkins

Consultant

Tabitha Atkins has dedicated almost her entire career to the community development finance industry, working in various capacities to ensure that residents, small businesses, nonprofits, and anchor institutions in historically under-resourced areas have access to affordable financial products and services.

She is currently a consultant for Cross Street Partners’ Financial Advisory Division. In this capacity, Tabitha consults, sources, underwrites, and manages a portfolio of projects that support access to quality healthcare and healthy foods, scaling operations for manufacturing companies, and new construction and historic revitalization of commercial real estate in low-income urban areas using creative structured financing tools such as New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC), Historic Tax Credits, and tax increment financing. She has also held positions at City First Bank of DC, the CDFI Fund, and Opportunity Finance Network.

In addition to her commitment to raising capital for highly impactful projects, Tabitha is currently a governing board member for the St. Agnes Hospital Foundation and Partners for the Common Good, she sits on the NMTC Advisory Boards for the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Mascoma Bank, and she is on the Partners for the Common Good’s loan committee.

Tabitha has a Master’s of Public Policy and Administration (Jackson State University) and MBA (Johns Hopkins University). She loves to travel, listen to music, laugh, and spend quality time with her family and friends.

Joseph Summers

Director of Investment Services

Joseph (Joe) Summers, Director of Investment Services, is responsible for the management of UACD’s investments and for the development of structures and financing packages for NMTC projects. Joe has 30 years of experience in financial and real estate markets, including projects in low-income communities. Joe directs UACD’s investment strategy, providing a mix of low-cost, flexible equity and low-interest subordinate debt with equity-like features to mixed-use urban redevelopment projects, minimizing required cash outlays and enhancing both the project’s overall viability and its ability to provide financial incentives to prospective tenants.  He is seasoned in raising and deploying capital and has raised more than $500MM in capital from profit-motivated investors, as well as governmental and philanthropic sources. Joe is widely recognized as a guru of creative public private financing, having closed financing on over $1 BB of debt and equity, often requiring a careful mix of HTCs, CDBG, Brownfield, TIF and other resources. Joe leads the finance advisory services at Cross Street Partners and has a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Baltimore.

Cobber Eccles

Director of Asset Management

Charles (Cobber) Eccles is responsible for property, asset and risk management for all operating properties managed by UACD. Cobber has over 40 years of experience in construction and real estate development, and over the decades has become an expert in handling complicated urban projects, often combining mixed-use, historic rehabilitation and brownfield remediation, all against a backdrop of multiple financing sources. Today, Cobber is a sought-after advisor for new and emerging construction companies and property owners, and currently serves in project executive capacity for Cross Street Partners, LLC. Civically, Cobber is an ex-President of the Board of Directors of Community Housing Associates, a not-for-profit organization producing housing within residential communities for the mentally ill who have emerged from state institutions. Cobber has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and History from Brown University.

Carla Hinson

Director, Development Advisory

As Director of Development Advisory at Cross Street Partners, Carla manages development projects for real estate and financial advisory clients. In this role she provides additional capacity to primarily non-profit organizations to help execute their development vision. She supports projects by securing and managing public and private grants; assembling complex tax credit financing; and coordinating real estate due diligence, entitlements, design, and construction. Cross Street Partners’ current advisory projects represent overt 80k SF and $62MM in investment by five community based non-profit organizations for the adaptive reuse of historic buildings in Baltimore.

Most recently, in partnership with client Beloved Community Services Corporation, Carla supported the redevelopment of the $14MM, 18k SF Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center at PS 103 in the Upton neighborhood of Baltimore. The former elementary school of Justice Thurgood Marshall had been vacant for over 20 years and will be transformed into a community amenity center.

Prior to joining Cross Street Partners, Carla worked at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and completed a Fulbright in Brazil. Carla has a Bachelor of Arts from Susquehanna University and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Morgan State University. Carla serves on the board of Waverly Main Street and is a member of CREW Baltimore.

Benjamin Cirka

President, Community Hospitality Healthcare Services CDE

Ben Cirka is Executive Director of CHHS, a CDE focused in financing community-based healthcare facilities in low-income communities, and providing financial counseling to assist their borrowers. He has been directly involved with over $600MM of NMTC financing and over $1B in total project financing, providing neighborhood redevelopment, historic building preservation, and affordable housing throughout the United States.

John Leith-Tetrault

Founder and Public Policy Advisor, National Trust Community Investment Corporation

John Leith-Tetrault is the immediate past president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Trust Community Investment Corporation (NTCIC), and continues to serve in a public policy advisory capacity. He has over 40 years of experience in community development financing, banking, community organizing, historic preservation, training and organizational development. He currently serves on the board of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition and chairs the Historic Tax Credit Coalition.

Richard Baron

Board Chair, Urban Strategies

Richard Baron is the Board Chair and founder of Urban Strategies, a national non-profit that develops, coordinates, and implements community supportive service plans that seek to provide critical social services for low-income residents of urban core communities. He is also the Chairman and CEO of McCormack Baron Salazar in St. Louis, Missouri, a firm specializing in the development and management of mixed-income communities with an emphasis on large-scale redevelopment projects in central city locations.

China Boak Terrell

CEO, American Communities Trust

China Boak Terrell is the CEO of American Communities Trust (ACT), a national community development partner dedicated to “building social impact” in urban and low-income communities (LICs). China has more than 13 years’ experience in the private and public sectors, as a corporate lawyer leading multi-million dollar transactions; as a business developer; as a liaison and advisor to agency heads, elected officials, and corporate leadership team members; and as General Counsel for the District of Columbia’s legislative committee on human services.

Mike Posko

CEO, Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake

Michael (Mike) Posko serves as the CEO at Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating and preserving homes. Mike’s career encompasses over thirty years of supervisory and management experience, and his background is diverse, having worked in government, and in the public and private sector industries of security and defense, finance, retail, real estate development, and construction.

Deborah Flateman

Immediate Past CEO and President, Maryland Food Bank

Deborah Flateman is the immediate past CEO & President of the Maryland Food Bank, a nonprofit hunger-relief organization that distributes more than 140,000 meals per day – nearly 44 meals annually – to individuals and families in need. During Deborah’s tenure from 2007 through 2015, the Maryland Food Bank redefined its mission, conducted a hunger gap analysis, improved the quality and nutritional content of its inventory, and more than quintupled food distribution to hungry families in need.