Leslie Ried
Chief of investment programs, MHIC
Industry experience: 30
After five years as CEO of major Boston nonprofit housing developer Madison Park Development Corp., Leslie Reid joined the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. this summer to oversee its expansion and new product development.
Under Reid’s leadership, MPDC permitted and built significant portions of its 8.5-acre Bartlett Station redevelopment and permitted and financed a new mid-rise residential building at 2085 Washington St.in Nubian Square, among other projects.
At MHIC, Reid is the first to hold the new position on the nonprofit, private affordable housing lender’s executive leadership team, a prospect that leaves her “excited,” she said.
In addition to her work with MPDC, Reid has worked for the state and brings housing and commercial lending and investment experience from her time as a loan officer with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership Fund, Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. and as a consultant at Recap Advisors. Reid also teaches mixed income housing policy and finance at MIT’s Center for Real Estate and is a member of the board of directors of Citizens Housing and Planning Association, the Children’s Investment Fund and the Federal Reserve’s New England Community Development Advisory Council.
Q: Why did you want to join MHIC?
A: For 37 years, MHIC has held a really important place in the affordable housing and community development ecosystem. When it was founded, it was one of the pioneers into lending and then subsequently equity investment into communities that really benefited from that inclusion of resources, and especially through sponsors or borrowers that were really close to high-quality projects and relationships in the community. With the transition and leadership from Joe Flatley to Moddie Turay, who just brings such a great skill set and fresh energy, just the impact that MHIC has had and the potential for growth was really, really exciting and compelling for me.”
Q: How do you feel your work with Madison Park will inform your approach in this new role?
A: I come from Madison Park on the ground, actually putting together and running deals that are financed by MHIC. So, to pivot over to MHIC, what I’d like to believe is that I bring the perspective of what it’s like to get these deals done in communities with different kinds of sponsors, because I have that direct experience myself. Also, what I hope that I bring from my time at Madison Park and my previous 30 years in community development are the relationships and connections that support MHIC’s strategic direction, geographic growth and expansion.
Q: What are the pillars of MHIC’s investment strategy?
A: What I love about MHIC is, again, it’s a different approach to impact. I was really humbled to work at Madison Park, to be a steward of such an important organization and so close to the residents. But doing development projects takes time. It takes 36 months, best-case scenario, for a project to be conceived and to go into construction. MHIC can do investments or loans and into 50 similar projects a year, across Massachusetts, and now more and more into states like Rhode Island and Connecticut. So, what’s really compelling for me is that kind of expanded impact.
We provide capital for developers of all shapes and sizes to acquire sites, whether it be buildings or land. We provide predevelopment [financing] to help them cover the costs while they assemble approvals and [construction] financing. We can also provide construction financing, and we do all that through the lens of our mission, which is high-quality projects in historically disinvested communities.
The other way that we do that is through equity investments, largely through the syndication of low-income housing tax credits, and what’s really special about MHIC as a syndicator is, again, that we’ve been around for 37 years. We are creative and nimble with challenges. But the other story about MHIC is that when you get in bed with an investor in an affordable housing project, you’re together with them, locked at the hip for 50 years. What’s really special about MHIC is that we’re a very well-known, established quantity when it comes to that time after the deal has closed.
Q: Why is now the time for MHIC to invest in expansion?
A: First of all, the opportunity. The opportunities and the resources in the affordable housing industry and Massachusetts and adjacent states are growing. You might have heard of the Affordable Homes Act, where there’s going to be $5 billion over the next five years available to support affordable housing and community development. So, the industry and the need is expanding, and so naturally, MHIC would grow with that. One aspect of our strategic plan is also expanding the equity – as in justice, not equity as in capital. One exciting new area of growth for MHIC is partnering with MassHousing on the Equitable Developer Fund, which is seeking to provide capital to help grow and support developers that have been traditionally marginalized from development opportunities. We’ll be growing into that area, providing working capital to new kinds of sponsors that advance our strategic goal of increased equity. That one is really special and really exciting. As much as I love MHIC, that really got my attention when I saw that MHIC would be doing that work with MassHousing. I think about this as the intersection of “equity,” as in capital and “equity,” as in justice.
Q: What is the impact of directly working with MassHousing?
A: Mass Housing is, to some extent, a sister agency that works to support the affordable housing ecosystem in Massachusetts, so to be able to collaborate on opening doors, to grow that pool of developers and sponsors, especially for folks that have historically been marginalized, to do that in partnership, to carry that agenda forth together as organizations, is really, really important. Again, a special thing about MHIC is that we can collaborate, not just with private investors, but also with public agencies to advance an agenda that’s consistent with our mission, our strategic goal of growth but also, deepening the equity as in the justice of the work that we’re doing.
Reid’s Five Favorite Summer Swimming Spots
- Turtle Pond, Hyde Park
- Moshup Beach, Aquinnah
- Horseneck Beach, Westport
- Great Pond, Wellfleet
- Onset Beach, Onset
