Meet & Greet with Douglas Guthrie

Thursday, February 11, 2010
7:30 am- 9:30 am
DLA Piper LLP
550 South Hope Street, Suite 2300
Los Angeles, CA 90071-2627

Join ULI Los Angeles for a Breakfast Meet & Meet Program with Douglas Guthrie, newly appointed General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Mr. Guthrie was appointed the General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department in January, 2010. Mr. Guthrie has spent his career working in the field of affordable housing and community development. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Housing Department Mr. Guthrie most recently was President of Kimball Hill Urban Centers (KHUC), a subsidiary of Kimball Hill Homes. Kimball Hill Urban Centers was started by Mr. Guthrie for the purpose of pursuing residential development opportunities that provide for affordable and market rate for-sale and rental housing in urban environments. Projects in the portfolio included the redevelopment of the former Stateway Gardens public housing site in the City of Chicago into a mixed income community of 1300 housing units, retail, and public amenities; the redevelopment of the first phase of the former Cabrini Green public housing site in the City of Chicago into a new mixed income community of 800 households. Redevelopment of both of these sites is now well underway. Kimball Hill Urban Centers was involved in the development of large complex redevelopment efforts that addressed a variety of challenging urban issues with a goal of creating viable urban neighborhoods with a broad range of housing and other amenities for an economically diverse community.

Prior to joining Kimball Hill Urban Centers Mr. Guthrie worked as a principal at the Davis Group and as President of Urban Residential Group. Both of these private companies were engaged in the development of mixed income housing utilizing a variety of financing structures.

Before working in the private sector Mr. Guthrie served as the President of the National Equity Fund (NEF) from 1990-95. He also held the role of Senior Vice President of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), NEF's parent corporation. LISC is one of the nation's largest nonprofit community development support organizations, acting as a "social investment bank" to over 1300 community development corporations (CDC's) throughout the U.S. Under Mr. Guthrie's leadership, NEF became the nation's largest source of equity financing for low and moderate-income housing. Utilizing the low income housing tax credit, in excess of $1.6 billion was raised from major corporations to invest in real estate limited partnerships in low-income housing developments sponsored by nonprofit CDC's from around the country. These investments resulted in the development of over 28,000 affordable housing units in 550 projects, with real estate assets valued in excess of $3 billion. Under Mr. Guthrie's leadership NEF operations grew from 7 employees and an annual budget of $700,000 to 130 employees and a $13 million annual budget by yearend 1995. Over 100 corporations invested in NEF including such major investors as Bank of America, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Berkshire Hathaway.

From 1987-89 Mr. Guthrie held the position of Deputy Executive Director and later Chief Operating Officer of the Chicago Housing Authority. In those positions he was responsible for all field operations at CHA including housing management, Section 8 housing, construction management, resident programs, and security. At the time CHA housed nearly 145,000 residents in public housing and an additional 60,000 in Section 8 and other forms of housing. He coordinated day-to-day management of field operations at 2 regional and 23 management offices with a total staff of 2,400.

Prior to working for the Chicago Housing Authority, from 1984-87, Mr. Guthrie was the Deputy Housing Commissioner for the City of Chicago with responsibilities for activities directed at financing and development of affordable housing throughout the City. These roles included directing urban renewal programs for the City, management of the City Real Estate Office, and, managing the issuance of single family mortgage revenue bonds and multifamily tax-exempt bonds.

Mr. Guthrie began his professional career working for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Columbus, Ohio. He held a number of positions with HUD at both the staff and supervisory levels in Columbus, OH and Minneapolis, MN, specializing in Model Cities, Urban Renewal and the Community Development Block Grant programs.

Mr. Guthrie has a BA Degree in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Public Administration (specializing in Urban Studies) from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

*** Continental breakfast will be served.

Registration

Pre-Registration deadline is Tuesday, February 9th. Seating is limited to 50 attendees.

Download and Fax Registration Form to 213.213.2240.

Parking

Parking is not included. Suggested parking is available across the street at The Standard Hotel for $10/day.