the Michaels Organization Celebrates Year’s End With Flurry of Industry Awards

John O’Donnell (standing), COO of The Michaels Organization, with Michaels Development Co. President Robert Greer and Michael J. Levitt, founder and CEO of The Michaels Organization

Marlton, New Jersey (Vocus/PRWEB) December 31, 2010

The Michaels Organization, a family of companies dedicated to excellence in affordable, mixed-income, and military housing, will end the year celebrating a lengthy list of prestigious awards bestowed on its companies and team members in 2010.

“We are very honored as well as humbled by this recognition of our work, and we thank all our housing partners and our residents for the trust they have placed in us to provide successful solutions to their housing needs,” said John O’Donnell, The Michaels Organization’s Chief Operating Officer. O’Donnell also thanked Michaels’ investors and lenders who continued to support Michaels throughout 2010, even as lingering trouble in the financial markets halted some other companies from moving forward with their housing development plans.

According to O’Donnell, the six integrated companies of The Michaels Organization — Michaels Development, Interstate Realty Management, Michaels Military Housing, Prestige Building Company, Prestige Affordable Housing Equity Partners, and Continental Mortgage Corp — both collectively and individually had their best years ever in 2010.

O’Donnell attributes the accolades The Michaels Organization received from a variety of industry groups and partner agencies, to the hard work, creativity, and dedication of the Michaels’ team.

Firm and Individual Award Highlights

    In 2010, The Michaels Organization once again topped the list of affordable housing owners and developers compiled by Affordable Housing Finance magazine, taking the number one ranking for affordable housing developers in the country.
    In December, Michaels Development Company was named the 2010 Multifamily Development Firm of the Year, by the National Association of Home Builders, one of the housing industry’s most coveted Awards.
    Affordable Housing Finance Magazine selected Robert Greer, president of Michaels Development Company, for the distinguished honor of being inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame, an event which took place in Chicago in November.
    James Henderson, retired president of Interstate Realty Management (IRM) and currently an executive consultant to The Michaels Organization, was honored by the National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) as the 2010 NAHMA Industry Statesman, an award that recognizes a “career marked by an unparalleled commitment to advancing quality affordable housing for Americans in need as well as tireless service to NAHMA.”
    NAHMA also honored Lona Black, an IRM Vice President, as its 2010 State Director of the Year. Black, whose portfolio includes a massive HOPE VI development in New Orleans as well as several affordable communities in Mississippi, serves as the State Director for Mississippi for NAHMA’s southern state affiliate, The Southern Affordable Housing Management Association.
    The Southern New Jersey Chapter of the Institute for Real Estate Management named IRM Senior Vice President Sandy Cipollone its CPM of the Year for 2010. The chapter’s most coveted individual award, the CPM of the Year is a Certified Property Manager who has achieved recognition for providing outstanding service to their profession and community during the year, thereby contributing to the advancement of professional property management. In recognizing Sandy, the IREM chapter also praised her for finding time to coordinate the Interstate Realty Management Education Foundation’s annual golf tournament—the major fundraising event for the acclaimed scholarship program that distributes tuition grants for higher education to all residents who live in communities owned or managed by The Michaels Organization.
    In Chicago, Interstate Realty Management was honored by The Chicago Housing Authority(CHA) at its year-end award ceremony for mixed-income communities. Over the past decade, CHA has been transforming its outdated public housing into beautiful, sustainable communities for families of all incomes levels, and Michaels Development Company, in a joint venture with Chicago-based Brinshore Development, has been CHA’s partner on the redevelopment of former Robert Taylor Homes and the former Henry Horner Homes. IRM serves as the property manager for the CHA on these large, mixed-income communities. At the annual ceremony sponsored by the CHA’s Office of Mixed-Income Communities, IRM received four awards: Most Efficient Site Manager for Hansberry Square; 100 percent occupancy at Coleman Place; Highest REAC Score for West Haven Park Tower, and Most Improved Performance Overall for a property management company.

Community Awards

Several of Michaels’ new developments were also honored with industry awards in 2010, including a complex historic renovation of scattered site row houses that saved the last affordable rental housing in the important and historic Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia. Spring Garden Community Revitalization Phase 2 was recognized with a Judges Award by the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association as well as a 2010 Preservation Award from the Preservation Alliance of the City of Philadelphia.

Barbara Place, a mixed-income community that is part of Michaels’ HOPE VI redevelopment of the former Lafayette Gardens public housing site in Jersey City, New Jersey, was honored with a National Award of Excellence from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, and also received a New Jersey Future2010 Smart Growth Award.

“We’ve had an incredibly successful year,” said O’Donnell, who noted that he is especially proud of the fact that The Michaels Organization was able to hire 341 new employees in 2010, as the organization expanded its geographical reach to 31 states, which now includes California, Nevada, and Hawaii. The new employees should be happy about this: in 2010, Michaels was named to Philadelphia Inquirer’s Top Place to Work list.

About the Michaels Organization: Headquartered in Marlton, NJ., The Michaels Organization is a family of six integrated companies dedicated to advancing excellence in affordable, mixed-income, and military housing. Michaels Development, Interstate Realty Management, Michaels Military Housing, Prestige Building Company, Prestige Affordable Housing Equity Partners, and Continental Mortgage Corp. are all privately held by housing pioneer Michael J. Levitt. The companies of The Michaels Organization have developed more than 45,000 housing units over the past four decades and currently manage more than 38,000 units in 31 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Michaels’ tax credit syndication company, Prestige Affordable Housing Equity Partners, has raised over $ 300 million in equity for Michaels’ communities financed with low income housing tax credits.

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