Colliers South Florida expands, adds affordable housing arm

As the demand for affordable housing continues to grow, Colliers International South Florida is launching a division dedicated to that niche market. 

Kevin I. Morris will lead the new arm, Ken Krasnow, executive managing director of Colliers South Florida, told The Real Deal. Morris has experience with low-income housing tax credits, homeownership assistance programs and other housing programs.

“With the expiring tax credit programs and low interest-rate environment, we expect the demand from the investor community will remain strong for affordable housing product,” Morris, who has brokered related deals in Pembroke Pines and Bradenton, said in a press release.

Krasnow said he expects that more South Florida municipalities will encourage more affordable housing projects.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Jordan, for example, has put forth a proposal to mandate workforce housing in all new developments larger than 20 units in the county – a proposal that has already faced staunch criticism from some of the county’s more affluent municipalities.

Colliers also made two new hires for its urban core division, Bradley Arendt as a vice president and Michael Lewin as a senior associate. They will both focus on investment sales in Broward County’s urban markets, including Fort Lauderdale. Mika Mattingly and Gerard Yetming helm the division, which focuses on all uses – hotel, residential, restaurant, retail and office – in urban environments.

Arendt and Lewin came from Realty Masters Advisors, a commercial real estate company based in Fort Lauderdale. RMA founder Don Ginsburg left that firm in April to join 13th Floor Investments as a senior vice president, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Colliers South Florida, meanwhile, has been growing since it split off from Abood Wood Fay (now Avison Young) in 2014 and now has 115 employees.