Real Estate Ind. Reps On Boston's Rent Stabilization Cmte.-Pt. 2

Besides including the president of the Related Beal real estate deal-making firm and the co-chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Regional Real Estate Development Leadership Council, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Director Kimberly Sherman (who also sits on the board of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau which has long worked to block re-establishing rent control in Boston), the Boston mayor’s Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee also includes Josh Zakim-- the executive director of an organization, Housing Forward-MA, whose treasurer and board member--Chestnut Hill Realty CEO Edward Zuker--is a former Rental Housing Association [RHA] president and a former Greater Boston Real Estate Board vice-president who, historically, worked to eliminate rent control in Boston in the 1990s.

And, as this writer noted in an Aug. 31, 2021 Boston Patch article, around 7 months before Housing Forward-MA Executive Director Josh Zakim was appointed by Boston Mayor Wu to sit on the Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee, Chestnut Hill Realty CEO Zuker—the Housing Forward-MA treasurer and board member—contributed, coincidentally, $1,000 on July 30, 2021 to Mayor Wu’ campaign committee.

As an Oct. 15, 2020 Banker & Tradesman article noted, prior to joining with Chestnut Hill Realty CEO Zuker to set up the “non-profit” Housing Forward-MA (with himself as its executive director) in October 2020, Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee Member Zakim was a Boston City Councilor who chaired the Boston City Council’s Housing Committee. And, not surprisingly, the current Housing Forward-MA associate of former RHA president and former Greater Boston Real Estate Board VP Zuker, apparently did not push the Boston City Council Housing Committee he chaired very much to prioritize bringing back rent control for Boston’s tenant majority during the last ten years.

Coincidentally, between Apr. 22, 2013 and Apr. 27, 2018, former Boston City Council Housing Committee Chair and current Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee Member Zakim’s campaign committees were also given 6 contributions, totaling $4,500, by Chestnut Hill Realty CEO Zuker.

In addition, besides the campaign committee of Boston’s current mayor receiving a $1,000 contribution from the treasurer of Zakim’s Housing Forward-MA on July 30, 2021, between Dec. 2, 2015 and Feb. 5, 2020 the campaign committees of then-Boston City Councilor Wu were also given 7 contributions, totaling $5,000, by longtime rent control opponent and former Greater Boston Real Estate Board VP Zuker—who also contributed $1,000 to the Greater Boston Real Estate Board PAC and $1,000 to the Republican State Committee, between Feb. 26, 2020 and March 2, 2021, according to Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance website data.

Another representative of special real estate industry interests affiliated with Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee Member Zakim’s Housing Forward-MA “non-profit” is Winn Development Director of Strategy & Acquisitions Josh Biren—who sits on Housing Forward’s own Advisory Committee.

According to the Housing Forward-MA website, Housing Forward-MA Advisory Committee Member Biren “is a member of the Development team at Winn, focusing on the earliest stages of the development cycle, identifying new acquisition opportunities and associated financing necessary” and “also works with the executive team on special projects to conceptualize and implement strategic initiatives across the Winn Portfolio.”

And, according to the website of Winn Development,” over four decades, Winn Development has earned a national reputation…in real estate development, acquiring and developing holdings with a value in excess of $2.5 billion in 20 states;” and “the Winn Development portfolio” includes “market rate housing” and “most recently” its” property successes have been focused in large scale mixed-use and mixed-income developments."

In addition, the Winn Development real estate deal-making firm that employs the advisory board member of Zakim’s Housing Forward-MA also offers “all types of onsite property management” and its “diversified third-party management expertise adds value to properties in countless communities across the eastern United States, including many of the country's hottest markets.”

Not surprisingly, given its connection to Chestnut Hill Realty CEO Zuker and Winn Development Executive Biren, Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee Member Zakim’s Housing Forward-MA issued a “Housing Policy Blueprint for Boston’s Next Mayor" report last summer which failed to recommend a housing policy blueprint for Boston’s next mayor which prioritized pushing for a rent freeze, rent rollbacks and re-establishment of a rent regulation system in Boston to protect Boston renters from being overcharged by their landlords in 2022.

But the Housing Forward-MA report did make some housing policy recommendations that might benefit real estate deal-makers involved in Boston’s “affordable” housing industry—which has, historically produced residential units that, while categorized as “affordable,” are still often unaffordable for many low-income Boston tenants. The Housing Forward-MA report, for example, recommended that the City of Boston should “utilize policy tools to reduce property tax liabilities for affordable developments” and “reduce the municipal property tax liability of all new deed restricted affordable housing.”

So if you’re currently a Boston tenant living in a market rate apartment in Boston, don’t be surprised when you see how much your landlord will still be able to increase your monthly rent—in the continued absence of rent regulation in Boston—if your landlord offers you a new lease or sends you notice of another rent increase in 2022—despite the Boston’s mayor’s appointment of a “Stalling Rent Control and Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee” in 2022. (end of part 2)