Deborah J. Welchel

Senior Development Director for Texas

close up of Deborah Welchel

Over twenty – six years of public and private sector financing experience have provided Deborah Welchel with a broad knowledge of the structure, development and management of a variety of residential housing transactions.  Currently as a Senior Development Director for Texas she is responsible for the sourcing, acquisition or preservation of affordable housing utilizing Federal, state, local and private funding sources that include LIHTC and conventional debt in Texas.  This includes analyzing markets, determining financial feasibility, assisting with funding applications and lender/investor selections, overseeing construction draw process, and permanent loan conversion.

 Prior to that she was the Vice President – Asset Manager for Mayfair Management Group, LP and provided general oversight to the management of each assigned property.  Specifically, the asset manager approves all expenditures that exceed the budgeted line items; directed Regional Managers to noted operational concerns at each property as well as ensuring that each assigned property operates within the Owner approved budget; coordinated with the Accounting Department the preparation and publication of the monthly financial reports; and drafts a monthly cover letter to each Owner explaining variances and reviewing property operations for the previous month.  In addition, Deborah prepared the annual operating budgets for the Owner and acted as the “cash manager” for each assigned property.  The Asset Manager also is the primary contact for the property lender and, where applicable, the Equity Partner.

As a Director at Edgewater Affordable Housing, Deborah served in multiple capacities.  Her primary roles involved assessing the financial feasibility of potential acquisitions, identifying, securing and closing funding sources, and working with civic and public interests during the predevelopment and construction/rehabilitation of EAH communities working extensively with state and local agencies, elected officials, lenders, investors, and community and neighborhood organizations to provide affordable housing utilizing the tax credit allocation process from application preparation prior to allocation to preparation of carryover, overseeing the draw process, monitoring credit delivery, preparing agency reports i.e. cost certification for receipt of 8609’s, and closing to the permanent loan after construction completion.

Before that, she served as Senior Vice President with The Siegel Group, providing financial services to real estate-oriented non-profit and for-profit organizations. These services included risk evaluation, due diligence review, preparation of market studies, housing program administration and development, problem real estate workouts, loan and equity origination, organizational capacity building, municipal programs, as well as HUD (M2M) and conventional credit facility application preparation while working with real estate developers, banks, insurance companies, thrift institutions, state housing finance agencies, municipalities, counties, and investment banking firms. 

 Deborah began her career in affordable housing as Manager of Credit Underwriting at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. For four years she was responsible for the administration of credit policies and underwriting standards and for determining risk and viability for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Multifamily Private Activity Bonds, HOME, CDBG, and Housing Trust Fund programs.  There she prepared detailed underwriting analyses that included review and verification of operating proformas and development costs as well as appraisal evaluations, market studies, environmental assessments, and engineering reports. 

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