Christopher O'Bannon Email & Phone Number

Breckenridge, Co, Us

Breckenridge, Colorado, United States

During my time as head of compliance at Common, I managed the compliance team and provided guidance and thought partnership to real estate, underwriting, finance, legal, technology and operations teams regarding compliance, guaranteeing compliance for a 6500+ unit portfolio, including 500+ affordable units across 10+ markets and affordable programs and 1200+ rent regulated units across 5 markets. I functioned as a trusted advisor, establishing rapport and trust with clients and prospective clients with multifamily assets that included housing programs to expand existing relationships and secure new partnerships. I pushed deals “over the line,” securing 20+ multifamily assets of 2000+ housing units across 9 urban markets set to deliver between 2021 and 2025.In the wake of some leadership changes and ahead of an impending merger with Habyt, I pitched a restructuring of our accounts receivable team to reduce departmental labor costs and increase AR efficiencies across the company. My proposal was accepted, and as a result, I was promoted to senior director. Aside from implementing that restructure, my duties did not change. My most personally rewarding accomplishment during this period was efficiently resolving a business entity registration issue that nearly resulted in the loss of a management agreement with a new client in a new market and the termination of seven newly hired employees who would have found their positions eliminated.

Remote

I was promoted to Director to align my title with my duties and performance. My most rewarding achievements as director include: proposing and receiving approval from local agencies in 2 markets to waive income analysis for affordable housing applicants using Housing Choice Vouchers, reducing application processing time by 2 weeks and administrative time by 3-6 hours; collaborating with existing real estate development partners to get housing agency, lender, and investor approval for Common Living to function as property manager on the company’s first Low Income Housing Tax Credit deal; and significantly reducing our annual corporate and property insurance policy costs for the 2022-2023 policy year.

I continued overseeing the compliance department as the company grew from 3000 units under management to 6500 over the course of a two year period. I collaborated with housing offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Chicago to bring six underperforming properties into compliance upon takeover by Common. In one instance, I was able to avert a $500,000 penalty for a client whose affordable asset was out of compliance for nearly ten years prior to coming under Common. I influenced deal writing with affordable housing expertise and financial acumen, providing regulatory analysis and model for calculating labor costs for underwriting prospective deals including rent control/stabilization and/or affordable housing requirements. This reduced the number of budget proposals that created unforeseen operating losses due to compliance needs, including a deal risking $200K in additional labor dollars over 18 months to support an affordable housing lease-up in San Francisco.

New York, New York, United States

I acted as in-house affordable housing subject matter expert, overseeing housing compliance for 3000+ units, including 400+ rent and/or income restricted units across multiple major markets including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Company insurance and vendor management were also under my purview. I utilized my expertise regarding inclusionary zoning, fair housing, and co-living to outline a compelling argument that ultimately saw the Washington DC Department of Housing and Community Development approve the first Inclusionary Zoning project to include co-living in Washington D.C.I also brought four Seattle assets with affordable housing into compliance, including recreating tenant files during the Covid-19 lockdown, and was deemed compliant by the Seattle Office of Housing within 5 months of Common acquisition. Another key achievement was centralizing vendor compliance and implementing RealPage Vendor Credentialing, a software solution the increased efficiencies and mitigated risk from unapproved vendors.

Greater New York City Area

I was courted away from Hudson Yards to support and help facilitate the re-centralization of the Related Rentals compliance team. I introduced several software-based property management solutions, automating workflows and creating transparent reporting.

Greater New York City Area

I eliminated barriers to employment and identified members of underserved communities for job opportunities at Hudson Yards by partnering with local non-profits and the New York City Housing Authority and Small Business Services.I also facilitated Customer Experience training, up-skilled corporate and campus staff, and collaborated with the operations and public relations teams to develop tactics for direct customer interaction and strategy and standards for written communication.

Greater New York City Area

I resolved system issues, developed learning content and refined the implementation process across a 60,000-unit portfolio, partnering with leadership, staff, and software vendors: Yardi Voyager & RealPage Onesite. I also collaborated on strategy and provided quality assurance for conversion of 25,000+ units from self-hosted to cloud version of Yardi Voyager platform.

Greater New York City Area

I authored and facilitated The Related Company’s first affordable housing soft skill training and regularly audited existing sites and new acquisitions with affordable housing components, specifically LIHTC, for NY Portfolios.

New York, New York

My primary responsibility was interviewing, analyzing and determining income eligibility for affordable housing applicants in two lease-ups with a total of 201 LIHTC units. Additionally, I developed an informal curriculum and was asked to train new staff on affordable housing applicant interviewing and file processing procedures. This led to my promotion to Training & Development Specialist.

Greater New York City Area

I served as the primary customer service liaison to tour and travel operatives, corporate partners and clients, SMERF groups, driving up tour and travel revenue 55% over 3 years and supervised cross-departmental coordination for Hard Rock's financially and physically largest cafe. I also trained incoming sales managers from across the company (180+ sites) on policy, procedure, culture, and technology and designed and deployed SalesForce reports that would be adopted by sales & marketing teams across the company.

Greater New Orleans Area

I supported tour & travel partnerships and initiatives and acted as event manager for all private events. I was also the first employee from the New Orleans location to ever be selected as a Hard Rock Ambassador to work the annual Hard Rock Calling concert.

Greater New Orleans Area

I worked in the capacity of an operations supervisor for the restaurant and gift shop, acting as a customer escalation, server and operations manager trainer, and scheduler.

Greater New Orleans Area

I leveraged my soft skills and work ethic to successfully join and find success with Hard Rock Cafe, beginning with the role of server.