Year 15 Exit Strategy

A partner in the Austin office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP, Cynthia Bast is nationally recognized as a preeminent attorney in the area of affordable housing finance. She leads her firm’s Affordable Housing Section, assisting clients with complex affordable housing and community development transactions using a variety of financing tools, particularly the low-income housing tax credit. Over the past 20 years, she has worked on hundreds of transactions developing affordable housing in Texas and other states. She participates extensively in rule-making and administrative issues with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and assists with legislation on important issues in affordable housing.

Within her firm, Cynthia serves on the Board of Directors and the Associate Orientation and Development Committee. She previously served on the firm’s Women’s Initiative, Diversity Committee and the Recruiting Committee for the Austin office.

Cynthia is a past chair and current board member for Texas Community Building With Attorney Resources, a pro bono project providing free legal services to community-based nonprofits working to improve low-income communities. She received that organization’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 2002 and in 2003 and was recognized for outstanding pro bono service by the Travis County Women Lawyers Association. Previously, she was a board member and chair for Artists’ Legal and Accounting Assistance, another pro bono project providing free legal and accounting services to low-income artists and arts organizations.

She received a B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude, and an M.B.A. from the University of Tulsa and a J.D., with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law. She is a frequent speaker and writer on matters related to affordable housing and has been a guest lecturer at The University of Texas School of Law.

Mr. Merkle was previously with Mount Carmel Health System, where he was responsible for portfolio management and development of new properties. Prior to that, he originated and managed LIHTC investments for Huntington National Bank and was in asset management as well as development services with Paramount (Syndicator in Ohio). Mr. Merkle also specialized in the brokerage of LIHTC properties (Y15, GP/LP interests) and consulting for developers and syndicators during his time at CB Richard Ellis’s National Tax Credit Advisory Group. Mr. Merkle has resided in Columbus, Ohio his entire life and is excited to continue to work to further affordable housing efforts nationwide.

John Hoffer has over 25 years of experience developing, acquiring, operating and financing multifamily housing. John began his career in asset management and real estate development with the New Frontier Group (NFG), in Chicago, Illinois, where as NFG’s Director of Asset Management he was responsible for NFG’s portfolio of affordable housing and the third-party asset management contract for Continental Bank of Illinois’ REO portfolio of luxury rental housing. As NFG’s Sr. Project Manager, John was responsible for the development of 700 new affordable apartment units, 750,000 square feet of commercial office space, and a 200-unit luxury convention hotel. At the National Corporation for Housing Partnerships (NCHP), John was Director of Portfolio Analysis where he supervised preparation of all capital plans and key property/portfolio recapitalization transactions from NCHP’s portfolio of approximately 75,000 units. He structured several novel transactions for NCHP including the preservation of 1,000 units of affordable housing utilizing a tax-deductible charitable donation sale to Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority (“PHFA”) combined with NCHP’s repurchase and renovation, which was financed with PHFA soft subordinate debt and 4% LIHTC equity. At NHPF, John has been involved in the purchase and/or recapitalization of 20 NHPF properties consisting of over 4,000 units.

Althea Arnold leads the policy efforts at Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF)– a national collaborative of 12 nonprofit affordable housing developers who own, operate and manage 145,000 affordable rental homes in 49 across the country. SAHF’s mission-driven alliance advances resident-centered policy changes and sustainable solutions within the affordable housing sector. As part of this, Althea works with key policymakers in Congress, HUD, and other federal and state agencies to build support and remove barriers to the preservation and production of high-quality affordable rental housing.

Althea joined SAHF as Senior Vice President, Policy in 2020. Prior to SAHF, she served as a Senior Legislative & Policy Associate at the National Council of State Housing Agencies, focusing on federal appropriations, HUD multifamily programs, and supportive housing issues. Earlier in her career Althea worked at the National Low Income Housing Coalition researching affordable housing needs to inform housing policy.

Althea holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, with a concentration in nonprofit leadership, and a Bachelor of Art’s degree from Connecticut College.