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Our staff has a diverse range of expertise which allows JM+A to provide a
wide spectrum of housing services.
Jim Mercado, President
Jim has over 30 years of experience in planning, designing and developing
affordable housing solutions. Prior to establishing the company, Jim was a
regional vice president for Mercy Housing, Inc. a leading national non profit.
He has also served as housing development manager for the City of Denver, and as
Program Director for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) a spin-off
of the Ford Foundation.
Mercado has a Masters degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the
University of Michigan, and served two years in VISTA, the domestic Peace Corps,
stationed in Little Rock. While in Arkansas, he worked as an administrator and
housing advisor for then Governor Bill Clinton, and later, participated as a
member of President Clinton's first term Transition Team. Mr. Mercado also
served as Senior Planner for Metroplan, a regional Council of Governments, and
spent 12 years in private practice as an award winning designer and developer
specializing in sustainable and energy efficient architecture.
Rodger Hara, Associate
Jm+a utilizes the services of Rodger Hara, principal of Community Builders Realty Services,
a Denver based real estate firm specializing in providing development and financing services
to public, private and non-profit developers of affordable housing.
Rodger has over 30 years experience in planning, financing, developing and operating affordable
housing communities. Prior to founding Community Builders, he was a regional vice president for
Capmark Finance, the leading national lender for multifamily housing. He has also held management
positions with HUD, the Denve Housing Authority and the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
He has also been an instructor for Outward Bound for over 20 years.
Representative transactions in which he has been involved include the purchase and rehabilitation
of the 184 unit Village 88 Apartments in Thornton, CO by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless,
the structuring and placement of the financing for Hampden Village Apartments in Aurora, Fox Meadows
in Fort Collins, Brighton Village Apartments in Brighton and Eastglen Apartments in Longmont – all
affordable housing communities done by private developers. Rodger is actively involved in the
community and sits on the Boards of the Arapahoe House and Sam S. Bloom Foundations, Englewood
Housing Authority, Colorado Housing Assistance Corp., and Sakura Square Management Co. He was a
co-founder in 1979 of the Ecumenical Housing Corporation (now Senior Housing Options) and was
co-chair of the annual Housing Colorado NOW! Conference in 2006 and 2007. A Business Administration
graduate of the University of Denver, he received an Eagle Award and the People’s Choice Award at
the Housing NOW! Conference in 2005.
Howard B. Noble, Associate
Jm+a utilizes the services of Howard B. Noble, Manager/Broker for Noble Property Group, LLC.
NPG is a Denver CO based real estate firm specializing in land related acquisitions, financing
and joint ventures. NPG has a successful history of closed real estate transactions in the
capacity of both an intermediary and principal, focused on a diverse range of prime residential
and commercial development land in collaboration with select national, regional, local users,
developers and investors. NPG has an effective client approach that combines a strategic,
disciplined and straightforward methodology to identify, assess and implement transactions to
attain requisite investment results. The firm has participated in excess of $300 million of
closed land transactions with an estimated build-out of $5 billion along the Colorado Front
Range and additional markets such as Tampa FL, Charlotte NC and Seattle WA.
Representative transactions include the sale of the 2,935-acre Stapleton Redevelopment to Forest City Enterprises,
the formation of the 2,500-acre Block Bros. (Olympia & York) joint venture in metro Denver,
the 3,411-acre Block Bros. West Meadows property venture in Tampa FL and the 1,367-acre land
sale in Charlotte NC, which now includes a Mills/Simon Mall. Mr. Noble was a Co-Founder in 2004
and is Co-Chair of the annual Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management Research
Center “Housing Conference” at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver that became
affiliated with the ULI IN 2007.
Michelle Lee, Associate
 Michelle Lee is a development associate with jm+a. She has over 10 years of experience handling
acquisitions and entitlements for national, production homebuilders and non-profit affordable housing
developers.
In 2004, Michelle joined Mercy Housing as a project developer and was responsible for developments
totaling $35 million. Prior to Mercy, Michelle was an assistant project manager at Findlay Development
Companies in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Michelle owns and manages Harmony Management Group, Inc.,
a firm that provides homeowner association management services primarily to deed restricted housing
communities. HMG currently manages the HOAs of seven developments. In addition, she is a
consultant to Forest City Stapleton’s affordable housing program, monitoring below market development
activity for Denver's largest Master Planned Community.
Abdul Sesay, Consultant
Abdul has over 10 years of private- and public-sector experience in housing and
urban development, market analysis, and real estate finance, and policy
development. He is a Senior Policy Analyst with the City of Denver, where he
conducts high level research and provide substantiation for housing and economic
development issues. His previous duties include, loan underwriting, housing
program design; development of compliance and monitoring tools, and policy
research and analysis. Abdul has authored various plans and strategy papers,
including a comprehensive study of residential mortgage foreclosures in Denver.
Abdul was a Project Manager and Housing Development Consultant for a consulting
firm, where he conducted over 100 housing market feasibility studies and housing
plans for developers, financial institutions, syndicators, and local governments
throughout the United States.
Abdul holds three masters degrees in Architecture, Urban Planning, and
Information Systems from Tsinghua University, China, University of Cincinnati,
and University of Colorado at Denver, respectively. He is a certified Housing
Development Finance Professional, and an Oracle Certified Professional, Internet
Application Developer. Abdul is a co-owner of DataWise Solutions, a real estate
software development company.
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