St. Louis native Stephen Westbrooks has lived in many places. But he’s most passionate about St. Louis.
“St. Louis has a lot to offer,” said Westbrooks, an underwriter for Affordable Equity Partners. “It has a solid foundation and many interesting things that can grow from that.”
In particular, Westbrooks is working on growing community-development financing throughout the state with the firm Affordable Equity Partners.
Since 1997, Affordable Equity Partners has deployed federal and state tax credits for low-income housing and historic rehabilitation projects. The firm’s next step is to provide these communities with everyday services, such as grocery stores and health care centers.
Nine months ago, the firm hired Westbrooks to develop the New Markets Tax Credit program, which would provide tax credits for these necessities.
Before coming back home, Westbrooks served as manager of a similar program for Seedco Financial in New York City. New Markets Tax Credits support mixed-use commercial areas in low-income or underserved communities.
For Westbrooks, his new task couldn’t be a better match of his skill set and passion. And although he and his wife, Erica, enjoyed New York City, they were more hyped about their home town.
“We wanted to come back and plant our roots and use our energy in this community – the community that we are both from,” he said. “I had a great opportunity to immerse myself in community finance development with this project.”
There isn’t a typical day for Westbrooks. Developing a brand new program requires him to wear quite a few different hats, he said. Part of his responsibility is putting together an advisory board, which requires outreach. He’s also working with attorneys to create an LLC that they are using as a vehicle to apply for the credits.
Basically, once the program is off and running, Affordable Housing Partners will apply to the state and federal governments for the New Markets Tax Credits. Then developers will go to the firm to propose various projects where those credits could be used.
“They come to us with investment opportunities,” he said. “We are the ones who decide which projects get that equity.”
‘Coopetition’
Although Affordable Housing Partners has a standing reputation for other tax credit programs, it faces some competition in this new market.
“It’s interesting,” he said. “I would describe the New Markets Tax Credit industry as more of a ‘coopetition,’ if you will – joining the words cooperation and competition.”
There’s a competitive bidding and application process that all entities go through to apply for the credits through the federal government. Yet once the credits are received, there is a lot of cooperation to complete the developments, he said.
“Ultimately, the community works together for the benefit of the low-income communities that are the targeted beneficiaries of the New Markets Tax Credit program as a whole,” he said.
For him a successful program would not only receive tax credit allocations but also deploy them in the low-income communities that the firm serves through its affordable housing practice.
“If I look up a year from now, I would love to have invested those credits to benefit the community and provide the retail, commercial and health care services in a meaningful way in the communities currently underserved,” he said.
“That’s my goal, and that’s what drives me to do what’s necessary to develop this program.”
Playing matchmaker
One of the first things Westbrooks did upon arriving in St. Louis was reconnect with the Regional Business Council (RBC)’s Young Professionals Network (YPN).
“I was probably back three days, and I was at an YPN event to get involved in the community,” he said. “They provide that platform very readily. It’s a generous network. You quickly get out of it more than you can possibly put back in.”
While in graduate school earning his MBA at Washington University, Westbrooks got involved in the RBC’s mentoring program. Before Seedco Financial, Stephen served as manager of corporate development for the local investment firm, Cequel III.
“It helped me get job opportunities from networking directly out of grad school,” he said. “The network is active in playing matchmaker, making connections that make sense and carving out opportunities for everyone.”
