The $100 Million Man Moves
Zachary Marks took Montgomery County's public-equity experiment national. Enterprise just gave him a bigger stage.
Zachary Marks now serves as executive vice president and head of real estate development at Enterprise Community Development — and if you follow affordable housing in Maryland, that move should get your attention.
Marks was the chief of real estate for the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, where he played the leading role in creating the Housing Production Fund: a $100 million revolving equity facility dedicated to public development and ownership, projected to yield 6,000 homes over twenty years, with at least 30 percent of them permanently affordable. The idea was blunt and, at the time, radical — replace private equity with public investment, and let the public own the upside. He collaborated with the Montgomery County Council on a second fund, the $50 million Non-profit Preservation Fund, aimed at naturally occurring affordable housing. Both have become national models.
[PAYWALL BREAK]
