Jeffrey C. Rappin, President and CEO
Jeff is Chairman of the Board for Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC. Prior to joining Evergreen, Jeff was Senior Vice President and General Counsel for The Habitat Company, a full service real estate company involved in the real estate development, property management, asset management and brokerage of property, primarily in the metropolitan Chicago area. Jeff has been a practicing attorney in Chicago since 1966. Before joining Habitat in 1987, Jeff was a senior partner in a major Chicago law firm specializing in all aspects of real estate law. He received his undergraduate degree from Purdue University and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School.
Jeff is experienced in real estate financing, particularly tax exempt bond financings, and has been involved as an attorney and/or principal in over 1 billion dollars of tax-exempt bond transactions. Jeff also has extensive experience in working with numerous federal, state and local housing agencies including the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the City of Chicago Department of Housing. He has also represented various not-for-profit sponsors in the development of senior and physically disabled housing. Jeff has also represented numerous contractors specializing in construction of apartments and condominiums.
Jeff has served on various committees of both the American and Chicago Bar Associations, primarily in the areas of real estate development and financing. He has also lectured on aspects of real estate development before various bar groups.
Jeff has served on School Boards for both Northbrook and Glencoe and has also acted as Chairman of the Nominating Committee for the New Trier High School Board. His recent charitable participation includes involvement with Literacy Chicago, Children’s Oncology Services, Inc. (which operates One Step At A Time Camp), AIDS Chicago, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and Victory Gardens Theater.
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James D. Castner, Senior Vice President, ERES, LLC; President, ECC
Jim is President of Evergreen Construction Company, L.L.C. and Senior Vice President of Evergreen. Jim is responsible for coordination of predevelopment activities, design and construction and close out of development projects. Jim is also responsible for negotiating design and construction contracts and is responsible for schedules and budget effectiveness.
Prior to Evergreen, Jim was a Vice President for The Habitat Company and was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities of the company’s affordable housing development programs, including acquisition of land and buildings, design activities of architects, construction and rehabilitation activities of contractors and oversight of administrative and accounting functions. Jim has 25 years of experience in real estate development, architectural design, and construction.
Prior to joining The Habitat Company, Jim served as Project Manager, Vice President and then Senior Vice President for The Krusinski Organization, Ltd./TKO Construction Company, Ltd., where he was responsible for the day to day operations of the company, including lease management and negotiations, development/management of budgets, and implementation of construction and rehabilitation of several loft buildings in Chicago. Previously, while employed as a Program Manager for Burnham Development Company, Jim specialized in construction and project management for over 700 apartments in Chicago, Elgin, Joliet and Rockford, Illinois.
Jim received his architectural degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, School of Architecture. He is also a licensed Illinois Real Estate Salesperson.
Jim has earned the professional designation from NCARB (National Council of Architects Registration Board) and he is a registered architect in Illinois, Kansas and New York.
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Polly Kuehl, Senior Vice President of Property Management
Polly Kuehl, CPM is Senior Vice President of Property Management for Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC. After 6 years as Vice President of Housing for Providence Management and 13 years as Executive Director of Housing for Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, Polly joined Evergreen Real Estate Services on November 1, 2004.
Polly has developed and/or managed affordable housing for 26 years. She has specialized in housing funded through a variety of funding programs, including HUD 202/811, 236, Section 8, Tax Credit, HOME, public housing scattered sites and HUD insurance programs and has worked, directly, with over 42 such projects.
During her years with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, Polly expanded the property management of affordable housing from 6 contracts to 30 contracts and was involved in the development of 7 of those buildings. She was hired by Providence Management to expand their ministry to include management of affordable senior and family housing. During those six years, Polly acquired and supervised the management of 20 such contracts.
Polly earned a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs with a concentration in Aging Services and an undergraduate degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has a Certified Property Management designation from the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and a State of Illinois Real Estate Broker’s License. The combination of social services, property management and fiscal management is a unique blend, which offers significant benefits for properties serving a lower income or more vulnerable population.
Polly has served as President of the Housing Cabinet and has served on numerous task forces for Life Services Network and on the Subsidized Housing Committee for IREM. In addition, she has spoken at numerous seminars and training events.
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Stephen Rappin, President
Stephen Rappin is President of Evergreen. Steve brings affordable (LIHTC) as well as convention property acquisitions and management experience to this position with an emphasis in marketing and property turnaround. Prior to joining Evergreen, Steve was a senior marketer for Beam Global Spirits & Wines, a division of Fortune Brands. In that role, Steve led the development and marketing of new products both domestically and internationally.
Previously, Steve served in senior marketing positions for such companies as SC Johnson, Johnson & Johnson and Kellogg’s.
Steve earned an MBA in marketing from Georgetown University and a Bachelors Degree at The American University. Steve is fluent in Spanish and upon graduation from American, was selected as a VIP Liaison at the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain.
Steve is Tax Credit Certified, a licensed Real Estate Broker and a member of the Urban Land Institute and the National Multi-Housing Council. Steve also acts as an Associate board member of the Ravinia Festival, a member of the Georgetown University Alumni Association and as a youth AYSO soccer coach.
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Cynthia Pokrzywa, Vice President Market Rate Property Management
Cynthia is Vice President Market Rate Property Management for ERES. Prior to joining Evergreen Real Estate Services, Cynthia L. Pokrzywa served as Vice-President of Operations of Wexenthaller Realty Management Company, Inc. Having 20 years of experience in the multi family housing industry, Cynthia’s leadership allowed Wexenthaller to maintain above average profits and occupancy rates of over 95%.
Cynthia earned her B.A. in Accounting from Saint Xavier University with a concentration in Finance. She has also earned her Accredited Resident Manager (ARM) from the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and her Certified Occupancy Specialist (COS) from National Center for Housing Management. She continues to further her education through courses offered from the Chicagoland Apartment Association (CAA) and IREM. At Wexnthaller her portfolio ranged from 100 units to 500 units per building in both suburban and downtown markets. She also assisted in the $18 million renovation project of The Belmont, a Chicago Landmark building, and repositioned the building in the market rate sector. In addition, she was responsible for the stabilization and successful lease ups of 4 additions to the Wexenthaller Realty Management Company, Inc. portfolios
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Arthur Ostry, Chief Financial Officer
Art is the Chief Financial Officer for Evergreen Real Estate Services LLC. Art joined Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC in 2004 after over twelve years of service at CAMCO, INC. in various levels including Controller. Art has been an Accounting Manager and Controller over affordable and market rate residential portfolios ranging from 20 to 50 properties.
While at CAMCO, Art was involved closely with two computer software changes for property management and financial reporting. Art improved monthly financial reporting deadlines, internal reporting and accountability.
Art has earned a MBA from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX in Marketing and Accounting and has earned a bachelor’s of science in accounting from Regis University.
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Paul Pfaff, Senior Accountant
Paul is a Senior Accountant for Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC. Paul joined Evergreen in 2006, after 14 years in the construction and contracting industry. Paul brings extensive accounting experience to the Evergreen team, having progressed to Controller while with his previous employers. Currently, Paul manages the financials for the fee-managed properties in Evergreen’s portfolio.
Paul earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern Illinois University in General Business Administration in 1992. He is deeply involved in the Northbrook Park District Sports programs, coaching at various levels in Baseball, Football, and Basketball.
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Richard Royce, Facilities Manager
Rich has 25 years of Facility Management experience including a 12-year term as Director of Maintenance Operations for Draper and Kramer with experience in large residential, retail and commercial office properties. Rich examines facility components for all ERES managed properties to provide a productive, safe and efficient environment in which to meet the organizations goals. Rich is a certified member of IFMA and Leed/Energy Conservation and is a licensed Mechanical Contractor and Electrician.
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