Washington, D.C. - Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), the developer of the future mixed-income, mixed-use, 900-unit redevelopment of the Barry Farm site in Southeast DC, has named Maia Shanklin Roberts Vice President of Real Estate Development for the Mid-Atlantic region.
Shanklin Roberts will manage POAH’s portfolio in the Mid-Atlantic Region including the redevelopment of Barry Farm, part of the District's New Communities Initiative to transform key neighborhoods by redeveloping public housing and the surrounding area into vibrant mixed-use, mixed-income communities.
Working with the POAH Mid-Atlantic team, Shanklin Roberts will oversee Barry Farm's design and construction and serve as POAH’s liaison with partners and stakeholders to advance the project in a timely and cost-effective manner that is responsive to former Barry Farm residents’ needs.
Phase 1 infrastructure work is near completion and POAH recently received zoning approval for the entire development – with a 108-unit apartment building for seniors slated to be the first building to be constructed. In total, at least 700 rental apartments and 200 homeownership units will be built (including 380 replacement public housing units) plus a 40,000 square foot corridor of new retail stores and service providers, a 2.4-acre central park, and the Barry Farm Cultural and Community Center.
Shanklin Roberts will also represent POAH before municipal and other regulatory boards, along with assessing the feasibility of other potential development opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic region.
“Maia Shanklin Roberts brings extraordinary professional qualifications and skills to the position of POAH Vice President of Real Estate Development for the Mid-Atlantic region, said Rodger Brown, POAH Managing Director Real Estate Development. “In addition to her comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of affordable housing funding, regulations and creation, Maia has a deep commitment to social justice and equity and will be an outstanding leader of our DC team that will oversee one of our organization’s most significant urban redevelopments.”
Prior to joining POAH, Shanklin Roberts was a senior associate at Ballard Spahr LLP and an associate at Bocarsly Emden Cowan Esmail & Arndt LLP where she facilitated and structured numerous affordable housing, adaptive reuse and mixed-use transactions financed with state, historic and energy tax credits, tax-exempt private activity bonds and other public financing vehicles.
Shanklin Roberts also worked as a law clerk at Klein Hornig LLP in Washington, DC where she supported in the representation of nonprofit and for-profit developers in connection with the structuring, management and closing of new construction and preservation transactions for affordable housing and other community development projects.
She was a Housing Policy Fellow at Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and Supervisory Program Manager at the Coordinating Council on Youth Violence Prevention/ Peaceoholics.
Shanklin Roberts holds a Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law, a master’s degree in Community Planning from University of Maryland, College Park, and Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Stanford University.