Our Team
Zen Sawyer, Owner/Founder
Notable Specialties: Building/managing pro-formas; funding applications; development proposals; acquisitions; experience with many different types of executions, including affordable rental/condo, market rate, Opportunity Zone investment, naturally occurring affordable housing, retail/commercial office, mixed-income, and mixed-use.
Zen has been working in affordable housing since 2007 when he cut his teeth as an acquisitions analyst with Mercy Housing California, building a new pro forma template, putting it to good use with over 50 financial and site use analyses, and launching 12 new projects with a combined construction budget of over $450 million. Since founding ZDC in 2011, Zen has worked on more than 50 consulting engagements. While predevelopment work is his specialty, his consulting experience has been wide-ranging, including serving in such roles as VP of Operations for a mid-sized developer; project manager for a four phased, mixed-income, mixed-use development in Detroit; and project lead on a multi-year nationwide search for naturally occurring affordable housing opportunities. This wide variety of engagements has allowed Zen to cultivate expertise not only in affordable rental housing but also in for-sale product, mixed income, mixed use, value-add, commercial, and market rate executions ... a rare cross-pollination within a specialized field like affordable housing. Zen lives in West Marin County, California with his wife and two sons. He spends much of his free time doing yoga, exploring the culinary arts, and traveling, all with a healthy dose of present moment awareness.
Jeremy Hoffman, Principal/Senior Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Financial analysis and underwriting; acquisition/rehab and resyndications; government affordable housing policy and finance; staff management; extensive project management from conception to completion.
Jeremy had his first experience with affordable housing in 2011 as an intern while in graduate school for real estate development at the University of Maryland. After getting a taste, he quickly moved to where the most affordable housing action was, in the Big Apple, where he worked for the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development for 7 years. He started on the Preservation Team underwriting and financing acquisition/rehabs; worked his way up to Executive Director of Multifamily Preservation Programs; and culminated with a notable leadership position as Assistant Commissioner for New Construction Finance where he oversaw a 35-person team that financed more than 6,000 affordable housing units worth more than $3 billion. In 2020, Jeremy and his wife moved back West to their Oakland homeland to raise a family. Jeremy joined the California development community serving as Associate Director of Real Estate Development at Eden Housing, Inc. and subsequently as Director of Development for Northern California at BRIDGE Housing, where he oversaw the large-scale master plan development, Balboa Reservoir, in San Francisco, as well as many notable new construction projects in the Bay Area, and several portfolio resyndication projects. When Jeremy doesn’t have his hands full with his two young daughters, he enjoys exercising, cooking, live music, and traveling.
Liz Tracey, Principal/Senior Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Financial analysis and underwriting; feasibility studies; debt and equity negotiations; new markets tax credits; Project Homekey.
Liz has three decades of experience with affordable housing finance and development, spanning construction and permanent lending; equity investing; real estate development; and consulting to developers, foundations, and local and state governments – she’s done it all! Liz worked at large institutions like Bank of America and Chase Bank in community development banking, nonprofits like Low Income Investment Fund placing debt and tax credits, Jamboree Housing doing business development, and juggernaut the Michaels Organization originating new affordable deals in Texas and Colorado. In the consulting realm, she was a senior principal at premier consulting firm, LeSar Development Consultants, where she led engagements with developers, transit agencies, local governments, and the Cal. Dept. of Housing and Community Development. Liz received her bachelor's degree at Northwestern and a master’s in business administration with a specialty in finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. After decades of the grind in California, Liz has wisely holed up in the small mountain town of Estes Park, CO, where she enjoys daily hiking with her dog, cross country skiing and hosting visits from family and friends.
Miguel Vasquez, Senior Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Entitlements/permitting/CEQA; Construction management; Condominium/HOA’s and Subdivisions; Extensive project management experience from conception to completion.
Miguel has over 18 years’ experience with commercial, multi-family and mixed-use real estate development projects throughout the Western United States. In 2006 he became VP of Development for Coastal Rim Properties Inc. where he worked from conception to completion on developments throughout California and Hawaii. Miguel’s expertise encompasses a variety of product types ranging from multifamily and affordable housing; mixed-use projects including residential/office/retail; transit-oriented development (TOD) projects; and continuum of care communities for seniors. Since beginning his consulting career in 2013, Miguel has been focused on Development and Construction Management of several institutional sized, mixed- use TOD projects in the greater Los Angeles area, including brownfield remediation, with project sizes typically ranging from $20M to $175M. He holds an active Class B General Contractor’s license. Miguel lives in Orange County, Cal. and enjoys surfing, traveling, and teaming up with his wife to raise two rambunctious boys and baby daughter.
Ileah La Vora, Senior Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Project management from conception to completion; asset management; extensive San Francisco experience.
Since 2005, Ileah has been working as an affordable housing project manager in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of the 14 total projects she has worked on, 12 have been in San Francisco proper, and through that work Ileah has gained exceptional experience with all City agencies and departments. Six of her projects include commercial space and four of them include special needs components for formerly homeless families, seniors and transitional aged youth. Two of Ileah’s projects – 1180 4th St. and 1100 Ocean have been lauded with numerous awards, including Affordable Housing Finance Readers Choice, local awards, and AIA Design awards. Ileah currently resides in Baja California with her pup, where in her free time she can be found honing her ceramics and surfing skills, and we are not sure she is going to come back, but she remains a highly effective asset for any development initiative.
Ryan Withall, Senior Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Financial Analysis, Project Management, Acquisitions/Dispositions, Funding Applications, Capital Markets, Green Building, Urban Planning
Ryan originally hails from Carlsbad, CA. He attended Columbia University where he not only earned his BS in Earth and Environmental Engineering but more notably started his running career on the Division 1 Cross Country and Track & Field teams, finishing 12 th overall at the 2005 Ivy League Track & Field Championships. Ryan ran through the double Masters program at Yale – earning an MBA and a Master of Environmental Management with plenty of accolades - then picked up speed, sprinting into a robust professional career. Ryan led off as the first employee of Hudson Valley Property Group in NYC, and two years later took the baton at Lincoln Avenue Capital as employee #5. Both firms are now among the top 25 owners of affordable housing in the country, and Ryan played a crucial role in driving this growth, having overseen the acquisition and rehab of over 40 projects across 12 states with over 8000 units and total development cost of over $1 billion. Needless to say, Ryan has extensive experience in the acquisition, refinancing, asset management, and tax credit resyndication of affordable multifamily housing! Ryan brings those skills to bear at ZDC, evaluating client portfolios for repositioning opportunities, executing transactions utilizing smart financing and program structures, and wielding a mind boggling financial model that he helped build. In his free time Ryan continues to run excessively, cycles when he gets tired, and reads, cooks, hikes, and fly fishes in his sleep.
Kate Traynor, Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: acquisition rehab and new construction project management from conception to completion; HUD RAD/202/236/FHA underwriting; City of San Francisco expertise.
Originally from Massachusetts, Kate’s affordable housing career started on the East Coast producing market studies for LIHTC developers and consulting at HUD’s Office of Affordable Housing Preservation in DC where she supported RAD privatization of public housing and underwrote refinancings for HUD 202s and HUD 236s. In search of better weather, Kate followed the setting sun to Los Angeles to pursue a graduate degree in Urban Planning at UCLA. She then moved to the Bay Area in 2017 where she worked for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and others before landing at BRIDGE Housing in 2021 as a Project Manager. At BRIDGE she was quickly promoted to Senior Project Manager in charge of managing new construction and portfolio rehab/resyndication projects from conception to completion. Kate splits her time between the Bay Area, Lake Tahoe, and the Acela Corridor and prides herself on traveling light, but always with at least three books in her travel bag. When not immersed in affordable housing, Kate likes to birdwatch, ski, and work with stained glass.
Christina Duran, Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Public Administration of LIHTC; Funding Applications; Underwriting; Resyndications
For nearly 15 years, Christina served as the Director/Executive Director of the LIHTC program at New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the nation’s largest municipal housing finance agency. She worked intimately with not-for-profit and for-profit developers, syndicators, financial institutions and other stakeholders through the application, carryover, 8609 and troubleshooting processes. She allocated competitive 9% and tax-exempt 4% tax credits to more than 40,000 units during her career through original allocations and resyndications. As Executive Director, she was also responsible for publishing HPD’s annual Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). During her tenure, Christina was responsible for the creation and management of HPD’s Year 15 Program and recently spearheaded revising HPD’s Right of First Refusal (ROFR) policy which is being used as a blueprint for many other cities and states. Needless to say, Christina is an expert in all things LIHTC and specifically in resyndication planning and execution. Prior to work at HPD, Christina served as an Assistant Vice President at J.P. Morgan Chase working exclusively on affordable housing developments in New York City from conception to conversion. She earned her Master’s in Public Administration from CUNY’S John Jay College and her Bachelor’s in Sociology from Iowa State University. Christina recently relocated from New York City to Iowa with her husband, three busy children, and five pound fur baby chihuahua to be closer to family and find a slower pace of life after living in NYC for 25 years (just imagine!).
Erick Diaz, Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Acquisitions, advanced financial modeling, GIS programming, strong expository writing, project level and organizational underwriting.
After getting oriented to the affordable housing development industry through the intensive California Coalition for Rural Housing Training (CCRH) Internship Program and the USC Ross Minority Certificate Program in Real Estate, Erick began his career in 2014 with Community Housing Works in San Diego where he project managed 300 units of acquisition-rehabs and new construction projects in Southern California. Duties included due diligence for acquisition, submitting local and state funding applications (LIHCT, bond, HOME, AHP, RFP’s and other NOFA’s), and managing construction through stabilization and project close out. In 2017 Erick joined the wide world of consulting, where he has performed feasibility analysis for numerous sites, submitted RFPs, and managed the acquisition process for a $12.5 million site in San Jose. Erick also started consulting on the finance/underwriting side of the industry at Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp, and more recently at the Housing Partnership Network where he has underwritten $35 million in LIHTC equity and $40 million in project-based and working capital loans for various CDFIs. Erick decided at this point in his career that one master’s degree from Harvard was not good enough for him, so he got two of them simultaneously – a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Master’s in Urban Planning from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. In 2019, he took a breather from Harvard to be a Summer Policy Analyst at the California Housing Partnership where he was able to utilize his top-notch data analysis and GIS skills to produce material so dry that nobody could read it. Erick currently resides in North Carolina where he is thawing out from Boston winters.
Kayla DiMarco, Development Consultant
Notable Specialties: Project management from conception to completion; construction management (i.e. owners rep), Community Land Trusts for homeownership, Affordable Condos, New Markets Tax Credits
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Kayla studied Civil Engineering with a minor in Business at Clemson University. Prior to joining the affordable housing development industry, Kayla worked for several years as a construction manager and design engineer, notably working on the civil design of Frank Gehry’s pedestrian bridge over Meta Park. In 2019 Kayla joined MEDA Development in San Francisco as a project manager and managed new construction projects from conception to completion. Venturing out of the typical LIHTC world, she managed a complex affordable condo development with New Market Tax Credits, SB 35 Entitlements, a Community Land Trust homeownership project, and build-out of commercial spaces for nonprofits. Kayla is a proud Italian citizen and goes back to the homeland every year, making the monolingual feel small by speaking English, Italian, Spanish, and some Portuguese to boot. Her home is in San Francisco, where in her free time she practices ceramics, volunteers for the SF Botanical Gardens, and importantly is an avid Yogini.