Building Solutions

Key Development Staff Katherine L. Updike Ms. Updike is the Managing Partner of Building Solutions.  She has seventeen years experience in the financial services industry with expertise in financial advisory and structuring, strategic planning, product development, and training. She formed her own financial advisory firm after serving as Managing Director of Bankers Trust Company and The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., as well as Vice President and Division Head of First Chicago. She has been an invited lecturer on financial strategy and has led both in court and out of court restructurings - including real estate assets ranging from ranches to restaurants. Joining Williams & Nichols, the predecessor company to Building Solutions in 1991 has allowed Ms. Updike to combine her extensive financial background with a strong commitment to the development of healthy communities. She has been credited with accomplishing the impossible in bringing together two major non-profit organizations, the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, and various other financial parties in order to build the first new affordable single room occupancy residence in downtown Chicago in over 50 years - with full neighborhood support. A creative spirit and commitment to community has allowed her to be instrumental in the birth of a charter school, the renovation of a National Historic Register building owned by a small, struggling historical society, the initiation of a model job training program, and the support of numerous artistic growth initiatives. In market rate residential development, Ms. Updike was instrumental in the successful conversion of a major rental loft building and has been a key advisor in turning around troubled rental property. Currently she is implementing two innovative employer sponsored housing projects. Ms. Updike has served on the boards of Shakespeare Repertory (Past President), Chicago Chamber Musicians, and Association House. Additionally she has been an advisor to National-Louis University, a trustee of the Episcopal Diocesan Foundation, and a Co-Chairman of the $40 million capital campaign for the Field Museum. She is president of her church board and treasurer of her daughter's school.  As a graduate of Texas Tech University, she went on to complete an MBA in 1974 at ESAN, in Lima, Peru, a program developed by Stanford Graduate Business School. Donna R. Smithey Ms. Smithey has a diverse background in affordable housing, community development, real estate development, job training, construction management and public education.   Among the types of housing developed by Ms. Smitheyare 15 tax-credit projects including two buildings for senior citizens. Affordable housing projects include cooperatives, family size apartments, and single-room occupancy buildings. Ms. Smithey also directed development for a 20-acre site in Niles, Illinois. The mostly vacant land was developed with over 400 condominiums and a two-acre public park for the Village of Niles. Many projects have utilized multiple layers of financing, including tax-increment financing. Ms. Smithey is a graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian school in Chicago, and the University of Kansas. She is the mother of two children. Volunteer activities have ranged from Local School Council service, to sponsorship of a school-based Construction Tech club at Manley High School in the North Lawndale community. Emory Williams Jr. Mr. Williams is a Principal and Founder of Williams & Nichols, the predecessor company of Building Solutions. He has been in the real estate development business since 1983 developing property in the Denver, St. Louis, and Chicago areas. Mr. Williams was the general partner in two rehab loft development projects in Chicago, containing a total of 250 loft apartments.  These early projects helped define the market for adaptive reuse of vacant industrial buildings. Mr. Williams has a Masters degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Bachelors degree from Middlebury College. From 1980 to 1983 he was a C.P.A. with the firm of Ernst & Whinney. Kenna W. MacKinnon Ms. MacKinnon joined Building Solutions as an Associate in 1998. She has a strong interest in residential real estate and community development, exemplified through her work and research. Ms. MacKinnon most recently worked as an acquisitions analyst for Elkor Realty Corporation, a real estate investment firm with over 8,000 multi-family units throughout the country. Her role in the firm included creating financial models and advising the firm’s principals and investors on the feasibility of multi-family acquisitions. Ms. MacKinnon has also served as the interim Housing Director for the Beverly Area Planning Association, implementing a land use survey and planning policies to encourage the stable diversity of the area. At Paul Sullivan Housing in Boston, the permanent low-income housing division of Pine Street Inn, a local homeless shelter, Ms. MacKinnon worked as the assistant to the Housing Director for three years. She also worked as a research assistant for The Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. Her research included analysis of employment and location decisions in the Twin Cities. Ms. MacKinnon received her Masters in Public Policy and Urban Planning degree at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1996, with a concentration in Housing and Urban Development. She received her B.A. in Economics from The University of Notre Dame. While studying at Notre Dame, Ms. MacKinnon volunteered with and consulted to The South Bend Center for the Homeless. She devised a program evaluation model to help The Center assess its programs. Ms. MacKinnon is very involved with the professional organization Women in Planning and Development. She has also served on the Associate Board of Uptown Habitat for Humanity and the Young Adult Catholic Conference Committee for the Archdiocese of Boston. Teresa Irwin Hintzen Ms. Hintzen has worked in the real estate industry since 1987, specializing in residential development, construction management and community planning.  She began her career in residential development working for a New York Stock Exchange Company building market rate single-family homes and large-scale retirement communities.  As Development Manager, her responsibilities included six projects totaling over 800 units in various stages of development.  Over the last decade, Ms. Hintzen has devoted her career to developing affordable housing.  She has been hired by various non-profit organizations to strategically plan and develop low-income housing, especially for seniors.  Some of her projects include renovation of 114 units for families and seniors, and new construction of a 100 unit senior building.  All projects required negotiation of public and private funding, including tax credits.  Most recently, Ms. Hintzen worked as Executive Director of a housing subsidiary of a non-profit organization with a long tradition of creating and preserving affordable housing.  Ms. Hintzen received her Masters in Urban Planning with a Focus in Real Estate Development from the University of Tennessee.  She completed her Bachelor of Science Degree with a concentration in Urban Planning from Western Kentucky University.  During college, she did historic preservation work for the cities of Fort Worth, Texas and Knoxville, Tennessee.   Currently, Ms. Hintzen lives in Chicago where she is active in her local civic and neighborhood association.  Prior to moving to the city, she served as a planning commissioner for the Village of Wilmette, Illinois. Kari A. Saba Ms. Saba joined Building Solutions as a Principal in 2001 to fulfill her passion for developing property that not only positively affects the lives of residents, but also improves the health and sustainability of the surrounding community. She brings over twenty years experience in financing multifamily housing projects nationwide. Ms. Saba most recently worked as the Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for the National Equity Fund, the largest not-for-profit syndicator in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit industry.  She had primary responsibility for fund management and the underwriting and acquisition of all project investments. Ms. Saba managed over $2.5 billion of equity investments in low-income rental housing with annual volumes that grew to exceed $400 million in 1999 from $100 million in 1991. Over 100 multifamily housing investments were closed annually throughout the United States, meeting the complex financial requirements, objectives and demands of all entities concerned including not-for-profit general partners and major corporate investors, such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bank of America. Each of the projects was created from a community development initiative whose mission was to provide the highest quality, most affordable housing in the neighborhood. These diverse projects included small, fifteen unit rehab properties for families; rural housing for migrant farm workers; historic conversions of warehouses into live-work space for artists; new construction, assisted living facilities for the elderly; single-room occupancy buildings with supportive services for the homeless; and even the complete redevelopment of an 880 unit public housing project into a 470 unit mixed income property through demolition, substantial rehabilitation of a high-rise building for the elderly, and new construction of townhomes for families. Prior to joining the National Equity Fund, Ms. Saba served as Vice President of Piper, Jaffray &Hopwood, Inc. originating and marketing real estate limited partnership private placements, and has also originated multifamily housing project loans nationwide. Ms. Saba is a graduate of Luther College in Iowa and received an MBA in Finance from The College of St. Thomas in Minnesota. She is very involved in her church and family activities with five children. Joede Schoeberlein, M.Arch., AIA Mr. Schoeberlein was formally trained as an architect, and has had a diverse career ranging from architecture and urban design, to teaching, development consulting and community process facilitation. His experience includes founding and directing a private non-profit community housing development organization.  His twenty year career has been focused on community oriented projects including schools, community centers, affordable housing, visual arts facilities, theaters and a chamber music concert hall. Over the last ten years his work has evolved, increasingly, toward providing assistance and support to organizations involved in facility planning and building programs as well as providing development feasibility analysis. Mr. Schoeberlein has worked extensively throughout the Rocky Mountain West region, including Colorado, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, as well as in Chicago, and on several large-scale planning projects in Japan. Mr. Schoeberlein operates Civic Forum; an architectural and community project consulting company. He teamed up with Building Solutions in 2000 in order to broaden the development services he could provide and to provide an internal conceptual design capacity to Building Solutions. Mr. Schoeberlein received his Master of Architecture degree, with a focus on urban design and development, from the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1986. He also attended Cambridge University’s School of Architecture where he was doing urban design research and has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from The Colorado College.  Active in community affairs in his home area of Aspen, Colorado, Mr. Schoeberlein is a member of the Board of Directors of Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and is a commissioner for the Garfield County Housing Authority. He previously served on an Aspen Music Festival and School steering committee for the development of new audiences, as a founding member and two term president of Anderson Ranch Arts Center’s junior board, and on several local and regional task forces on issues including stabilized funding for the arts and affordable housing.

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