Julie Romey
Ms. Romey is a Principal in the Los Angeles office of Keyser Marston. Since rejoining the firm in 2000, Ms. Romey has provided public and private clients with real estate economic analysis, and with expertise in market rate and affordable housing in California.
Key Role
For more than 15 years, Ms. Romey has analyzed real estate projects on a market and site-specific level. Before joining Keyser Marston’s San Diego office in 1994, Ms. Romey worked for Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate and Foodmaker, Inc., both in San Diego. During Ms. Romey’s three year tenure in San Diego, she worked on the Naval Training Center base closure assignment and affordable housing projects in downtown San Diego. After completing graduate school in 1999, Ms. Romey return to Southern California to work for Ernst & Young’s Real Estate Consulting Group where she provided financial analysis for corporate real estate clients.
In Keyser Marston’s Los Angeles office, Ms. Romey has had a role in structuring development agreements for mixed-use and affordable residential projects in the Long Beach, Pasadena, Anaheim, downtown Los Angeles, Burbank, Hollywood, Simi Valley, Brea and Signal Hill. She has also assisted redevelopment agencies and cities with developing affordable housing strategies.
Specific Areas of Expertise
Affordable Housing Transactions
Throughout her career, Ms. Romey has been involved in analyzing residential projects with affordability components. These projects are typically submitted for analysis as unsolicited developer proposals or as a response to an RFQ/RFP issued by a city. A majority of the projects Ms. Romey has been involved with utilize the federal low income housing tax credit program. Other funding sources Ms. Romey has experience with are HOME funds, low income housing set-aside funds, HUD 202 and 811 funds.
Affordable Housing Strategies / Programs
Ms. Romey has determined whether redevelopment agencies’ housing programs are in compliance with California redevelopment law requirements. This includes researching historical uses of low income housing set-aside funds and completed projects as well as projecting future uses of such funds. Ms. Romey has also written the Housing Section of Implementation Plans. In addition, she has assisted a variety of cities with passing inclusionary housing ordinances and to establish the maximum allowable inclusionary housing in-lieu fees.
New Markets Tax Credit Program
In 2005, Ms. Romey assisted the City of Pasadena with structuring the deal terms for an ownership project that will utilize the New Markets Tax Credit program. This will be the first project in the country that will use the New Markets Tax Credit program with an affordable ownership residential project.
Professional Credentials
Ms. Romey holds a master’s degree in real estate finance from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University. Ms. Romey also co-teaches the “Planning and Economic Development Finance” class in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. In addition, in August 2005 she was a panel speaker about the complexities of mixed-use development at the California Redevelopment Association Legal Symposium and is a member of the Cornell Real Estate Council.