IRVINE, CA-SummerHill Apartment Communities, a division of SummerHill Housing Group in San Ramon, has hired multifamily-industry veteran Patrick Simons as SVP to lead the apartment group's new Southern California division. Simons will be based in the firm's new office at 18401 Von Karman Ave., Suite 420, here.

In his new role, Simons will be focused initially on creating a high volume of future projects throughout Southern California. He will be directly involved in all aspects of the company's activities from land acquisition, financing and development through construction, lease up and disposition of apartment assets from Ventura County to San Diego County.

Prior to joining SummerHill, Simons had built an internationally respected market-research and economic-forecasting firm specializing in rental housing with clients that included several large financial institutions and publicly traded companies. Over his 20-year real estate career, he has been responsible for the development or redevelopment of more than 10,000 apartment or condo units while holding executive positions with major commercial and apartment development companies such as LNR Property Corp., JPI and the Kaufman & Broad Multi-Housing Group.

“Patrick is a 20-year veteran of multifamily real estate with exceptional organizational leadership skills to build our Southern California division for long-term growth,” says Robert Freed, president and CEO of SummerHill Housing Group. “His background in both engineering and urban economics gives him the unique ability to ensure that future SummerHill Apartment Communities projects in Southern California will be well planned and financially successful for all parties involved.”

Simons tells GlobeSt.com exclusively that the apartment group's business plan “is driven by the renowned Marcus & Millichap market-research group. We are finding that our very targeted land-acquisition process enables us to be very confident in making a compelling offer when we find the right site.”

He adds that the group is aggressively looking for sites that will yield between about 100 and 500 units in well-located urban submarkets of Southern California. “We are finding that our unique combination of entrepreneurial flexibility and institutional-quality financial strength presents many opportunities for owners of developable sites.”

As a private company, SummerHill can be very flexible in the way it works with owners, Simons says. “For example, we can work through our relationship with Marcus & Millichap to structure seamless 1031 exchanges to assist long-term owners with their tax liability.”

As GlobeSt.com reported in March, KTGY Group, Inc., Architecture + Planning and SummerHill Apartment Communities began construction work on the Lane on the Boulevard, a 141-unit architecturally distinctive apartment community in Redwood City, located on the San Francisco Peninsula, just north of Atherton.

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