Julie Romey is a Senior Principal in the Los Angeles office of Keyser Marston Associates, Inc. Since rejoining the firm in 2000, Julie 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 20 years, Julie has analyzed real estate projects on a market and site-specific level. Before joining Keyser Marston’s San Diego office in 1994, Julie worked for Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate and Foodmaker, Inc., both in San Diego. During Julie'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, Julie 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, Julie has had a role in structuring development agreements for mixed-use and affordable residential projects in Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, Carson, Buena Park, Huntington Beach, Burbank, Hollywood, Simi Valley, Rialto and Signal Hill.  She has also assisted redevelopment/successor agencies and cities with developing affordable housing strategies.

Areas of Specialization

Affordable Housing Transactions

Throughout her career, Julie 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 Julie 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 as well as various State of California housing programs.

Long Range Property Management Plans

Since the dissolution of redevelopment in California, Julie has assisted various Successor Agencies, such as Inglewood, Duarte, and Huntington Beach, with writing and completing their LRPMP.  This includes summarizing the properties owned by the Successor Agency, determining what disposition category to place each property, writing the LRPMP and providing the reasoning for the Successor Agency’s proposed plan, and dealing with Department of Finance questions and attending Oversight Board meetings.

Affordable Housing Strategies / Programs

Julie made determinations whether cities’ housing programs are in compliance with California redevelopment law requirements as well as SB 341. This includes researching historical uses of low income housing set-aside funds and completed projects as well as projecting future uses of such funds. Julie has also written the Housing Section of Implementation Plans and has drafted a template for the report required by SB 341. 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.  Ms. Romey has also assisted cities in developing workforce housing programs and to determine whether a land trust model is appropriate.  In addition, she has assisted the Cities of Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach and Claremont with the ongoing monitoring of their affordable housing project.

New Market Tax Credit Program

In 2005, Julie assisted the City of Pasadena with structuring the deal terms for an ownership project, Fair Oaks Court, that utilized the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program.  It was the first affordable ownership residential project in the country to use the New Markets Tax Credit program.  Julie has also reviewed projects for the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Duarte with NMTC components.

Professional Credentials

Julie 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. Julie also co-taught the “Planning and Economic Development Finance” class in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California for two years and is now a guest speaker.  In addition, in August 2005 she was a panel speaker about the complexities of mixed-use development at the California Redevelopment Association (CRA) Legal Symposium, in 2007 she was a panel speaker on workforce housing issues at the CRA Affordable Housing Conference, and is a member of the Cornell Real Estate Council.

Contact Julie

email: jromey@keysermarston.com | phone 714.526.0444