Naim Brown

Senior Vice President, Place-Based Development

Naim Brown

Naim provides real estate advisory and development expertise in residential and commercial real estate for a range of clients from small for-profit developers to public housing agencies.

Naim holds over a decade of development experience, orchestrating and working collaboratively with a team of consultants including lenders, attorneys, architects, engineers, contractors, as well as managing and training junior staff in real estate development and finance.

Naim's role at Urbane includes working with local and regional elected officials and boards to advise development strategy; managing and leading the real estate development process including predevelopment, financing, closing, construction administration, and placement into service; obtaining capital from a variety of public and private sources including municipal, state, federal, and tax credit opportunities, often through competitive RFP processes. 

Under Naim's guidance, Urbane created an overall development strategy plan for our client to acquire and rehab the 107-unit Allen Young Apartment complex using HUD’s RAD II guidelines. This work resulted in an increase in the subsidized rents to 110% of the Fair Market rent in Union County prescribed by HUD, and the securing of a new tax PILOT with the City of Plainfield to ensure affordability for 20 years. 

During the Rebuild Philadelphia project, Naim led conversations with CDFI’s and other intermediaries to recommend a financial product targeted at Rebuild Philadelphia MWBE contractors and potential administrators of said product.

Naim previously served as strategic development partner and program design support for the future world headquarters of FC Harlem Leaders in Our Neighborhoods (LIONs), a youth soccer league and leadership development organizations fostering opportunities for black and brown adolescents. He led the FCHQ build-out strategy and tenant composition plan with a focus on balancing long-term youth advancement and cultural preservation goals with financial viability of the project.

Prior to Urbane, Naim was Vice President at Carthage Advisors where he led the firm’s acquisitions, underwriting, and closing process, developing over 640 units of affordable housing valued at $84M in the NYC Metro area. He also served as an Assistant Mortgage Officer at the Community Preservation Corporation and as an Assistant VP for Commercial Lending at Carver Bank.

Naim holds a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Studies from Cornell University and a Master’s of Science in Real Estate with a concentration in Finance from New York University. He is a former graduate of the HPD sponsored MWBE & Nonprofit Capacity Building Course, a workshop series aimed and refining the training and skill set of MWBE and nonprofit developers in the New York City area.