Kip Sheppard, President and CEO, Development and Construction Division of The Wasatch Group, is one of the affordable tax credit housing industries’ most respected leaders. Before joining The Wasatch Group, he served as Executive Vice President at Long Beach, California-based Simpson Housing Solutions LLC, then a
division of Denver-based Simpson Housing Limited Partnership. Sheppard has overseen the acquisition and development of more than 3,100 units of affordable housing, over 3,300 units of market-rate housing, approximately 230,000 square feet of office, and over 500 stalls of structured parking. His geographical focus area includes most of the Western states: California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Colorado. Mr. Sheppard directs all day-to-day activities and responsibilities. He is a frequently invited speaker at industry related conferences nationwide.
Sheppard started at SHS’ predecessor firm in 1995 as a project manager, helped build the firm’s tax credit development, acquisition and syndication business into a nationally known operation as well as a major profit center within the company. During his tenure, he was directly involved in more than 250 separate multifamily and senior housing developments representing some 23,850 units nationwide. He was responsible for the development, acquisition and resale of $1.475 billion in federal low-income housing tax credits and other types of federal and state tax credits, as well as, securing more than $500 million in both construction and permanent financing. His experience extends across the entire affordable housing development spectrum, and includes
land acquisition and entitlement; coordinating design and engineering consultants; obtaining project approvals; securing tax credit reservations and tax-exempt bond allocations; permitting; obtaining construction financing; supervising construction and construction management personnel; permanent financing; asset management; tax credit syndication; investor relations; and joint
ventures.
Sheppard served as director of tax credits for ARV Assisted Living, Inc., a Costa Mesa, California-based developer and syndicator of multifamily and senior housing projects. Prior to joining ARV, he was a senior staff tax accountant with Novogradac, Fortenbach & Co., specializing in tax credit financing. While there, he edited the second and third editions of the firm’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Handbook, and was managing editor of the LIHTC Monthly Report, a nationally distributed publication.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in business with an emphasis in accounting from Colorado State University.