Arlington, VA (October 7, 2015) – The Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) paid tribute to 2015 APAH Affordable Housing Honorees, Bill Fogarty, Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh, and Mark Silverwood, Silverwood Companies, at their Annual Fundraiser Celebration at the Clarendon Ballroom on October 6, 2015. Over 375 attended this networking celebration of affordable housing and generously contributed a record-breaking $430,000 to support APAH and their resident services program.

“We applaud Bill Fogarty’s long-term leadership on the APAH Board where he helped our organization to grow from a small nonprofit to a major community partner with 1,218 homes at 14 properties,” said Nina Janopaul, President/CEO.

“APAH recognizes Mark Silverwood, for being an early partner with Arlington County to develop affordable housing and for his ongoing philanthropic work in our community,” Janopaul added.

Nineteen year old APAH Resident, Allyson Suria, also inspired the audience with her personal story of coming to the U.S. from El Salvador at age four, relocating 11 times with her family due to high rents before moving into stable housing at APAH’s Buchanan Gardens. She is currently on the dean’s list student studying education at Marymount University.

Pictured L to R: Mark Silverwood, President, Silverwood Companies; Nina Janopaul, APAH President/CEO; Bill Fogarty, Shareholder, Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh; and Allyson Suria, APAH Resident and Marymount University student.

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APAH is a nonprofit that develops, preserves, owns, and advocates quality rental housing that is affordable to low and moderate-income families and promotes opportunity for residents through partnerships and programs. APAH works exclusively in Arlington County. Founded in 1989, APAH now helps 1200 households live in stable, secure and affordable rental homes. APAH’s Arlington Mill Residences received numerous awards including 2015 Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Award, 2015 Urban Land Institute-Washington Excellence in Housing Development and 2014 Best Housing Development in Virginia at the Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference. In 2014 APAH was named Developer of the Year by the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND). APAH received the 2015 Leadership Legacy Award from Leadership Arlington; the Prize for Innovation and Impact from the Arlington Community Foundation in 2011; in 2009 APAH received the HAND Innovation Award and in 2008 was named Best Nonprofit by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

The following is an article by Michael Neibauer published by Washington Business Journal where Mark Silverwood, president and CEO of the Reston-based Silverwood Cos. is quoted. The original source is located here:  http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/02/there-is-a-vision-to-untangle-and-redevelop-seven.html?page=all

Feb 4, 2015, 7:57pm EST- If you can squint past the hair-raising, misery-inducing traffic, outdated retail centers and aging residential properties, you can see the future of Seven Corners.

“When you think about the growth of the area, the proximity to Metro, the demand is going to continue to grow,” said Mark Silverwood, president and CEO of the Reston-based Silverwood Cos., owner of the East Falls Apartments at Wilson Boulevard and Peyton Randolph Drive. “It’s a logical area, as far as I’m concerned — you’ve got nodes going east, west, north and south. The community will thrive.”

Silverwood is a member of the Mason District Seven Corners Visioning Task Force, a panel of community leaders, urban planners and landowners that is now finishing up a three-year effort to rethink 218 acres surrounding the Seven Corners intersection. That effort, and the fruits of it, are the subject of our centerpiece in this Friday’s Washington Business Journal.

Check back Friday for the full story, historic Seven Corners images and more.

Seven Corners, as we know it today, was framed in the early 1950s around a new intersection/interchange where Leesburg Pike meets Arlington Boulevard, Wilson Boulevard and Sleepy Hollow Road. The majority of its residential communities were constructed in 1952, to feed a growing demand for federal employee housing.

The Seven Corners Shopping Center, which opened in 1956 as Northern Virginia’s first major regional shopping destination, made sense at the time. Seven Corners was a bustling suburb.

But the community has not kept up with the times — not with the East Falls Church Metro Station a mile away, with transit possibly coming to Leesburg Pike, and with the overall shift in planning toward walkable, mixed-use development. Seven Corners is the opposite of mixed-use. It’s either residential or retail. Nothing in between.

“Everything we’ve seen here, in the last 20 or 30 years, it’s all Metro,” Silverwood said. “It’s all based around Metro. I think Seven Corners can benefit from that.”

The Silverwood Cos. acquired East Falls Apartments in 2009, roughly a decade after it was renovated by the previous owner with the assistance of low-income tax credits. The restrictions that come with the use of LITCs will prohibit the property’s redevelopment for 18 years, at a minimum.

It is for that reason, and the long-term leases that remain in Seven Corners’ retail centers, that the task force looked far into the future — 40 years, to be exact — to craft its plan for pedestrian-oriented developments, a transit-boulevard and a reengineered intersection.

Think about this way: The Seven Corners overhaul may not be complete until the intersection is 100 years old.

“None of this is close today,” Silverwood said, “but over time, if you stick to those horizons, habits will change to make it a more viable walking community.”

Arlington Independent Media program “Voice Box” roundtable about affordable housing in Arlington, VA. Silverwood Companies President, Mark Silverwood, offers insights about the state of the affordable housing economy in Northern Virginia today.

Mark Silverwood discusses affordable housing on Washington DC’s News Channel 8 program “Washington Business Tonight.”