Meet the Team

Partner / President

Steve Bien is a founder and President of Soho Housing Partners, LLC (“SHP”), a full-service development and consulting company operating within the affordable housing industry. Mr. Bien has experience with all aspects of affordable, market rate, and mixed income housing. Mr. Bien’s experience includes 9% and 4% transactions, 501c3 bonds, historic tax credit transactions, rural housing, public-private PHA transactions to include RAD conversions. Mr. Bien, through SHP concentrates on working in partnership with several non-profits, and housing authorities in the preservation of their vast portfolios and using complex structuring to rehabilitate and grow their housing stock. Recent PHA transactions include the City of Cocoa Housing Authority, South Delta Regional Housing Authority, Savannah Housing Authority, the Housing Authority of Albany Georgia, Spartanburg Housing Authority, Delray Beach Housing Authority, and many others through his years as a developer, capital provider, and consultant.

Prior to forming SHP Mr. Bien was a Director for Hunt Capital Partners, LLC (“HCP”) and ran the Southeast Region for HCP purchasing tax credits for the construction of affordable housing throughout the United States. Mr. Bien’s involvement at HCP includes working with both the development community to originate tax credits, and the investor community assisting in the sale of the credits. Mr. Bien began at Hunt Companies affiliate Hunt Capital Providers March 2015. Hunt is one of the largest syndication companies in the United States. Prior to HCP, Mr. Bien was a key principal and Founder of a consulting and advisory firm that assisted developers in creating and repositioning affordable housing real estate.

Mr. Bien has more than twenty-four years of experience working on the capital, and development side of the real estate industry with a concentration in affordable housing, and housing preservation as a consultant, capital provider, advisor, and developer. His experience with real estate investment and mortgage banking firms has afforded him the experience completing and working with virtually all types of complex financing and structured finance deals to build, acquire, develop, and preserve affordable, conventional, mixed-income, and historic real estate. He has worked with all financing programs, and has significant HUD experience dating back to working on early HOPE VI transactions. He has been involved in over 200 transactions for the acquisition of nearly $2 billion of LIHTCs, over $700 million in tax-exempt bonds, and approximately $1 billion of permanent and construction loan financing. His transactions are spread over 29 states and include senior housing, multifamily, assisted living, commercial, rental and for sale single family.

Partner / Chief Financial Officer

Kevin DiQuattro is a founder and Chief Financial Officer of Soho Housing Partners, LLC ("SHP"), a full-service development and consulting company operating within the affordable housing industry. He has more than eight years of experience in the affordable housing industry and a combined twenty-two years of financial analysis and accounting experience. Kevin has broad experience in the affordable industry including 9% and 4% transactions, tax exempt bonds, 501c3 bonds, historic tax credit transactions, rural housing and, public-private RAD conversions. Mr. DiQuattro has worked with numerous housing authorities including Columbia Housing, Housing Authority of Birmingham District, The Florence County Housing Authority, South Delta Regional Housing Authority, Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, and The Buford GA Housing Authority. 

In addition to his experience in the affordable LIHTC industry, Kevin served more than eleven years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), focusing on complex white collar and accounting fraud and was the recipient of The Department of Justice Director's Award for Superior Performance and was nominated for the FBI Director's Award.  He also served more than ten years with Raymond James as an Equity Research Analyst (Associate).  Mr. DiQuattro also served as the CFO of a multi million start up company.   

Mr. DiQuattro has a BSBA from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a major in Finance. 

Executive VP / Chief Operating Officer

 Jacob R. Wahlenmaier has over twenty years of experience in the affordable housing industry, including leadership roles in both project management (debt and equity closings) and asset management. Having closed over 100 tax credit investment partnerships for the placement of nearly $500 million in investor equity, and having managed the workout/restructuring of several troubled affordable housing projects, Mr. Wahlenmaier has significant deal-structuring experience that includes combining low income housing tax credits with many other housing and finance programs including other federal and state tax credits, housing authority participation, assisted living, agency and GSE financing, HUD 202s, IRP decoupling, HOME, AHP, HOPE VI grants, ACC operating subsidy, and Sections 8 and 811 rental subsidies. Mr. Wahlenmaier graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Dominican University with a double-major in International Business and History, completed the university’s honors curriculum, and was awarded the prestigious Clio Award by the faculty for excellence in history. Away from work, Jacob enjoys spending time with his family and being outdoors. 

Executive Vice President / Construction Management

 Charles Poropatic has over thirty-five years of experience as an architect and project manager.  As an architect, he designed thousands of beds of student housing at universities across the country, then transitioned into multi-family housing as associate partner at HADP and vice president at HKS architects.  In 2016, Mr. Poropatic transferred from consultant to owner joining EdR (acquired by Greystar) managing large projects totaling nearly $1 billion in construction costs.  In addition to managing projects, he developed a package of design guidelines and standard unit plans to streamline the design and construction process, resulting in a long history of projects delivered in budget and on schedule.  Mr. Poropatic focuses on problem solving, quality and constructability issues applying his field experience to supporting the overall development team.  Mr. Poropatic graduated at the top of his class in the Architecture / Building Science department at Auburn University with a degree in Architecture.  He has been married for nearly thirty-eight years and has three grown sons.  In his free time, Charles enjoys fishing, travelling, and spending time with his family. 

Vice President of Development

Lisa Tarantello is the Vice President of Development for SOHO Housing Partners, LLC. Lisa joined us with over 31 years (thirty-one) of Affordable Housing experience from her time with the Rochester Housing Authority (RHA). She has extensive knowledge of Public Housing, Intake, Leasing Operations and, Compliance. One of her main focuses was establishing policies and procedures authority-wide to maintain compliance with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She worked with the Director of Public Housing on updating the Administrative and Continued Occupancy Plan (ACOP) and the Director of Leasing Operations on the Administrative Plan. Lisa worked closely with the Board of Commissioners, Executive Staff, and Upper Management. Lisa has an extensive background in working with the transition of Public Housing Units to Rental Assistance Demonstrations (RAD). She assisted with designating units for RAD, reviewing detailed design plans for the RAD conversions, attending meetings with architects and walked sites during construction, trained staff on changes, attended resident meetings, assisting with setting up the site base waiting list, implemented policies and procedures for the transition from Public Housing units to PBV or PBRA units. In, 2021 Lisa was chosen by the Executive Team and Board of Commissioners of the Rochester Housing Authority as a key team member to reestablish Rochester Housing Charities Incorporated (RHC) a 501 (c)3 non-  profit organization. 

Vice President of Operations

Sunita Khanal is the Vice President of Operations for SOHO Housing Partners, LLC.   

Sunita joined the team in August of 2023.  

Sunita brings a unique international perspective to her work. Her global experience has given her an appreciation for the value of diversity of thoughts and opinions. Sunita’s priority is to draw upon her business education and proven experience as a member of the operations team, with a focus on processing draws and transaction closing administration.

Sunita was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal where she completed her bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Tribhuvan University. Sunita moved to America by herself to pursue her life after being awarded a permanent residence card at the age of 21. In her continuation of education, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from State University NY in 2020.

Before joining the Soho team, Sunita was a Senior Relationship Banker at Truist Bank. Sunita has over 8 years of experience in the banking industry, including management, auto loan, HELOC and personal loan processing, underwriting and closing. Her banking experience included ownership of processing domestic and international wires while adhering to bank protocols.

Besides working, Sunita is actively involved volunteering at international Leo and Lions club based in Nepal, and multiple experiences in volunteering at Ronald McDonalds as well as food banks. One of her priorities in life is to travel to new destinations every year.

Development Associate

Alexis Ashley-Pierre is a Development Associate with SoHo Housing Partners located in the Tampa, FL office. Alexis began her affordable housing career as an intern for Avanath Capital Management, a real estate private equity firm focused on acquiring affordable and workforce housing communities across the United States. While at Avanath, she supported the firm’s growth by assisting in the underwriting of new acquisition opportunities. Prior to joining SoHo, Alexis worked at Newmark, where she played a key role in sourcing debt and equity for the acquisition, development, and refinancing of 20+ multifamily properties.  Alexis is involved in all aspects of the development of affordable housing including placement of debt/equity, land acquisition, and construction management.

Mrs. Ashley-Pierre received a Master of Real Estate Degree from University of Florida and Bachelor of Science degree from Florida A&M University.