March 03--The Cook County Land Bank Authority is tapping a Chicago executive with a background in finance and community development to become its second executive director in two years.
The hiring of Robert Rose, who as chief operating officer of the Chicago Community Loan Fund managed the loan fund's lending program, was approved by the land bank's board at a meeting Monday.
Rose succeeds Brian White, who parted ways with the agency in January, a year after the land bank was formed and White was hired to head the county's effort to put abandoned, vacant properties back into use.
As of December, the land bank had acquired 31 properties with another 60 or so in the pipeline and had $2 million in funding. It also forged a $10 million partnership with The PrivateBank, which is providing loans to contractors to rehab vacant homes acquired in struggling communities through the land bank and then offer mortgage financing with homeowners.
"Rob has an incredibly impressive background in real estate, community development and finance coupled with a gift of seeing the big picture without missing any of the details needed to execute," said Bridget Gainer, chairman of the land bank and Cook County commissioner, 10th, in a statement.
Since March 2012, Rose has worked at the nonprofit loan fund, which finances community development projects with funds from individual and institutional investors. Previously, he was director of commercial real estate at Urban Partnership Bank, managing a $170 million portfolio.
mepodmolik@tribpub.com
