| Top members of the commonwealth’s affordable and rental housing scene gathered at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute yesterday to celebrate the Rental Housing Association’s latest round of award winners for excellence in the industry. The public sector winner was Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, while WinnDevelopment President Lawrence H. Curtis was the recipient for his work in housing development.
Walsh was introduced by the RHA’s outgoing president Gilbert Winn, also the CEO of WinnCompanies, who called him a “good guy” and “a special ally” to the rental housing industry, “in terms of creating a faster permitting process, cutting through red tape and making sure ‘affordable housing’ is more than just words on a piece of paper, but something that actually will get built.”
“This is a mayor who never does anything in a half-hearted manner,” Winn said. “He always leads by example.”
Walsh said that “the growth of the housing market is one of the most critical areas that we face as a city;” the city’s population is the largest it has been since the 1960s. If that population growth continues along its current trajectory, he explained, the city will be home to 700,000 people by 2030.
“Public service is about partnerships,” Walsh said. “We need to continue to work together and create more housing opportunities.
“We want to make sure that everyone who wants to contribute to our city can live in our city,” he said, referring to the influx of young talent in growing professional fields. “In order to continue that growth, we need to meet the needs of the people who want to stay here. We want to make sure we continue to incentivize middle-class and low-income housing, because that’s ultimately the long-term solution” to Boston’s limited housing supply.
Curtis was introduced by his wife, Marla Curtis, who traced her husband’s growth from a middle-class child fascinated by the real estate dealings in his father’s law office to a major developer directly responsible for over 10,000 new units of housing.
“Larry sees these ‘numbers’ in a very unique way,” Marla said, describing Curtis as “tallying the number of families he puts to bed every night.”
“That is truly the way he feels,” she added.
In his acceptance speech, Curtis described wanting to be a builder from the days of his youth. Since flipping his first house at the age of 18, he has never lost momentum, with development representing to him “a way to be more aware of the world – and make it a better place.”
Of himself and his colleagues gathered together under the high ceiling of the Kennedy Institute’s Senate Chamber, Curtis said, “We are all deserving of this award. It’s an award for all of us, and our industry’s fundamental capacity to do good – to help people and families.”
Curtis told Banker & Tradesman that, although the award was the culmination of his first 28 years with WinnCompanies, he has no plans to slow down, saying he will be focusing on the first of his four “Cs” – conceptualize, capitalize, construct and cash out – in order to find creative solutions to Boston’s ever-evolving housing needs. He also revealed that his eldest son Meade will be joining the company starting next year, to help tackle whatever new challenges lie on the horizon.
“It’s not going to be more of the same,” he said. “Our company has always been about doing well by doing good, and we’ll continue that.”
