Donald Capoccia is the managing principal and founder of BFC Partners, a real estate development company that has been involved in the planning, development and construction of some 4500 units of housing in New York City with a combined value of $3.5B. His projects also include approximately 250,000SF of neighborhood retail and community facility uses. Mr. Capoccia began his development and construction activities in New York City in 1982, just prior to the completion of a Masters Degree Program in Urban Planning at Hunter College, and after completing a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Buffalo in 1979. Mr. Capoccia and BFC have focused predominately on the production of affordable housing, investing in a concentrated geographic strategy that has helped spur the resurgence of key New York City neighborhoods; the East Village, East Harlem, Williamsburg and Downtown Brooklyn. Mr. Capoccia has pioneered the production, and promoted the importance of affordable home ownership opportunities to these neighborhoods. Mr. Capoccia recently completed Toren, a 240 unit condominium, 37 story, Gold LEED certified tower in downtown Brooklyn. Toren includes approximately 50,000SF in retail/office/parking along with its own onsite co-generation plant which will provide electric, heat and cooling to both the residential and commercial components. Prior to Toren, he completed the development and construction of Schaefer Landing the first large scale, high-rise, residential project which was used as a model for the approved Greenpoint-Williamsburg Land Use and Waterfront Zoning Plan.. The project was completed in 2007, and encompassed the construction of 350 units of both affordable rental apartments and marketpriced condominium units, along with approximately 70,000SF of commercial/parking on a former brownfield site in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mr. Capoccia is currently involved in the development and construction of 275 units of affordable housing in the Stapleton neighborhood of Staten Island. In addition to his work as an active NYC builder, Mr. Capoccia has had substantial involvement with the arts, architecture and urban planning issues as they impact New York City, New York State, and Washington, DC. Mr. Capoccia is also involved in numerous industry related organizations. He is co-founder and Vice President of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, a trade organization representing the interest of for-profit builders of Affordable Housing across NYS. Mr. Capoccia currently serves as a Director of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Rent Stabilization Board, and the Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York. He also serves on the Board of Directors of amfAR (American Foundation of Aids Research), The National Building Museum and La Mama Experimental Theatre, Inc, a NYC based, world renowned, cultural organization that produces and presents original performance work by artists of all nations and cultures. Mr. Capoccia has been a committed and long standing supporter of a number of non-profit, national and NYC based organizations which focus on issues ranging from affordable housing production policy, to HIV-AIDS research, to the arts and its impact on NYC