Ventura A. Simmons

Adjunct Professor

Ventura Simmons is a Senior Attorney at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he has worked since 2000.  As Senior Attorney, he represents the United States Government in multimillion dollar real estate transactions, including mortgage insurance; grant programs, operating subsidies, and rental assistance.  He specializes in affordable housing development, management, and preservation with an emphasis on loan closings involving multifamily rental projects, hospitals, nursing homes, senior housing, and housing for the disabled.  He handle complex transactions involving LIHTCs, mixed-financing (federal, state, municipal and private funding sources), tax-exempt bonds, refinancing, refunding, recollateralizing, debentures, accounts receivable financing, secondary financing, and/or subordinate financing. Insure projects benefit from various tax exemptions and abatements. 

Internally, he provides leadership to the legal and business teams at HUD. He is a mentor to new attorneys and supervises their work product. Coordinates attorney review standards within the New York office.   He manages the review of ground leases and commercial leases. And he provides training to HUD attorneys from offices throughout the country.

Prior to working at U.S. HUD, Mr. Simmons was an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.  There, he negotiated and drafted documentation in connection with capital market real estate financing, commercial mortgage-backed securitization, commercial leasing, asset and portfolio transfers, multistate and multi-property transactions involving hotels, office buildings, shopping centers, franchises, mixed-use and multifamily property. He concluded various types of financing, including short-term construction loans, commercial mortgage conduits and loans secured by a credit or ground lease.  He conducted due diligence of complex investment portfolios. He assessed compliance with rating agency requirements and exposure to tax, insolvency, environmental and under-capitalization liability. And he reviewed and analyzed leases, Phase I & II reports, title and survey.

Mr. Simmons earned his Bachelor of Arts from the City University of New York, his Juris Doctor from New York Law School, and a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science.