WOMEN INVEST NOW (WIN) - EMPOWER, EDUCATE, CONNECT

This is a half day event hosted by Women's Council of Realtors Greater Boston/Central. The focus of the WOMEN INVEST NOW (WIN) event is to EMPOWER, EDUCATE & CONNECT women investors in the real estate industry. We have a star lineup of successful real estate investors, builder, architect, and strategic advisor. Our event venue is at The Beat - Former Boston Globe buildling, and there are plenty of free parkings on site! Check out the link of the venue here: https://fb.watch/kFlz9FI4-e/

Meet us speakers:

April Anderson is President of Anderson Strategic Advisors, LLC, an economic development and government strategy firm. Anderson Strategic Advisors provides clients with innovative tools and strategies to access government programs, navigate government regulations and land use entitlements, and manage public engagement. April has more than twenty-five years of experience working between business and government. Before founding her consulting firm in 2013, she spent nearly two decades in Massachusetts government. She served as Assistant Secretary for Economic Development and State Permit Ombudsman for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Chief of Staff for Business Development for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and in leading policy and management roles in the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives. She has expert working knowledge of state and local government, including programs, regulations, and the legislative and appropriations process. During her tenure in government, she led efforts that eliminated or streamlined hundreds of unnecessary state regulations, enabled expedited permitting in municipalities across the state, stimulated transformative development projects during the Great Recession, successfully deployed 2009 federal stimulus programs, and established and implemented the MassWorks Infrastructure Grant Program to support new housing and job growth across Massachusetts. In 2003, she co-authored the first-ever economic stimulus bill in Massachusetts, and she remains a leading voice in economic development policy. April specializes in economic development, state and local government incentives, public affairs, infrastructure financing, and land use permitting. She is chair of the ICSC's Infrastructure Task Force, co-chair of the NAIOP-Massachusetts Government Affairs Committee, and an active member of ULI's Advisory Services Program, chairing and co-chairing panels throughout the United States.

Kama Cicero: Business Owner at STARS of Boston - Short Term Apartment Rental Solutions | President of Washington Square Residential LLC. As the President of the Chapin Properties Team and STARS of Boston (Short Term Apartment Rental Solutions) in the past 15 years, Kama has helped people achieve dreams by navigating their purchase, sales and rentals of wonderful homes. She has been a lifelong resident of Greater Boston and care deeply about this area and its residents. Several years ago she became aware of the need for short-term furnished rentals through the medical community and patients undergoing procedures. In 2015 she founded STARS of Boston (Short Term Apartment Rental Solutions) to provide privacy and peace of mind in stylish, comfortable apartments designed for living.

Belinda Negron: Principal of Urbaness Fine Homes. Urbaness, LLC is a real estate development company that specializes in high-end, historic, residential development in Boston’s most sought-after neighborhoods. Belinda Negron, the principal, has been developing for over 16 years and resides in Brookline. She takes great pride in her development and her personal style touches every aspect of the properties she renovates, from selecting the tile, fixtures, and moldings, to designing the perfect layout. Every Urbaness property is uniquely designed. “The cookie-cutter home is antithetical to what we do. When I first consider a property, I identify what is unique about it. Each project is different because I develop with every aspect of the environment, the layout, and space in mind. A theme will emerge that is carried through the entire project, down to the smallest detail.” As an accomplished cook, Belinda is especially proud of her kitchen and entertaining spaces. “For today’s families, the kitchen is the center of the home. Obviously it’s important that a kitchen looks beautiful and inviting, but a functional design is equally important." Belinda points out that she designs with entertaining in mind, and is always cognizant of the natural flow from one room to another. As designs and trends change, she takes great effort in keeping one step ahead of what is new, stylish, and sophisticated. For Belinda, what she does is not merely development, it’s a form of art, it’s personal, and it’s always evolving. Step inside an Urbaness home and you’ll see what’s new now. Welcome Home.

Tamara Roy: Principal at Stantec Architecture Boston Assistant Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Tamara is an architect and urban designer specializing in residential, academic, and mixed use master planning projets at Stantec Architecture Boston. Voted one of Boston's Top 50 Power Women in Real Estate, she was the design team leader for the residence tower at MassArt, described as ‘the most interesting high-rise in years’ by the Boston Globe. She is the 2016 President of the Boston Society of Architects. Nicknamed ‘the mother of the micro-unit’, Tamara became one of the earliest promoters of compact living when she advocated for changing the policy of minimum unit sizes in the Innovation District. Working with the Mayor's Housing Innovation Lab, she led a robust agenda at the BSA entitled, 'Housing Solutions for the Missing Middle', which included 4 prototype initiatives: 1) co-design of the 'uhu' (pronounced yoo-hoo), a 385 square foot prefab urban housing unit that traveled around Boston's as a living lab, 2) the One Room Mansion exhibit, at BSA Space, 3) the Roxbury Developer Competition for compact living on City-owned sites, and 4) MassMid, a financial model for 100% middle income housing. These initiatives led to the Compact Living Pilot - see BPDA website for more details. Her design portfolio includes master plans for the Seaport and Union Square Somerville, as well as luxury, mixed market, and affordable housing such as Troy Boston, academic projects at Massart, Cornell, Dartmouth, and UMass Lowell, mixed use at South Bay, and the Yotel, a micro hotel. Her work is site specific and flexible enough to respond to many points of view, bringing complex projects to consensus. Tamara received her Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie-Mellon, and her Masters of Urban Design and Architecture from the Berlage Institute, an international think-tank in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where she lived in a 300 square foot apartment with her husband and baby.

Jessica Ye: Real Estate Entrepreneur & Developer. Having sold nearly half a billion dollars' worth of real estate and over 20 years of industry experiences, Jessica has extensive real estate experience in sales and marketing, development projects, condo conversion, new construction, luxury homes and property management. This vast experience, combined with her drive and hard work, allows Jessica to offer her clients an unmatched level of market knowledge, investment and development services, and results. Jessica’s noted expertise has allowed her to establish herself as a go-to authority on Massachusetts real estate -particularly on matters regarding real estate and the international market. She has been interviewed by the Boston Business Journal, Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe, as well as the Boston Herald. She has also been invited to speak at numerous real estate conferences, such as the RISMedia Conference, National Conferences for National Association of Realtors, Keller Williams Realty and Asian Real Estate Association of America.

Agenda:

12pm-12:30pm Registration

12:30pm-1pm Introduction/Election for 2024 Leadership

1pm-2pm What Type of Real Estate Investments Are For You? -Panelists: Karma Cicero, Jessica Ye. Moderator: Kimberly Hackett

2pm-2:45pm The Journey to Build - Belinda Negron

2:45pm-3:30pm What to know about Zoning - April Anderson

3:30pm-4pm Keynote Speaker-To Build Your Dream: Tamara Roy

4pm-5pm Networking Hours

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Registration and attendance at, or participation in, WCR Boston & Central meetings and other activities constitutes an agreement by the registrant to the use and distribution of the registrant or attendees’ image or voice in photographs, videotapes, electronic reproductions and audiotapes of such events and activities by WCR Boston & Central and other third parties, including but not limited to the venue and the speaker.

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