Before arriving at Hispanic Housing Development Corporation in the role of Vice President – Real Estate Development in July 2018, Mr. Porras ran a consulting practice known as Axia Development, Inc. Mr. Porras founded Axia in late 2008 to serve in primary and sub-consulting roles to; i) for-profit and non-profit developers and public housing authorities seeking to undertake affordable rental housing development, ii) urban planning firms engaged in developing neighborhood economic development strategies, and iii) municipal governments seeking to forge successful public-private partnerships for the development of workforce housing.
For eight years prior to founding Axia, Mr. Porras had lead responsibility for the planning, acquisition, financing and development of workforce housing and mixed-income/mixed finance properties at Related Midwest LLC (formerly LR Development Company LLC) of Chicago.
Prior to Related Midwest, Mr. Porras spent ten years with the National Equity Fund, a leading syndicator of the federal low-income housing tax credit where he headed up its New York and California acquisitions operations. Before joining the National Equity Fund, Mr. Porras worked six years as a lending officer and executive for the City of New York in its Housing Preservation and Development department. Mr. Porras practiced architecture in Texas for five years prior to working for the City of New York.
Mr. Porras graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, received a Master of Science degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University in New York and completed a post-graduate, executive-level study program at the Anderson School of Management of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Mr. Porras is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Cook County Land Bank Authority and the Illinois Housing Council. His past civic engagements have included membership on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Planning Council and The Resurrection Project, as well as serving as a volunteer member of the Finance Committee of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago.
