Affordable Housing Vet Feras Qumseya Joins Standard Communities

“This includes managing the pipeline, creating new opportunities, and then executing on the pipeline,” Qumseya told Commercial Observer. “My group creates dynamic, high-quality communities that provide attainable housing for all. Our development team identifies market opportunities across the country to create housing close to job centers where housing needs are highest.”

He explained the group will begin each project with residents’ needs in mind and closely manage each stage of the development process, from design concept to construction completion and occupancy, to ensure the highest possible standards in the industry. 

“We believe that housing is foundational to opportunity and quality of life, and every decision we make is rooted in making our communities better,” Qumseya said. “My chief responsibility is to deliver high-quality, safe and sustainable affordable housing.” 

Standard has a goal of providing housing to more than 100,000 people by 2030, and Qumseya wants as many of these people and families to be living in brand-new, quality, affordable homes.

“Standard Communities is laser-focused on increasing the production of committed affordable housing, so our missions are aligned,” Qumseya said. “Standard has the infrastructure, experience, and is known for owning and operating high-quality affordable and workforce housing.”

Qumseya has more than two decades of experience working in all aspects of affordable housing, economic development, public-private partnerships, large mixed-use projects, and transit-oriented developments. He comes to Standard from Foulger-Pratt, where he was responsible for creating and preserving affordable housing nationwide.

Over the last year, Qumseya has worked on The Paxton, a $101 million affordable housing development at the intersection of Benning Road and 16th Street in northeast Washington, D.C.’s Kingman Park district; and Beckert’s Park, a mixed-use, mixed-income community on 14th Street between D and E streets SE, which offers 325 luxury and mixed-income apartments, more than 8,500 square feet of neighborhood retail and a new 60,000-square-foot Safeway store.

“We are thrilled to have Feras as part of our senior leadership team with his enormous affordable development experience, in addition to his track record of leadership and scaling teams,” Scott Alter, co-founder and principal of Standard Communities, said in a prepared statement. “As Standard continues to grow, we are aligning focused, specialized teams to execute our diversified business lines. We are empowering leaders, providing them with the resources and autonomy to expand our business and leverage our expertise across the country in new and exciting ways.” 

Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.

Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.