MEREDA Members Comment on Governor’s Nomination of John Gallagher as Director of the Maine State Housing Authority

Portland, Maine – Members of the Maine Real Estate & Development Association
(MEREDA), the state’s leading organization for commercial real estate professionals, are
closely watching Governor LePage’s recent nomination of John Gallagher to serve as the
Director of the Maine State Housing Authority.

“John is a great choice to lead the Housing Authority. He has seen this industry from all
sides, working in both the public and private spheres, and will bring some new ideas to the table,” said MEREDA’s president, Drew Sigfridson, Principal/Designated Broker of CBRE | The Boulos Company.

“Regardless of your opinion of the previous direction of the Housing Authority, it was
pretty clear that political disagreements were distracting the Authority from its mission.
John is someone who can focus the Authority on its goals. This is an important time for the Authority to be firing on all cylinders as the long economic recovery continues to hamper the housing industry,” said Thomas N. Lea, Senior Vice President and Maine Region Manager of Commercial Real Estate Finance at People’s United Bank, and past president of MEREDA.

“MEREDA has always had an excellent relationship with the Maine State Housing Authority and we expect that to continue under John’s leadership,” explained MEREDA member, William Shanahan, President of Northern New England Housing Investment Fund.

Gallagher’s nomination will be considered by the Labor, Commerce, Research and
Economic Development Committee during the first week of September and will proceed to a vote on the Senate floor on September 6th.

About MEREDA (www.mereda.org)
Founded in 1985, MEREDA is an organization of commercial real estate owners, developers and related service providers, whose mission is to promote an environment for responsible development and ownership of real estate throughout the State of Maine.

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