Impact
Development Group
(415) 915-2522

About us

Our mission

To improve the quality of life for individuals and families of low and moderate incomes by developing new and preserving existing affordable housing through community collaboration, sustainable design and innovative financial structuring.

Leadership

Our team

Gary P. Downs

Gary P. Downs

Principal & Managing Member

Gary partially owns and manages more than 60 apartment developments, comprising over 3,500 units in California and Texas. He is a founding principal of Highland Property Development, Impact Development Group and Downs Pham & Kuei, and the real estate industry recognizes him as an expert in affordable housing development.

He also maintains a legal practice representing developers, lenders and investors on real estate, tax credit and affordable housing matters. He takes part in local, state and national housing policy and is Vice Chair of the Urban Land Institute Affordable and Workforce Housing Council. He serves on the boards of 2Gen Equities, a nonprofit working to reduce poverty, and Preservation Housing Foundation, a nonprofit that preserves historic buildings and manages affordable housing.

An avid cyclist, he is active in the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons and maintains offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Arcadia.

Cynthia Michels

Cynthia Michels

Development & Asset Manager

Cindy supervises the legal and due diligence work on every Impact acquisition, including land use planning, financing applications, loan closings and equity syndications. She also manages community and government relations.

Before joining Impact, Cindy spent 16 years as a principal of an affordable housing developer in Los Angeles. At two national syndicators of affordable housing she handled due diligence reviews, investor relations and other work on tax credit purchases. She previously worked as a paralegal at law firms in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Frank Gamwell

Frank Gamwell

Senior Vice President of Construction, Highland Property Construction

Frank is a director of Highland Property Construction, Inc. (HPC) and its Senior Vice President of Construction, with more than thirty years of construction and development experience across Europe, the Pacific Rim and the western United States. He is a two-time president of the Western Region of the Construction Management Association of America, a LEED Accredited Professional, and a recognized construction defect and construction cost expert.

He has served as construction manager, estimator and project executive on projects including the $1.5 billion Disneyland expansion, the Salk Institute expansion in La Jolla and Amgen's Thousand Oaks campus. He has managed fifteen student housing projects at UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley and other California campuses, and the renovation and adaptive reuse of more than twenty historic buildings, including catalyst projects in Los Angeles' 2001 urban revival.

His focus on environmental issues has led him to urban infill, historic restoration, adaptive reuse and efficient multifamily rehabilitation, with nearly 20 multifamily renovations completed recently.

Kenneth Ballato

Kenneth Ballato

Development Project Manager

Ken has nine years of commercial real estate experience across residential, retail and office product, and has overseen the entitlement and construction of more than 1,500 multifamily units in the Bay Area. He has worked on every stage of development, from due diligence through property management and the disposition of stabilized assets.

Before entering development full time, Ken worked in land use law as a summer associate at two Northeast law firms. He then joined a Santa Clara multifamily developer on its acquisitions, development and construction teams, on projects ranging from 230-unit rent-restricted apartments to market-rate townhomes, and later became Development Manager at a North Bay investment firm focused on necessity retail and medical office properties nationwide.

Ken studied at Cornell University and Boston College Law School. He holds a California real estate salesperson license and an OSHA 30 certification, and is a licensed attorney.