South Florida Affordable Housing Summit

Hugo Pacanins is Partner and Chief Executive of Pinnacle's Market Rate Division. With a track record spanning 17 years in multifamily development, Hugo has played a pivotal role in the development of more than 7,000 residential units and 500,000 square feet of commercial space, exceeding $2 billion in development costs.

Matthew Martinez is the President of Beacon Hill Development Group, a Miami-based real estate private equity firm founded in 1999. Under his leadership, the firm has become a recognized leader in the development of workforce housing, with a particular focus on Florida’s “Missing Middle”—working families often underserved by traditional housing markets. Matt holds both a B.S.B.A. and a graduate degree in International Studies from The Ohio State University, where he graduated summa cum laude and was honored with the prestigious Presidential Scholarship—one of only three awarded annually for graduate study. In addition to his real estate career, Matt is the author of three books on real estate investing and two children’s books. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his wife and two sons.

Michael Liu has over 40 years of experience in housing policy and finance beginning from his service as a Delegate to the 1978 Hawaii State Constitution Convention. His career has also included service with the federal government as U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Small Community and Rural Development and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing. In the private sector, he practiced real estate law for 13 years, and held executive officer positions with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, Bank of America (FSB), and Dutko Grayling. Prior to joining Swerdlow Group, Michael served as senior advisor on housing to the City of Miami’s City Manager, which followed a 9-year term as Miami-Dade County’s Public Housing and Community Development (PHCD) Director, the largest housing agency in the State of Florida. Among many accomplishments, Michael can point to creation of HUD’s Capital Fund Financing Program (like the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD)) a financing tool that involves leveraging private sector funds with public housing subsidy) that raised over $2 billion in its first 18 months of private sector funds for investment in public housing; expansion of the Native American home mortgage program 184 to assist with homeownership on non-tribal lands; establishment of RAD as the formal basis for the redevelopment approach for all of public housing in Miami-Dade County; improving PHCD’s 7 year public housing sub-standard designation to standard after 1 year; and establishing the redevelopment of public housing sites “Liberty Square/Lincoln Gardens” and the Senior Campus (now known as River Parc), developments that will involve in over $1 billion in equity, debt, and grants, and upon completion result in over 15,000 new and/or total rehabilitated units. Michael is a graduate of Stanford University (BA) and the University of Hawaii’s Richardson School Law. He is a member of the Hawaii and Washington, DC bar associations.

Moderno is a real estate company focused mainly on the development of residential urban projects and creative commercial spaces in Fort Lauderdale & Miami. Moderno manages over $250 million in development projects, totaling over 1,000 apartment units, 50,000SF of commercial spaces which are under construction or planning stages.

Pablo Castro Sáez is a seasoned Spanish real estate developer with over 30 years of experience in real estate and development. Graduated in Law, with a Master’s in Urban Planning Law and a Master’s in Real Estate Law, he has completed 19.6 million ft² of construction, including large-scale residential, commercial, and industrial projects in Spain and Monaco. As co-founder of Corp Promotors, one of Barcelona’s largest real estate firms, he helped develop over 5,600 homes and managed a portfolio of 13,000 assets. In 2019, he partnered with the Grifols family to invest €600 million in Barcelona’s rental housing market. Expanding into the U.S., Castro has been investing in Miami for 15 years. In 2023, he acquired an 11.8-acre site in West Little River for $29.3 million and, alongside top industry partners, proposed a 4,032-unit residential development, one of South Florida’s largest in recent years. Now Pablo is focusing on developing The HueHub, collaborating with local partners, developers, architects, engineers, and companies to introduce a new sustainable solution for the construction sector.