Jeff Burns

Jeff Burns is the Founder and CEO of Affiliated Development, a real estate development company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Mr. Burns has more than 15 years of experience in the acquisition, development and finance of a wide array of property types in markets across the United States. With an extensive background and longstanding relationships, Mr. Burns has a proven track record to see real estate opportunities from conception through to reality. Mr. Burns has been involved in the development of over 2.5 million square feet of commercial and residential real estate with a combined cost of a half a billion dollars. Included in that is over 1,600 residential apartment units that serve a wide variation of tenants, from luxury market-rate occupants to low-income housing residents. Every project has been a public-private partnership and has incorporated a substantial public finance component, such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), Tax Improvement District financing (TID), Neighborhood Improvement District financing (NID), Community Redevelopment Agency financing (CRA), Special Assessment financing, Tax Exempt Bonds, Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), Department of Housing & Urban Development financing (HUD), and local government general revenue bonds. Mr. Burns is a Kansas City native and got his start in the real estate industry as a commercial real estate lender with a role of project origination for BB Syndication Services, Inc., a national syndicate lender out of Wisconsin, where he originated, underwrote and funded construction loans for development projects across the country ranging in size from $11 million to $200 million in total cost. In 2006, Mr. Burns left his role as a lender to partner on a development project named The Moderne, a 30-story high-rise residential tower located in downtown Milwaukee. Mr. Burns and his partners successfully closed on the financing of the $65 million project during the height of the US financial crisis in 2010 by utilizing local and federal government funding programs. The partnership completed The Moderne in 2012 and went on to develop other projects utilizing similar financing strategies. Mr. Burns moved his family to Fort Lauderdale in 2010 and eventually shifted the company’s development focus to South Florida by partnering with Boston Capital to develop a 90-unit affordable housing project in downtown Miami, FL. Mr. Burns teamed with South Florida native, Nick Rojo, to expand Affiliated Development’s presence in Florida. As a result of the partnership, Affiliated Development has gone on to undertake numerous mixed-use multifamily projects in various Florida markets and has earned a reputation as one of South Florida’s most dynamic and impactful development firms. Mr. Burns graduated from the University of Missouri Business School. He is actively involved in a number of local boards and charities and spends his free time with his wife and three daughters.