Alfonso Costa Jr. serves as Executive Vice President of the Falcone Group (a multibillion-dollar real estate development and investment firm), where he is responsible for leading the company’s affordable & workforce housing division Momentum Residential.
Mr. Costa previously served in the Federal Government as Deputy Chief of Staff & Opportunity Zones lead for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In this public service role, Mr. Costa was responsible for overseeing policy for the $50 billion annually-budgeted Cabinet agency, which maintains a wide range of housing and community development programs, a $1.3 trillion mortgage insurance portfolio, and approximately 8,000 employees across 57 offices nationwide. Amongst his agency-wide portfolio included advising on HUD’s multifamily mortgage insurance programs to increase affordable & workforce housing supply, as well as directing actions to remove barriers to affordable housing development. As an expert on the bi-partisan Opportunity Zones program, Mr. Costa held the title of Chairman’s delegate and HUD’s lead representative on the Federal Government's inter-agency Opportunity and Revitalization Council, and for his efforts was ranked #10 in the Opportunity Zone Magazine’s “Top 25 OZ Influencers of 2020” list.
A former 5th-grade teacher as a Teach for America (TFA) corps member, Mr. Costa is now an active social advocate through philanthropic & academic volunteer work on both the national and local levels. Nationally, he serves as a Public Sector Fellow of the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board, Housing Advisory Council Member of the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, Full Member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Ambassador for the Fitwel® Certification System, and Emerging Leaders Council Member & basketball alumnus of New Heights Youth (New York City). In his home State of Florida, Mr. Costa is the Program Chair of ULI Florida’s Affordable & Workforce Housing Council (AWHC), Member of the City of West Palm Beach Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC), and Advisory Board Member of the Nova Southeastern University Master’s in Real Estate Development (MSRED) Program.
Mr. Costa is a second-generation American and earned his law degree (JD) from Harvard University, master's degree (MSc) from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), and bachelor's degree (BA) from Yale University. At Yale, he played both Division-I basketball and lacrosse while serving as Chair of the Athletic Department’s Thomas W. Ford Community Outreach Committee.