THE CCI TEAM
The heart and soul of CCI is its people. From our on-site teams to our corporate office, the dedication of the CCI team keeps our company dynamic, forward-looking and growing.
MEET OUR FOUNDERS
LOU MELLMAN
Founder
Lou Mellman is the Co-Founder of CCI and is also a principal investor in almost all of CCI’s real estate holdings. Together with Garry Collett, he forges strategic partnerships and acts in an advisory role, driving new ventures.
Graduating with honors in 1985, Lou received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with emphasis on real estate and finance from California State University, Northridge. He began his career in real estate brokerage, where he honed his skills in commercial real estate, focusing on multi-family investment. Diving into onsite operations and sale negotiations, he discovered a penchant for understanding investor priorities and realized that he saw opportunity where others didn’t. After a decade of first-hand experience in multi-family real estate transactions, in 1995 he made his first principal investment, where he began building a portfolio of local apartment complexes, specializing in value added real estate transactions.
For the last twenty years, Lou has concentrated on Project Based Section 8 properties and other affordable opportunities, as he learned to navigate the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s intense regulatory environment in order to help the nations’ low-income seniors. Along with his partner, Garry Collett and their investors, he now owns and operates approximately 80 affordable communities across the country, almost all of which are managed by CCI Management.
Lou has also focused on local, market-rate ground up development over the last ten years, where he has been able to impact the housing market in the community in which he lives.
Thirty years after creating CCI, Lou has purchased, sold, and developed over $1 billion in real estate and owns and operates more than 7,500 units.
GARRY COLLETT
Founder
As the Co-Founder of CCI, Garry Collett is a principal investor in almost all of CCI’s real estate ventures. Alongside Lou Mellman, he spearheads the company’s relationships with strategic partners and drives efforts for significant new investments.
Garry has been a prominent figure in the real estate industry for over 50 years, both in California and on a national and international scale. He began his career in real estate as a commercial real estate broker in Canada. After being named one of the top ten agents in Winnipeg, he purchased the brokerage firm for which he worked, growing it to one of the top 10 firms in the city in just a few short years. In 1976, he sold his brokerage firm and began investing as a principal in real estate. After immigrating to the United States in 1979, he continued to pursue real estate investments in lieu of brokerage, growing his real estate portfolio one building at a time. He focused his investment strategy on multi-family buildings, beginning with the acquisition of apartment buildings, condominium conversions, and land development. In 2000, Garry purchased his first HUD building, which lead to his entrance to the affordable housing arena.
Over the last twenty years, Garry’s primary focus has been the acquisition, ownership, and management of senior affordable housing. With a nationwide reach and having navigated the intricacies of government subsidized housing, he has garnered a reputation of having a deep understanding of the complexities of affordable housing, while still maintaining his entrepreneurial spirit of real estate investment fundamentals.
In addition to a concentration in affordable housing, Garry has spent much of his career in local, ground up development, including design, entitlements, and construction. Working on asset classes as diverse as mini-storage, townhomes, multi-family, and mixed use, Garry takes pride in building community supported developments that impact the surrounding areas for the better.
Garry currently owns a portfolio of approximately 7,500+ apartment units located in over 35+ states.
DANIELLE HASTIE
CEO
As the Chief Executive Officer, Danielle works closely with CCI’s co-founders to set forth the company’s short and long term strategic vision while also leading CCI’s external relationships with partners, investors, lenders and other community stakeholders. Committed to excellence, she works in tandem with the executive team on the growth and development of CCI while ensuring that the company adheres to its core operating philosophies.
Danielle moved into the CEO role after spending 18 years leading CCI’s acquisitions, dispositions, developments and refinances, having managed the closing of hundreds of real estate transactions around the country, including project-based Section 8, FHA insured loans and countless other transfer of physical asset packages, HAP Assignments, grant applications, debt/equity structures, LIHTC and Bond applications/transactions and affordable and market rate ground up development. In her previous role, she was also responsible for CCI’s Asset Management division, including high level budget oversight, portfolio performance metrics and investor relations.
During her 20+ year tenure at CCI, Danielle has navigated complex market dynamics with a focus on long term economics, approaching real estate challenges with creative solutions to achieve sustainable returns. She has been an integral part of CCI’s expansion, helping the company to grow from a smaller regional business to a national organization reaching 30+ states and hundreds of employees.
While her experience spans a variety of asset classes including hotel, industrial, multi-family and office, she has a soft spot for providing housing to our country’s expanding senior population.
Danielle graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric.
TOM LUNGIN
Partner
Since entering the real estate industry in 2002, Tom Lungin has been involved in the acquisition of over $250 million worth of commercial real estate. His primary emphasis has been affordable housing for the elderly.
With CCI, Tom has undertaken the responsibility of identifying suitable properties, underwriting them, negotiating the purchase and sale agreements, putting the properties under contract, helping to ensure a smooth and successful closing, as well as staying on in a consultant capacity to oversee the management of the aforementioned properties. With a portfolio of over 7,000 units to date, almost every property Tom has underwritten and participated in continues to cash flow positively as projected. He continues to pursue Affordable Project Based Section 8 properties, 515 RD, PRAC, Market-Rate, and development deals, as well as any additional real estate opportunities.
It has been and continues to be Tom's personal mission to preserve and promote affordable housing and to provide added services while enhancing the tenant’s personal wellbeing as they continue to age in place. He continues to pursue this effort by serving as President of several Non-Profit entities that offer affordable housing throughout the Los Angeles area and beyond.
Tom studied International Business at San Diego State University and has since then lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Prague, Czech Republic.
