Preservation Strategy Advisors

What we do

Three disciplines, applied together, on the same properties.

Preservation decisions are rarely driven by a single factor. Physical condition, operating performance, capital stack feasibility, regulatory obligations, owner capacity, and tenant impacts have to be read together. Every engagement draws on all three disciplines below and ends in findings an agency or an owner can act on.

Physical assessment and capital planning

Site visits, building condition review, and deferred maintenance identification
Capital needs assessment review and rehabilitation scoping
Repair versus replacement decisions, cost and timeline estimates
Contractor procurement, bid evaluation, and value engineering
Occupied rehabilitation and accessibility compliance coordination
Maintenance and utility cost analysis

Led by Sara Lope Retuerto

Asset management and financial oversight

Operating financial review, reserve analysis, and ten-year forecasting
HUD contract and LIHTC regulatory agreement compliance
Portfolio scorecards, quarterly watch lists, and risk scoring
HUD rent and contract applications: Section 8, PRAC, LIHPRHA
LIHTC Year-15 exit planning and investor negotiations
Rent and revenue strategy
Board-facing reporting and decision tools

Led by Zachary Schroeder

Preservation strategy and program design

Capital stack analysis, pro forma modeling, and restructuring scenarios
Refinancing, re-syndication, and public investment gap analysis
Acquisition evaluation, underwriting guidelines, and scoring rubrics
Public-sector program design and accountability frameworks
Stakeholder coordination across owners, funders, lenders, and agency staff
Final reports and presentations

Led by Johnny Oliver

On a portfolio preservation plan, the three run in parallel and end in one document: a prioritized action list, a funding strategy, owner responsibilities, decision points, and the follow-up the funder needs to track.

How we work

Rigorous, but scaled to the capacity of the organizations doing the work.

Imperfect data and thin staffing are normal conditions of preservation planning, not barriers to it. Our job is to reduce that burden while still producing plans that are defensible and ready to implement.

Start with the records you have

We normalize audits, budgets, rent rolls, capital needs assessments, debt schedules, and compliance documents into one planning framework, and flag the gaps that affect decisions early rather than waiting for a complete package.

Separate facts from estimates

Where information is incomplete we document assumptions, distinguish confirmed facts from estimates, and update the plan as better data arrives. Planning proceeds without false precision.

Respect the owner’s capacity

Short, focused information requests. Structured interviews. Existing City and lender records wherever they exist. Review points at each stage instead of one reaction to a finished plan.

Make tradeoffs explicit

Scope, timing, affordability, operating stability, debt capacity, and organizational readiness compete with one another. We put the choices on the table so the agency and the owner can align on realistic next steps.

Prioritize by risk and readiness

Urgent capital needs, expiring affordability restrictions, unstable operations, and near-term refinancing opportunities move first. Properties with weaker data get a phased path that starts with stabilization.

Deliver tools, not just reports

Each plan closes with an action list, decision points, a funding strategy, owner responsibilities, and follow-up needs: a roadmap the organization can run without additional capacity to interpret it.

About the firm

Three consultants, one specialty: buildings that already exist.

The three of us met at the Mission Economic Development Agency in San Francisco, where MEDA was building one of the largest nonprofit-owned preservation portfolios in the city through the Small Sites Program. Johnny and Sara were there first. Zachary arrived in 2019, and for a stretch all three of us worked on the same scattered-site portfolio from different seats: acquisition and financing, construction and rehabilitation, asset management and finance. We have been friends and colleagues since.

Our careers then went in different directions: public-sector preservation policy at the Mayor’s Office of Housing, construction management for a wider set of owners and lenders, portfolio asset management in Portland. Each of us ended up in independent practice. We kept recommending one another to clients and bringing each other onto projects, often enough that formalizing it was the obvious next step.

Preservation Strategy Advisors exists because there is a place for affordable housing consultants who specialize in existing buildings rather than ground-up development: the acquisition, rehabilitation, and long-term stewardship of housing that is already standing. That is what each of us had been focused on all along.

Track record

PSA was formed in 2026. The experience below belongs to its principals, earned in the roles noted.

The three principals worked together at Mission Economic Development Agency in San Francisco, helping build and steward one of the largest nonprofit-owned preservation portfolios in the city: a mixed-income, scattered-site portfolio acquired through the Small Sites Program in one of the highest-cost markets in the country.

San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community DevelopmentDirector of Preservation. 2022 to 2025

Led reform of the Small Sites Program underwriting guidelines and developed its preservation scoring rubric, setting baseline eligibility standards and embedding equity criteria directly in the funding review process. Restructured portfolio debt through PASS and SSP and supported upsizing of City ACAH loans through the Housing Accelerator Fund.Johnny Oliver

Northwest Housing AlternativesMilwaukie, Oregon. Asset Manager, then Manager of Asset Management, then Senior Project Manager. 2022 to 2026

Built and led a five-person asset management department for a statewide nonprofit owner of 47 multifamily properties (2,500+ units) and 54 group homes, with an executive KPI dashboard for the board and a portfolio scorecard adopted by every asset manager. Converted Section 8 renewals at seven HUD-assisted properties from budget-based to Mark-Up-To-Market, adding more than $1.2 million in annual revenue. Ran the portfolio-wide insurance broker RFP for a 20%+ premium reduction, and closed seven LIHTC Year-15 partnership exits in 2025. 2023 Housing Oregon Asset Management Champion Award.Zachary Schroeder

Zubi ConsultingSalt Lake City and San Francisco. 2020 to present

Rehabilitation of 255 affordable units across 18 properties, including structural upgrades, commercial improvements, and adaptive reuse into accessory dwelling units. Authored the Small Sites Manual for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, co-authored the Construction Management Business Model for the San Francisco Community Land Trust, completed capital needs assessments for 15 MEDA properties, and managed construction for the San Francisco Department of the Environment’s Decarbonization Pilot Program.Sara Lope Retuerto

Mission Economic Development AgencyAsset Manager. 2019 to 2022

Managed the operating and financial health of a portfolio of 33 scattered-site Small Sites properties, seven LIHTC properties, and commercial holdings. Raised portfolio debt coverage from 0.88 to 1.21 by cutting vacancy, correcting operating expense problems, and identifying refinancing opportunities, and led the portfolio-wide loan forbearance and deferral effort during the pandemic while keeping compliance reporting current. Built pro formas for 13 acquisitions and nine refinancings, and represented MEDA on the cohort board revising San Francisco’s Small Sites Program guidelines.Zachary Schroeder

Mission Economic Development AgencyConstruction Manager. 2018 to 2019

Rehabilitation of 160 affordable units across 19 properties in two years: physical condition reviews, accessibility plans, capital needs evaluation, contractor bid packages and selection, value engineering, and budget control.Sara Lope Retuerto

Mission Economic Development AgencyAssociate Director of Community Real Estate. 2015 to 2022

Led MEDA’s affordable housing preservation department through the purchase and rehabilitation of 33 properties and 286 units under the Small Sites Program, securing more than $140 million in acquisition, rehabilitation, and permanent financing from public and private sources, and leading negotiations among sellers, funders, tenants, and city agencies.Johnny Oliver

Principals

Senior practitioners. You work directly with the people doing the analysis.

Johnny Oliver

PrincipalPreservation strategy, public-sector program design, acquisition and rehabilitation. San Francisco.

Johnny works at the intersection of public policy and on-the-ground implementation, designing the funding criteria, scoring rubrics, and underwriting guidelines that turn preservation goals into tools staff and decision-makers can apply. He bridges the public-agency and nonprofit-owner perspectives needed to keep feasibility, equity, and public accountability aligned.

As Director of Preservation at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development from 2022 to 2025, he led reform of the Small Sites Program and developed its preservation scoring rubric. Before that, as MEDA’s Associate Director of Community Real Estate, he built and stabilized scattered-site affordable portfolios. Over more than 20 years across nonprofit operations, municipal policy, and consulting, he has secured more than $140 million in acquisition, rehabilitation, and permanent financing. He is brought in when funding deadlines are closing and committed capital is at risk, and is known for keeping complex, multi-party projects moving when timelines slip and capacity runs thin. He is fluent in Spanish, with a long record of engaging Latino and immigrant communities in the Bay Area.

Johnny also runs CORE Solutions (Community Owned Real Estate Solutions), a San Francisco consulting practice focused on preservation program design and acquisition and rehabilitation project management.

Zachary Schroeder

PrincipalAsset management, portfolio systems, financial oversight. San Francisco.

Zachary builds the reporting systems, scorecards, and risk-scoring tools that let owners and public agencies see portfolio performance clearly and surface underperformance early. He restructures subsidy and reserve strategies to strengthen operating revenue and long-term viability, and aligns asset management, property management, finance, and governance across HUD and LIHTC environments: Section 8, PRAC, and LIHPRHA contracts, HUD rent and contract applications, and LIHTC Year-15 exits.

He has twenty-five years in real estate finance and asset management, the last seven running affordable housing portfolios in San Francisco and Oregon. At MEDA, as Asset Manager, he managed a portfolio of 33 scattered-site Small Sites properties and seven LIHTC properties, raising portfolio debt coverage from 0.88 to 1.21 and leading the pandemic-era loan forbearance effort. At Northwest Housing Alternatives, a statewide Oregon nonprofit owner, he built and led a five-person asset management department over 47 multifamily properties (2,500+ units) and 54 group homes, then led the portfolio-wide restructurings that followed: Section 8 contract conversions at seven HUD-assisted properties worth more than $1.2 million a year, a 20%+ insurance premium reduction, and seven LIHTC Year-15 exits in a single year. He began in preservation as co-founder and managing partner of PSZ Investments in Amsterdam, acquiring 35 scattered-site student housing units and negotiating the portfolio’s 2020 sale at €12.2 million, above expectations and with unanimous investor consent. He holds a Master of Community and Regional Planning from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the CHAM/NeighborWorks Professional Certificate in Asset Management.

Zachary also operates Kaiser Murdock & Associates, a San Francisco practice providing fractional asset management to nonprofit affordable housing owners: operating frameworks, portfolio financial assessment, ten-year forecasting, HUD rent and contract applications, and investor and regulator reporting.

Sara Lope Retuerto

PrincipalConstruction management, capital planning, procurement, accessibility. Salt Lake City.

Sara grounds preservation work in the realities of the buildings themselves, translating condition assessments and capital needs into scoped, budgeted rehabilitation plans. She manages contractor procurement, bid evaluation, and value engineering to control cost and quality, and delivers occupied rehabilitation and ADA compliance across scattered-site affordable portfolios.

As Construction Manager at MEDA she oversaw the rehabilitation of 160 units across 19 properties in two years. Through Zubi Consulting, the construction management and capital planning firm she founded in Salt Lake City in 2020, she has managed the rehabilitation of 255 units across 18 properties for MEDA, the San Francisco Community Land Trust, the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, and the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund; authored the Small Sites Manual for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development; and managed construction for the San Francisco Department of the Environment’s Decarbonization Pilot Program. She holds a degree in Construction Management from the Universidad de Burgos and a degree in Architecture from the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, with Building Energy Certification and OSHA 30.