JM+A Team

Jim Mercado is the owner and managing Principal of JM+A. With a Master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Michigan, he has over 40 years of experience in planning, designing and development.  Prior to establishing the company, Mercado was a regional vice president for Mercy Housing, Inc. and regional representative for McCormick Baron Salazar, two leading national housing providers. He has also served as Housing Development Manager for the City of Denver as well as Program Director for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a spin-off of the Ford Foundation.

He served two years in VISTA, the domestic Peace Corps stationed in Little Rock. While in Arkansas, he worked as an administrator and housing advisor for then Governor Bill Clinton, and later participated as a member of President Clinton’s first term Transition Team. Mercado also served as Senior Planner for Metroplan, a regional Council of Governments, and spent 12 years in private practice as an award winning designer and developer specializing in sustainable and energy efficient architecture. 

Abdul has over 20 years of private and public-sector experience in housing and urban development, market analysis, real estate finance, and policy development. He is a Senior Policy Analyst with the City of Denver where he conducts high level research and provides substantiation for housing and economic development issues. His previous duties include loan underwriting, housing program design, development of compliance and monitoring tools, and policy research and analysis. Abdul has authored various plans and strategy papers, including a comprehensive study of residential mortgage foreclosures in Denver.

As a Project Manager and Housing Development Consultant for a consulting firm, Abdul conducted over 100 housing market feasibility studies and housing plans for developers, financial institutions, syndicators, and local governments throughout the United States.

Abdul holds three Master’s degrees in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Information Systems from Tsinghua University, University of Cincinnati and University of Colorado at Denver, respectively. He is a certified Housing Development Finance Professional, an Oracle Certified Professional, and an Internet Application Developer. Currently, Abdul is a co-owner of DataWise Solutions, a real estate software development company.

Howard B. Noble is a Manager/Broker for Noble Property Group (NPG), LLC. NPG is a Denver, CO based real estate firm specializing in land related acquisitions, financing and joint ventures. NPG has a successful history of closed real estate transactions in the capacity of both an intermediary and principal. They are focused on a diverse range of prime residential and commercial development land in collaboration with select national, regional, local users, developers and investors. NPG has an effective client approach that combines a strategic, disciplined and straightforward methodology to identify, assess and implement transactions to attain requisite investment results. The firm has participated in excess of $300 million of closed land transactions with an estimated build-out of $5 billion along the Colorado Front Range and additional markets such as Tamp, FL, Charlotte, NC and Seattle, WA.

Representative transactions include the sale of the 2,935-acre Stapleton Redevelopment to Forest City Enterprises, the formation of the 2,500-acre Block Bros. (Olympia & York) joint venture in metro Denver, the 3,411-acre Block Bros. West Meadows property venture in Tampa, FL and the 1,367-acre land sale in Charlotte, NC , which now includes a Mills/Simon Mall. Howard was a Co-Founder in 2004 and is Co-Chair of the annual Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management Research Center “Housing Conference” at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver that became affiliated with the ULI IN 2007.

Ms. Rossi has over 20 years of experience in traditional banking and non-profit community development lending, asset management and affordable housing development.  Her development, community organizing and advocacy work extends from the Northeast to Phoenix, AZ with several national and local non-profits. These include Neighborhood Housing Services, The Community Builders, Mercy Housing and local Area Agencies on Aging.  She helped facilitate the initial roll-out and enrollment in Arizona’s Federally-facilitated Health Insurance marketplace and she is an advocate for seniors seeking independent living and long-term care options.

Her volunteer work includes Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments/Area Agency on Agency, Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care, Silver Key Senior Services and the Penrose-St. Francis Patient and Family Advisory Council.