Shai Markowicz joins Huntington as head of project finance

Huntington Securities has hired Shai Markowicz, previously the longtime co-head of project finance at Citi and head of social infrastructure at Morgan Stanley (MS), as managing director and head of project finance.

Markowicz will lead a team devoted to growing Huntington's footprint in municipal project finance and social infrastructure, the Ohio-based firm said in a press release. Markowicz is based out of Huntington's South Florida office and started in his new role Tuesday.

"The bank has experienced a lot of growth over the last couple of years, particularly in capital markets. This year alone it's been really substantial," Head of Public Finance Samantha Costanzo said, pointing to Huntington's acquisition of Janney Montgomery Scott's public finance arm and multiple recent key hires across capital markets. "Just within public finance alone we've brought on 19 new people, including Shai, which I think is one of the largest commitments to public finance that any bank has made this year."

With more than 25 years of experience in the tax-exempt market, Markowicz "has had a wonderfully successful career in this space," Costanzo said, noting that she and Markowicz worked together at Citi for many years. "We're very excited to be able to have someone with his level of experience leading that effort for us now."

Markowicz earned his bachelor's degree in business administration and management from the University at Albany before becoming an analyst at O'Brien Partners. He joined UBS as vice president in 1998 before moving on to Citi in 2004, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The team Markowicz now leads will focus on the student housing, workforce housing, entertainment and lodging assets, tax increment financing, charter school securitizations, and single-asset healthcare sectors, Huntington said.

"This is, in my view, an opportunity to continue to build on the growth momentum that Huntington is experiencing right now, particularly in public finance," Markowicz said. "I truly enjoy project finance transactions, and think there's going to be a continued need across the country for these public-private partnership and single asset project finance opportunities."

He highlighted student housing, workforce housing, convention centers and hotels, and charter school securitizations in particular as key areas of focus for the team.

As colleges grapple with a demographic cliff, "there continues to be a lot of competition to draw in students, and one of the key amenities that students are looking for, beyond just the educational experience, is the lived experience and the housing experience on campus," Markowicz said. "So, having a modernized housing product becomes a really compelling consideration."

Colleges and universities are increasingly partnering with the private sector to develop those housing assets, he said. "We're excited to help work with developers to build out these new projects."

At Morgan Stanley (MS), Markowicz worked with the Savannah-Georgia Convention Center Authority on the Savannah Convention Center hotel project, with the authority and Hilton breaking ground on the 444-room hotel in October.

"We do think that there will be other convention centers across the country that will either have a need to develop a new convention center hotel or replace an existing one ? again, all in the vein of attracting additional conventions and economic and tourism to their communities," he said.

Other highlights of Markowicz's career include multiple student housing projects across the country, including Lynn University, Napa Valley College, Wayne State University and Florida Institute of Technology; the sewer revenue warrants tied to Jefferson County's exit from bankruptcy; and The Bond Buyer's 2006 Deal of the Year, for what would become Citi Field.

Markowicz said the Huntington project finance group he leads will include a sports practice. "We are seeing some activity" in the stadium financing space, he said.

"I think we're going to continue to see that, both on the NFL side, but also on the NBA and NHL side," he said. "So again, it's another opportunity within project finance for us to be additive both from the banking side and from the lending side, as well."

Markowicz also pointed to Huntington's syndicate desk, led by Dan Kelly, as an area of strength for the firm.

"As I look at my new Huntington colleagues, I see a lot of industry veterans who came from top-tier banks," he said. "We see a lot of growth potential here at Huntington, and (that's) certainly one of the key reasons why I decided to join; I'm sure that's the same for a lot of my new colleagues.

"We're excited to make a really strong push in public finance over the next few years," he said.