His Employees are loyal and longstanding. "Go-to-hell people," he calls them. "They'll go to hell for us because of the way we take care of them." Mahaffey explains.
Thomas Mahaffey Jr., Tampa Bay Times
Our Board
William H. Mahaffey
President, Current Active
Son of James Mahaffey, learned construction coordination at Carlton Arms of Bradenton and management skills in Indianapolis, St. Petersburg and Lake Carlton Arms prior to becoming the Executive Director at Carlton Arms of Magnolia Valley. Located in the St. Petersburg office, he directs new site selection, land acquisitions, development and construction activities working closely with municipalities on zoning and legal matters.
M. Thomas Mahaffey
Vice President, Current Active
Son of Mark Mahaffey, joined the company in 1997 after graduating from Elon University, first at Lynn Lake Arms, and then as Executive Director during the construction of Carlton Arms of Ocala. Afterwards he became the Executive Director at Carlton Arms Bradenton. Located in the St. Petersburg office, Tom is involved in supervising management, planning and development.
Daniel M. Esterline
Vice President, Current Active
Grandson of founder, Thomas Mahaffey, Jr., possesses a Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration from the University of Florida. Dan began his Mahaffey Company career in 1989, learning the business working in various roles in the management company. While exploring an opportunity in what would become his passion, Dan gained valuable field experience by starting at the bottom on his road to becoming a state-certified General Contractor. After having been involved in the development and overseeing the construction of almost 6000 apartments, Dan continues his role as President of Esterline Construction, the general contractor for Mahaffey Company, as well as his role mentoring apartment company leadership.
Mark T. Mahaffey
Chairman of the Board
In 1969, Mark Mahaffey, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a U.S. Naval officer veteran, decided to join his father and brother in the family business. He became involved in all phases of the various Mahaffey Company Communities. The planning, development, construction, marketing and management of all Carlton Arms Communities are under the brothers’ joint control. This generation family involvement includes William Mahaffey, Tom Mahaffey, Jane Ferguson and Dan Esterline. All have been with the company for well over 20 years and serve actively. There is a fourth-generation family member working in the company ranks, as well.
Jane Ferguson
Director
Granddaughter of Thomas Mahaffey Jr., began her company career upon graduating from the University of Vermont in 1979. After procuring leasing and management experience in Indianapolis, she transferred to Florida as the assistant property manager during the construction of Carlton Arms of Bradenton. Moving to St. Petersburg, she was the Executive Director of Lynn Lake Arms and Coquina Key Arms. Currently, Jane directs all marketing activity and consults in management and development issues.
Suzanne B. Gray
Director
After graduating from the University of Tennessee in 1974, Suzanne spent two years as an Area Manager for a REIT based in La Jolla, CA. Her postings included Knoxville, TN, Raleigh, NC and Louisville, KY. In 1976, she was hired as the Executive Director of West Lake Arms, a 1381 unit apartment community owned by the Mahaffey Company in Indianapolis. She later also took on the property supervision of Lake Castleton Arms, a 1261 unit Mahaffey community in Indianapolis. In 1986, Suzanne moved to FL to work with Thomas Mahaffey, Jim Mahaffey and Mark Mahaffey in the daily operations of their Florida properties as the Executive VP of The Mahaffey Apartment Company. After 43 years with the Mahaffeys as an employee and partner, Suzanne retired from her daily duties in January 2020. She now serves on the Board of Directors.
Richard T. Earle III
Director
A native of St. Petersburg, Florida and educated in local schools, Richard earned his BA degree from the University of The South in 1963 and his Juris Doctor degree from the College of Law at the University of Florida in 1966. He has practiced law in St. Petersburg since 1966 and currently am a sole practitioner. In 2013, Richard earned a Master of Divinity degree from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA and was ordained an Episcopal Priest in 2017. In addition to practicing law, he is an assistant priest at St. Vincent’s Episcopal Church. Richard has represented The Mahaffey Apartment Company, its various entities and the Mahaffey family for the past 40 years.
Ward Curtis
Director
Following over 15 years as an executive with a Fortune 500 financial services company, Ward Curtis has spent the second half of his career as a founder, director and investor in numerous companies in the investment management, trust and banking industries. He is also a Managing Member of multiple private equity partnerships. He currently serves as Chairman of Sabal Trust Company and as a director of TMI Trust Company. Ward received his BSBA and MBA from the University of Central Florida and is a graduate of the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth College.
A sound family foundation keeps company principals active in all phases and functions of the enterprise and creates stability and continuity that eschews titles and narrow lines of responsibility.
Thomas Mahaffey Jr., Tampa Bay Times
Our Management Team
Austin Everett
Austin serves as Chief Financial Officer for the Mahaffey Apartment Company (Mahaffey). Within Mahaffey, Austin is responsible for financial reporting, management of the company’s debt portfolio, overseeing the underwriting and coordination of the capital stack for new development opportunities, performing asset management duties across the portfolio, and other strategic initiatives to support strong financial performance and responsible growth. Prior to joining Mahaffey in 2018, Austin was the Vice President of Finance at Grubb Properties – a Charlotte, NC-based private equity real estate investment firm. Additionally, Austin has worked in commercial real estate valuation and advisory at the Hopkins-McElhannon Group, a boutique real estate appraisal and consultancy firm in Charlotte, NC, and in investment services at Schwartz & Co, an investment advisory firm in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Austin received his B.A. in Financial Economics from the University of Detroit Mercy. During his academic career, Austin was a member of the University of Detroit Mercy Economics Club, the Mises Institute, and the Golden Key International Honor Society.
Stephanie Booker
As Chief Operating Officer for Mahaffey Apartment Company, Stephanie provides strategic and operational leadership to the organization. She brings over a decade of multifamily and mixed use expertise with her and has extensive experience in property management, operational efficiency, property repositioning, staff development, historic redevelopment, and new construction in both urban and suburban markets. Stephanie joined Mahaffey Apartment Company from City Club Apartments where she last held the role of Assistant Vice President of Operations with portfolio responsibilities of twenty-two assets across seven states and played a key role in the company’s growth and development. Prior to that, she held Regional Director roles for Eureka Multifamily Group and Pennrose Management Company where she was directly responsible for policy and procedure implementation, employee engagement, and financial performance of multimillion-dollar portfolios. Stephanie received her BS in Marketing and her BS in Business Administration and Management with a concentration in Accounting from La Roche University in Pittsburgh, PA.
Andrew Sharp
Andrew is responsible for all aspects of Accounting, Marketing, Procurement and Internal Systems. He concentrates his efforts helping the organization build stronger financial operations and reporting through best in class tools leveraging the digital revolution. Andrew holds an accounting degree from University of Western Michigan’s Hayworth College of Business were he played football all 4 years for the Broncos going to two bowl games. His career began as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Detroit working in the Private Company Services division. Andrew then joined VFC in North Carolina auditing many of their brands around the world. After several years of apartments and global travel, Andrew returned to Michigan with his young family and started as a controller for Detroit Trading Company before moving to Coretek as CFO. Three years later, Andrew moved his family to sunny Florida to take-on the real-estate boom and became the controller for The Mahaffey Apartment Company, a multi-billion dollar portfolio of multi-family apartment units spread across Florida.
Chris Piazza
Chris serves as the Pre-Construction Manager for Esterline Construction. As the in-house professional engineer, Chris ensures seamless transition between all stages of design, development, and permitting. Chris earned his degree in Civil Engineering in 2002 and began working for the FDOT in the same year. Chris made the move from the public sector to private consultant in 2012 and was the Engineer of Record (EOR) on multiple State and local municipality transportation projects. He was EOR for the signalized intersection at the entrance to the Carlton Arms of Winter Haven during this time. Chris joined the Esterline team in 2020. State Certified Professional Engineer (PE66509). State Certified Underground Utility & Excavation Contractor (CUC1226010).
Rick Barry
Rick oversees new developments from land acquisition, project conception, budgeting, planning, through construction completion, lease-up, stabilization and transition to management. As a member of the Mahaffey Apartment Company for more than 35+ years, Rick’s hands on approach has allowed him to ensure each new community is developed under the guiding principles on which the company was built. Rick’s experience and relationships play a pivotal role in managing the Mahaffey Apartment Company’s robust development pipeline. Rick is a graduate of the University of South Florida, holding a degree in Business Management.