An economic development consultant with decades of experience executing public-private initiatives and working with non-profit and government-adjacent entities, Dennis Martinez is a visible and active leader in San Antonio’s business and non-profit communities. Mr. Martinez assists Crescent Growth Capital by leveraging his background to drive new business development and bring complicated tax credit finance transactions to fruition.

As principal of DMAssociates, Dennis Martinez has consulted for a wide variety of public and private entities, including the San Antonio Housing Authority, the Alamo Community College District, Boeing, and the Downtown Dallas Improvement District.

Prior to founding DMAssociates, Mr. Martinez served as Special Projects Officer for the City of San Antonio, Director of the Office of Minority Business Opportunity for the City of Dallas, and Director of the Dallas Economic Development Department. An active leader in the business and non-profit communities of San Antonio, Mr. Martinez also possesses expertise in disadvantaged business development and first-hand knowledge of the challenges surrounding the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, the latter gained during his successful tenure as Director of Commercial Development for EG&G Management Services, which had been charged with oversight of the redevelopment plans for the former Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Mr. Martinez additionally serves as an Adjunct Professor in Texas Political History, Public Policy and Urban Economics for the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is also a longtime advocate for public libraries and was elected in 2006 to the board of the Urban Libraries Council.

Specializing in historic preservation consulting, Frank Rabalais leads Crescent’s federal and state historic tax credit financing efforts. Mr. Rabalais researches and prepares National Register of Historic Places nominations and authors Historic Preservation Certification Applications (Parts 1 through 3). For Crescent’s New Markets Tax Credit business line, Mr. Rabalais will, on an as-needed basis, author project summary narratives for circulation among Community Development Entities and provide support during the financial closing and pre-closing processes.

Named a Director in 2018, Frank Rabalais joined Crescent Growth Capital as a consultant in October of 2008. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Rabalais was a Financial Advisor with Ameriprise Financial, where he provided individual and small business clients with investment advisory services, identified insurance, cash management and business succession needs, and addressed retirement, tax and estate planning.

From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Rabalais worked in real estate, first as a Property Manager for Riverlake Properties, and then as a Project Analyst for the Design Build Group, where he authored federal HPCAs and local tax abatement applications, assisted in financial modeling for proposed developments and helped with construction management. Mr. Rabalais also worked at the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans and the law firm of Degan, Blanchard & Nash before joining Riverlake in 2002.

Mr. Rabalais received his A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1997. From 1998 to 2004, he attended Tulane University School of Architecture and the University of New Orleans. He earned a Master of Preservation Studies (Historic Preservation) degree from Tulane in 2002 and a Master of Business Administration degree (Finance Concentration) from UNO in 2004.

Ryan Kenter leverages his mature banking and finance background to serve as lead of business development for Crescent Growth Capital, especially in states other than Texas. Mr. Kenter solicits New Markets Tax Credit allocations on behalf of Crescent’s clients, processes the intake forms required by the participants to an NMTC financing and will, on an as-needed basis, author project summary narratives for circulation among Community Development Entities. Mr. Kenter is also continuously deepening Crescent’s relationships with Community Development Entities, tax credit investors, and other industry players through his regular attendance at industry events.

Prior to co-founding Crescent Growth Capital in 2008, Ryan Kenter was a Portfolio Manager at Capital One, N.A. from January 2007, focusing on New Markets Tax Credit transactions in the Debt Capital Markets group. In this role, Mr. Kenter was involved in the structuring and closing of nearly $600 million of NMTC transactions, involving more than three dozen NMTC projects in four states. In addition, Mr. Kenter assisted in the purchase of over $340 million in auction rate securities, and over $100 million in tax exempt bonds for the Debt Capital Markets group.

From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Kenter was a Senior Credit Analyst for Hibernia National Bank/Capital One, N.A., focusing on the energy and commercial lending sectors. From 2003 to 2004, Mr. Kenter was a finance intern at UBS in New Orleans. During the summer of 2003, Mr. Kenter was an accounting intern at Tanimura and Antle in Salinas, California. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Kenter was a customer relationship management analyst and media data coordinator in the marketing department at Pizza Hut, Inc. in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Kenter received his B.B.A. from Southern Methodist University in 1998 (Marketing Major) and his M.B.A. from Tulane University in 2004 (Finance Concentration).

A Chartered Financial Analyst who accumulated nearly twenty years’ experience in the banking industry before co-founding Crescent Growth Capital in 2008, Troy Villafarra is Crescent’s principal in-house financial modeler. Once Crescent formalizes its relationship with a client, Mr. Villafarra works assiduously to specify and refine the structure of the proposed tax credit financing, issuing models on an iterative basis, deftly navigating the inevitable obstacles and steering the transaction to financial closing.

Prior to co-founding Crescent Growth Capital, Troy Villafarra worked for eighteen years in various analytical, commercial banking and investment banking capacities for Hibernia National Bank, in the Corporate Lending, Corporate Investment Banking and Public Finance departments. Mr. Villafarra structured and executed numerous complex financial transactions for a wide array of corporate, municipal and non-profit customers and developed significant experience in tax credit financing.

At the time of Hibernia’s acquisition by Capital One, N.A., Mr. Villafarra was Managing Director at Hibernia Southcoast Capital and was responsible for Fixed Income Investment Banking and Public Finance. Following the merger, Mr. Villafarra was part of the Debt Capital Markets team at Capital One that originated the bank’s New Markets Tax Credit product. As a key member of the Debt Capital Markets unit, Mr. Villafarra was responsible for closing over $490 million in tax exempt bond transactions, including $118 million in bond securitizations, and $380 million in NMTC investments between December 2005 and August 2008. Mr. Villafarra also served as an officer of both Capital One Community Renewal Fund, LLC, a Community Development Entity which received $160 million in NMTC allocations from the CDFI Fund of the U.S. Treasury, and of Capital One Public Funding, LLC, which managed a $1 billion portfolio of tax-exempt bonds. In August 2008, Mr. Villafarra left Capital One, N.A. to co-found Crescent Growth Capital. Mr. Villafarra is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute, as well as the Financial Analysts of New Orleans (FANO) professional organization. He received his B.S. in Finance from the University of New Orleans in 1988, and in September 2000 he was awarded the CFA.

With decades of academic and practical experience in property law, public finance and financial transactions, Ray Rabalais deploys his legal expertise on behalf of Crescent Growth Capital through his responsibility for drafting and reviewing mandate letters, cooperative endeavor agreements, and any other legal arrangements pursued by Crescent. Mr. Rabalais has been active as an investment banker in both Louisiana and adjacent states for over forty-five years and continuously monitors the constantly evolving legal and regulatory environment. On an as-needed basis, Mr. Rabalais will draft project summary narratives for circulation among Community Development Entities.

Prior to co-founding Crescent Growth Capital in 2008, Ray Rabalais was a Senior Vice President at Hibernia Southcoast Capital/Capital One, N.A. from June 2004. A member of the Debt Capital Markets group, Mr. Rabalais also served as an officer of Capital One Community Renewal Fund, LLC, a Community Development Entity which received $160 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocations from the United States Treasury.

From 1979 to 1996, Mr. Rabalais was a Public Finance Consultant and Investment Banker for Howard Weil Labouisse Friedrichs, Inc., an investment bank in New Orleans. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Rabalais was an Investment Banker at First National Bank of Commerce. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Rabalais was an Investment Banker for Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., a regional investment bank. During this twenty-five year period, Mr. Rabalais served as Senior Investment Banker on more than $3 billion of tax-exempt financings.

Mr. Rabalais received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1968 and his J.D. from the Harvard University School of Law in 1971. He also received an M.A. from Michigan State University in 1974. From 1974 to 2021, Mr. Rabalais served on the faculty at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, where he was the Eleanor Legier Sarpy Distinguished Professor of Law. He is admitted to the practice of law in the states of Michigan and Texas.

Based out of the firm’s Dallas office, Eric Finley has developed particular expertise in helping non-profit social service providers realize their facility and programmatic ambitions, both in Texas and throughout the nation. Mr. Finley leads business development efforts for Crescent Growth Capital in the DFW Metroplex, closely monitors developments in New Markets Tax Credit financing and continuously deepens Crescent’s relationships with Community Development Entities, tax credit investors, and other industry players through his regular attendance at industry events. Reflecting his experience in finance, Mr. Finley will, on an as-needed basis, assist in deal structuring and financial modeling.

Prior to co-founding Crescent Growth Capital in 2008, Eric Finley served as Vice President at Capital One, N.A., as part of the Debt Capital Markets group. This group developed Capital One’s New Markets Tax Credit product line, resulting in the closing of over $380 million in NMTC financings. Mr. Finley was also involved in the formation of, and served as an officer for Capital One Community Renewal Fund, LLC, a Community Development Entity which received NMTC allocations totaling $160 million from the CDFI Fund of the U.S. Treasury. Mr. Finley served as an officer on Capital One Public Funding, LLC, which managed over $1 billion in tax exempt bonds. Before Capital One’s acquisition of Hibernia National Bank, Mr. Finley was a Senior Financial Analyst/Junior Investment Banker for Hibernia Southcoast Capital’s Public Finance division.

From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Finley worked at CSG Advisors in Atlanta, financial advisors to state and local governments, public agencies, non-profit corporations, financial institutions and real estate development firms. Mr. Finley structured over $2 billion in taxable and tax-exempt single-family and multi-family housing mortgage revenue bond financings on both a negotiated and competitive basis. Prior to CSG Advisors, Mr. Finley worked at Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, a real estate investment manager overseeing $39 billion in real estate and mortgage holdings for institutional and private clients. Mr. Finley was part of the Corporate Finance division tasked with ongoing internal profitability analysis/tracking of investor performance returns for all real estate assets: Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities, Real Estate Investment Trusts, private debt and equity real estate funds. Mr. Finley received his B.S.B.A in Finance with a minor in Economics from the University of Florida in 1998.