William Farrow, president and CEO of Urban Partnership Bank announced today that Levoi K. Brown, 33, formerly a director in asset management with General Electric Real Estate has joined the bank as the new director of commercial real estate.

Levoi K. Brown, an experienced real estate financial services professional specializing in loan originations, development, financial modeling and capital markets will be responsible for Urban Partnership Bank’s commercial and multi-family real estate portfolio in Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit. He reports to Farrow.

“Levoi brings a passion for our mission and valuable experience in real estate finance that will play an instrumental role in our efforts to catalyze sustainable development opportunities which build better lives and vibrant urban neighborhoods,” says William Farrow.

Brown is joining Urban Partnership Bank from General Electric Real Estate (GE) where he spent nearly 10 years enhancing strategic performance issues and customer relationships in the company’s Affordable Housing Group and Capital Markets Services. While at GE, he was an analyst and underwriter securitizing transactions, portfolio stratification, valuations and conducting due diligence on assets targeted for development. He was responsible for managing the relationships for major equity investments and commercial properties and the modeling of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and other investment programs.

Brown began his career in the financial services industry as a financial planner for Prudential Individual Financial Services prior to joining Heller Financial which was later acquired by GE, as an analyst. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and expects to complete his MBA at the University of Chicago in Spring 2011. He resides in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, attends Apostolic Church of God, and provides support to the Teen Living Program, a nonprofit supportive-housing center for young adults estranged from their families.