Receiver Mark Adams
Real Estate
Over the last 25 years, Mark Adams, President of California Receivership Group (CRG), has led efforts to use health and safety receivership to address and remediate nuisance conditions at slums, abandoned, and neglected sites across California. He is recognized as the state's most experienced health and safety receiver. One hundred seventy-nine state and federal judges have appointed him to rehabilitate over 360 properties in 36 counties and 126 cities. His expertise extends to other states, including Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, and Wisconsin.
A receivership under the Health and Safety Code is the most effective solution when traditional code enforcement tools have failed. This process resolves the financial and physical aspects of nuisance abatement at no cost to taxpayers, as the property covers its repair costs. This is achieved through the statutory authority and equitable discretion of the courts.
He manages various health and safety issues at distressed properties, from homes and hotels to apartment buildings and commercial properties. His expertise includes addressing problems such as unpermitted construction, fire damage, hillside stability, seismic issues, rampant crime, unsecured structures, and unsafe but inhabited buildings. He also deals with junk accumulation, hoarding, hazmat abatement, pest infestations, asbestos, mold, structural inadequacies, and properties without basic utilities like heat, electricity, and running water.
Adams: The First Receiver Appointed under the California Health and Safety Code
In 1999, Mark Adams became the first receiver appointed under the California Health and Safety Code. This appointment involved addressing a 66-unit apartment complex with deplorable conditions that led to the death of an 11-week-old baby. The child, who lived in the severely dilapidated building, contracted a respiratory infection and tragically passed away.
While the remedy under California's Health and Safety Code had been available for years to address substandard properties, this incident marked the first time it was used for nuisance abatement. He learned about this remedy from a local professor in the early 1990s and recognized it as the answer for properties where other code enforcement strategies had failed.
Driven by frustration over the number of dilapidated properties in his community, he established California Receivership Group (CRG) as a complete turnkey solution to abate dangerous properties. The goal of CRG is to provide relief to the community, which suffers from the ripple effects of problem properties every day.
Over the past 25 years, he has become the most experienced receiver in this field. In 2022, Loyola Marymount University (LMU) honored him with the "Distinguished Entrepreneurial Alumnus Award," the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized CRG as an outstanding family-owned business.
Co-founded the Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee on Slum Housing
Before founding CRG, Mark Adams was instrumental in initiating the Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee on Slum Housing, initiated by then-Mayor Riordan. He co-founded and administered the committee from 1998 to 2000, which was crucial in expanding the City of Los Angeles' slum-housing inspection program.
The committee's findings revealed that slumlords often postponed significant repairs for years without fear of inspections or prosecution. They neglected issues such as leaking roofs, clogged toilets, rat infestations, lack of heat and hot water, broken windows, and other conditions that rendered apartments unsafe and unlivable. In 1995, census data identified 156,000 substandard apartments in Los Angeles, with worsening conditions in areas like the San Fernando Valley, Westside, Hollywood, and inner-city neighborhoods.
His experience with the Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee and his long career in real estate finance provided the foundation for his initial work in receivership. Over the past 25 years, he has led CRG in refining its approach to health and safety receivership work, gaining extensive experience managing financial, political, social, and economic complexities. He pioneered the use of super-priority receivership certificate financing to rehabilitate nuisance properties. CRG has funded over $56 million in health and safety receivership financing to remedy code violations at red-tagged properties.
A Mentor to Health and Safety Receivers
He has mentored or trained most of California's other health and safety receivers through the California Receivership Group. He is a sought-after speaker at state and national housing conferences.
Mark Adams also contributed an amicus curiae brief in the California Supreme Court's landmark ruling supporting the health and safety receivership remedy, City of Santa Monica v. Gonzalez 43 Cal. 4th 905 (2008).
Adams' Bespoke Career
Before establishing CRG, he was a principal at Civitas Housing Company and Senior Vice President of De Miranda Management, responsible for affordable housing management activities for 4,400 Los Angeles apartment units. He also worked with various clients to arrange bank financing for real estate projects.
He also managed the Los Angeles operations for a nonprofit housing developer. He served as Director of Public Affairs at Fannie Mae, overseeing congressional relations in the nine Western states.
His career also included four years as an attorney, consulting on corporate and housing finance work for clients like the California Housing Finance Agency and Great Western Bank. He founded and managed a mortgage banking company, Callie Mae, Inc., which sold over $500 million in home mortgage loans to California public pension funds and other institutional investors.
Mark Adams's career also includes a role in the policy development arm of California Governor Jerry Brown's office from 1978 to 1982. During this time, he wrote a law review article for the Hastings International and Comparative Law Journal on what would later become known as NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement).
His career began as an attorney with Ball, Hunt, Hart, Brown, and Baerwitz, where he was an associate in the litigation department. Former California Governor Pat Brown—the father of Former Governor Jerry Brown—was his supervising partner at the firm.
He graduated magna cum laude from LMU and later from Georgetown University Law Center.
A Dedicated Family Man
Born in Chicago, he grew up in Los Angeles, where Mark Adams and his wife Janis raised their three children. They will be celebrating their 35th anniversary next year. Two of their children attended Harvard, and their son entered the prestigious university 100 years after his paternal grandfather emigrated from Greece as a 15-year-old who received citizenship by serving in the American army during World War I. The family name was anglicized when the immigration officer at Ellis Island heard "Soterios Adamopolous" and said, "Sounds like Sam Adams." The rest is history.
His daughter attended Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a John F. Kennedy scholar.
He is a fan of major league baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers. His dedication also extended to his daughter's high school volleyball games, where he was recognized as the team's most loyal fan. He humorously notes that his tombstone will read, "He watched 3,000 games…"
As a devoted grandfather of six, he maintained a close relationship with his grandchildren. For example, he sent his granddaughter a knock-knock joke every day for 14 days while she was at her first stay-over camp. She proudly used her grandfather's jokes in the camp's talent show.
Paying It Forward
His commitment to Californian communities goes beyond his work at CRG. From 2016 to 2022, he served on the National Board of Directors for the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, a nonprofit organization that serves the needs of the poor and marginalized.
Mark Adams donates monthly to St. Monica's Catholic Church and Loyola Marymount University to support various communities. He was also a founding director of the Chrysalis Center, a well-established homeless services provider in Los Angeles.
His charitable efforts date back decades. In 1986, he organized volunteers to raise $10,000 for Ethiopian Famine Relief for the Red Cross by passing a hat at the state Democratic convention.
He has served as president of the LMU Alumni Board and was a member of the University's Board of Regents.
Through his professional work and personal dedication to philanthropy, he has made a lasting impact on the communities he serves.
Learn More:
https://labusinessjournal.com/advertorials/most-influential-family-owned-businesses-2019-cali
https://www.youtube.com/@CalReceivers
