
The firm’s housing finance practice is well known in the industry. In addition to serving as counsel on securities financings, Holley & Pearson-Farrer has experience in providing issuer support across many disciplines and in developing new and innovative economic development financing and financial assistance initiatives, programs, and structures.
Our firm has established a national reputation in the field of affordable housing and community development law generally. The firm has created or participated in a range of widely acclaimed housing development and loan programs for a variety of housing types, including single-family home ownership, multi-family properties involving tax credits or tax-exempt financing, single-room occupancy (SRO) projects, and elderly care and congregate care facilities. In addition, H|PF is an active participant in other aspects of housing and community development, including the establishment of public-private housing partnerships, housing trust funds, and construction and permanent financing for both single- and multi-family affordable housing developments, including tax-exempt and conventional financing.
H|PF attorneys have extensive experience advising clients on conceptualizing and executing complex financings involving tax credits; our attorneys draw upon their broad experience in corporate, finance, real estate, and tax-exempt organizations law to assist our clients in structuring transactions with tax credits to provide additional funds to their projects’ capital stacks. We have a depth of experience with use of state and federal low-income housing tax credits and historic tax credits to facilitate equity financing for affordable housing. Our tax credit experience also includes two decades of providing counsel regarding financing transactions incorporating federal new markets tax credits.
In 2001, our firm was one of three firms, and the only minority-owned firm, selected by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) as bond counsel pursuant to its 10-year Plan for Transformation, the City of Chicago’s historic plan to rehabilitate or replace the entire stock of public housing in Chicago.
Pursuant to CHA’s Plan for Transformation, we served as bond counsel on multiple CHA bond and note issuances for the rehabbing of Lathrop Elderly Apartments, Loomis Courts Apartments, and Harrison Courts Apartments in Chicago. Bond and note proceeds were combined with tax credit proceeds to aggregate the total development budget, and rental certificates were used to provide an operating subsidy to help amortize the debt. Bond proceeds were also used to purchase Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) securities.
Renovations consisted of extensive interior demolition. Site improvements also included the restoration of the exterior brick façades of the buildings. The interior unit rehabilitation included the conversion of apartment units to handicapped-accessible units.
Our firm’s responsibilities included preparing customary bond and note documentation and conducting all tax analysis.
H|PF has been an innovator in structuring and providing issuer support for the maintenance of single-family mortgage revenue bond programs. For example, partner Charles J. Holley helped create the Affordable Home Ownership Program (AHOP) for both the City of Atlanta and Fulton County, Georgia. AHOP involves the issuance of five-year tax-exempt revenue construction notes, the proceeds of which are used to finance the construction of new single-family homes at a savings of approximately $3,000 per unit in interest carry during construction. The program also involves the use of single-family mortgage bonds to provide permanent financing to the individual homebuyer. The AHOP program has been used to create mixed-income residential housing subdivisions that have been widely acclaimed. In 2006, the firm served as bond counsel in connection with the Summerhill (Atlanta) Neighborhood Bond Program, a financing plan to build up to 300 units of affordable housing using the AHOP model, Section 108 loan guarantees, tax abatements, and down payment assistance.
In connection with efforts to address the severe need for affordable housing in Downtown Miami, our firm was subsequently invited by the Miami-Dade County Housing Finance Authority and the Miami Downtown Development Authority in Florida to propose and structure an AHOP-style approach involving the issuance of tax-exempt revenue construction notes for the conversion of downtown office buildings for single-family residential condominium purposes. In addition, our firm served as counsel to one of the largest multifamily housing developers in Florida to assist with its development of a series of projects in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
H|PF served as developer’s counsel on the Fillmore Heritage Center, a $90 million mixed-use project in San Francisco. The project consisted of 100 condominiums, an upscale restaurant, a jazz library, and a jazz club that is now one of the most famous music venues in the country. There were eight financing sources in the capital stack: a construction loan from the National Electrical Workers Benefit Fund, a permanent loan, HOME Investment Partnership Program monies from the City of San Francisco, trust fund monies from the City of San Francisco, and four private equity investors. Our firm structured and closed all eight transactions.
In addition, partner Natalia N. Pearson-Farrer has extensive experience in the area of land-based infrastructure transactions, including special tax district, community development authority, and tax increment (TIF) revenue bonds. In this industry, she has represented developers and investors in connection with locating and expanding office, retail, and mixed-use projects, most of which included a residential component, often with affordable housing requirements.
Please reach out to us through the online contact page to discuss how we can assist with your public finance legal needs. Holley & Pearson-Farrer LLP is based in Chicago, with additional offices in Atlanta, New York, and Savannah, Georgia.
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