icon Blueprint for January

The Concert and the Album

By
4 min read

Between early afternoon of November 1 and early afternoon of November 2, I listened to the following at the Langham Hotel in Boston:

  • Bill Whitman of New Community Partners explained that the workforce housing crisis we are hearing about more frequently is really limited to certain urban markets, mostly located along the edges of the country, where rent cannot be supported by salary;
  • Attorney Wade Norris of Eichner Norris & Neumann, who has previously expressed concern about reaching the volume cap for affordable housing tax exempt bond financing in specific markets, increased the list of markets facing this issue as panelists suggested solutions;
  • Doug Koch of Dauby, O’Connor & Zaleski introduced us to executives from four finance companies that have each created new products to fill the gaps in financing affordable housing development;
  • Attorney John Gahan of Murtha Cullina convinced us that early planning, rather than charm, was the preferred method of winning investor cooperation at the time of conversion; and
  • Students who once attended high school in Augusta, Maine are now living in their former classrooms, which have been redeveloped into senior apartments and which won an NH&RA Timmy Award for best adaptive reuse.

The day felt very much like attending a concert of a favorite band whose thoughts you feel connected to. It was a mix of new songs, as well as old hits, but played with a new approach and enthusiasm.

Good concerts stir up your emotions and thoughts. But they are not ends in themselves. You want the thoughts and feelings to continue. And that’s the role the album plays. The live experience remains present in your mind. The album let’s you relive the evening of joy but also let’s you dig deeper and patiently ponder the thoughts that can fly by when first heard at a concert.

In this issue, you will find detailed reporting on everything mentioned above from that informative day in Boston. NH&RA’s Fall Forum was the concert. This issue is the album.

Editing a magazine is a planning-oriented job. But none of this was pre-planned. I attended NH&RA’s Fall Forum, as I attend all of our annual conference events, in search of material but also to provide support to our sponsoring organization and to network with members. I keep a notebook (black and white marble like we all used in school) of future story ideas I find at conferences but also enter news clips I find, government documents, other organization reports, websites, conversations with all of you, materials members provide us and gossip.

When I went through my notebook to choose the best collection of topics for this issue, I had no intent of exclusively selecting topics from the Fall Forum. When I finished my roster for the month, almost all of them came from the Fall Forum.

What this made me realize is the high value of the relationship between NH&RA and Tax Credit Advisor. NH&RA usually presents seven conferences per year, thoughtfully planned by Thom Amdur and his team, who avidly pursue conversations with members to know what is on your minds and can then present sessions on the information you seek. Our role is to record these performances and preserve them, adding additional research and detail that expand the live experience.

What is clear to me is that the most satisfying experience to you and to your business is to both attend the concert and then listen to the album, which means to attend the conference and then read our magazine. Together, they give you a comprehensive view of where your industry sits and is heading. The total experience is the most valuable experience.

So put on your virtual earphones, turn the page and relive the concert. And also have a successful and joyful new year.

Marty Bell, Editor