Google Investing in LIHTC Fund Set Up By U.S. Bank

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Tax Credit Advisor, October 2010: A subsidiary of U.S. Bank has arranged and will manage a proprietary $86 million low-income housing tax credit fund for search engine giant Google.

The new fund, managed by U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC), will help to finance the development of LIHTC projects containing 480 affordable rental units located in seven communities in the West and Midwest. The developments are located in Waukegan, Ill.; Apple Valley, Minn.; Des Moines, Ia.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; and Fontana, Palm Springs, and Salinas, Calif.

The new fund represents an additional stage of investment in LIHTCs by Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, a relative new investor in the market. Google has made direct investments in two other LIHTC projects in California within the past year through Union Bank, one in the San Francisco Bay Area community of Sunnyvale and the second in Los Angeles County in Inglewood. (For background, see Tax Credit Advisor, June 2010, p. 6.)

Google’s investment in LIHTCs represents a broadening of the investor base for housing credits beyond the core of financial services companies – primarily banks with Community Reinvestment Act obligations. Read More…