Historic Tax Credit Market May Be Improving But Is Still Challenged
By Caitlin Jones
2 min read
Tax Credit Advisor, October 2010: The historic tax credit (HTC) equity market may be showing some improvement but remains challenged, according to industry sources. “What we’re seeing are the very earliest signs of an improvement in the market,” says Eric Darling, of Boston-based Carlisle Tax Credit Advisors, which advises corporate investors and finds proprietary federal historic tax credit investments for major investor Chevron. “I’ve seen maybe two or three individual [historic tax credit] deals done by banks recently, whereas for five or six months there’s been virtually none. There’s still lots of deals being done [as investors] by non-banks – paint companies and oil companies.
“But in terms of any broad-based market, like existed three of four years ago where there were at least six major investors, we haven’t seen that yet,” Darling added, speaking primarily about “stand-alone” HTC transactions rather than deals “twinning” historic with other tax credits such as new markets.
U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation continues to actively invest in stand-alone historic credit deals, and some twinned deals, said executive Marc Hirshman. The firm, a major investor, has seen it stand-alone historic deal volume drop this year, he noted, primarily because of difficulty getting conventional construction and permanent debt financing for new projects. Read More…
