Glenn Petherick Author Archives

Pennsylvania has made and Maryland is proposing major changes to their federal low-income housing tax credit programs this year, officials told a Washington, D.C. conference held by the National Council of Housing Market Analysts and National Housing & Rehabilitation Association.

Huntington Bank has developed quite an appetite for low-income housing tax credits. The Columbus, Ohio-based regional bank has committed to invest another $150 million in LIHTC properties in Ohio through the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH). The new pledge, expected to finance the construction or preservation of about 2,000 affordable rental housing units, follows a previous $100 million investment commitment by Huntington Bank that was completed in 2012.

The historic tax credit industry has been roiled by a sharp curtailment in closings of historic tax credit transactions and the availability of new equity commitments from major investors for new projects, as investors, tax attorneys, accountants, and others mull the tax structures of deals for possible modifications before resuming business as usual.

The mortgages were the first closed under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s pilot program, which is designed to drastically reduce the time it takes HUD to process applications for FHA insurance for new Section 223(f) mortgages for projects utilizing federal low-income housing tax credits.

The Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposes tax law changes relating to federal low-income housing, new markets, and energy tax credits. One is to make the new markets tax credit permanent.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board Emerging Issues Task Force has issued for public comment an exposure draft outlining proposed changes to accounting rules that would expand the ability of public companies to utilize the effective yield method of accounting for low-income housing tax credit investments.

The Mayo 420 Building, a new mixed-used development in downtown Tulsa, Okla., is truly a place where people can live, work, eat – and exercise. The $34.5 million project, funded in part by federal new markets tax credits, contains 67 market-rate apartments, offices, a YMCA, and a restaurant in an historic 10-story building. Wiggin Properties, LLC completed construction in 2010 and achieved full lease-up by August 2011, says company President Chuck Wiggin.

For developer Pioneer Group, Inc., a set of 38 leased historic buildings on the medical campus of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Leavenworth, Kansas is the gift that keeps on giving. The company is currently developing its third real estate project from the structures.

U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has asked the National Park Service to conduct an internal review of the 20% federal historic rehabilitation tax credit program and report its findings to him by March 1, a step that has sparked positive reactions from some program participants.

General contractors and consultants offer some simple suggestions to developers and owners thinking of retrofitting their existing affordable multifamily rental housing properties to increase energy and water efficiency and thereby reduce utility bills.

America has a sparkling new mecca for jazz performance and education: the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. Sponsored by local nonprofit SFJAZZ and funded largely by federal new markets tax credits, the new $64 million building has quickly become a major attraction for jazz musicians, aficionados, and tourists since the ribbon-cutting on Martin Luther King’s Day.

For years, affordable housing has been at a premium in the City of Fairfax, Va., a high-cost bedroom community of Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia has long seen numerous affordable apartments converted to market-rate apartments or condominiums.