Glenn Petherick Author Archives

CohnReznick’s Housing Tax Credit Monitor

Columbia Senior Residences at Forrest Hills, a new mixed-income apartment community for persons 62 and older, rising in suburban Atlanta, Ga., reflects the flexibility of the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and the different approaches being taken under it by local public housing authorities (PHAs).

Transaction closings under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program are ramping up and many more are expected in the months ahead, according to senior officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Seattle, Wash., and many other communities across the nation, more and more local housing authorities are deciding that the best way to revitalize their aging, obsolete public housing properties is to transform them through the new federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, which also provides opportunities for private developers.

Excellent property management also enhances the value of a LIHTC development when an appraisal is done, according to appraiser Cash Gill, MAI, Vice President of Gill Group, Dexter, Mo. An appraisal might be done prior in conjunction with the sale of the entire property or the sale of the general partner or limited partner interests.

R Street Apartments, a collection of 130 apartment units in five historic low-rise buildings, is an example of a situation where an initial green retrofit project doesn’t have to be the end-all and be-all. Rather, new upgrades a few years later can reap additional utility cost savings.

Each year the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association honors the best completed real estate developments in the U.S. that have utilized federal rehabilitation tax credits by presenting the J. Timothy Anderson (“Timmy”) Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation.

Julián Castro seems to be the right pick at the right time to succeed Donovan at HUD. As we describe this month (“A New Leader at HUD,” p. 31), he has been a visionary mayor with relentless follow-through, harnessing ideas and talent from all corners of the community and crafting development incentives that are generating new housing – for all income levels – throughout the city.

The U.S. Treasury and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund announced the award of $3.501 billion in federal new markets tax credit allocation authority to 87 community development entities (CDEs) on June 5.

Fells Point Station, a new mixed-income, mixed-use real estate project in Baltimore, Md., is a story of history, firsts, and a homecoming of sorts.

Congress appears certain to make further cuts in funding for the federal HOME program and project-based rental assistance for the new fiscal year beginning October 1, based on recent action in the House and Senate on the FY 2015 appropriations bill covering the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Texas officials are preparing for the startup of the state’s new historic rehabilitation tax credit program, which industry participants suggest should be attractive to developers.