Mark Fogarty Author Archives

Community development financial institutions are small but nimble providers of housing and economic development funding for a very wide array of purposes often not filled by traditional lenders. They are often useful to help make Low Income Housing Tax Credit deals work by providing things, like LIHTC equity bridge financing and capital for general and limited partnership acquisitions.

The people at the Special Olympics of Georgia obviously expect their $5.6 million new facility, financed with the help of New Markets Tax Credits, to last. They are planning to fill a time capsule to be opened there 50 years from now.

Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been greenlighted to get back into the Low Income Housing Tax Credit market, the big agencies aren’t wasting any time. Freddie hopes to announce its first investment next month, and Fannie says it expects to re-enter the market in the first quarter of next year.

The rules have changed a little on getting historic preservation tax credits on multi-building projects. But it will still be possible to do such large-scale renovations. In fact, the new guidance should make some big deals easier to do.

State affordable housing trusts provide viable supplemental funding and potential alternatives to federal housing programs, sources that can come in handy if federal budgets are cut.

The revitalization of Downtown Toledo was one of the big aims of ProMedica’s $60 million revamp of an old steam plant there, a project which received both State and Federal Historic Tax Credits. It seems to be working, as apartments in the district now have become the hottest ticket in the city.