COMING EVENTS

Wax Affordable

BY DANA ENFINGER

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • SEPTEMBER 2007

More than 80 affordable housing experts will bring their extensive expertise and knowledge to the table at AHF Live: The 2007 Tax Credit Developers’ Summit, to be held Oct. 24-26 in Chicago. The pros are looking forward to educating developers and housing officials and have a few questions of their own.

“I want to know how state agencies are responding to expiring tax credit deals,” said Laura Burns, president of Eagle Point Enterprises. “What are they seeing in the way of preserving tax credit projects? What are the tools available to do that? We need to get out in front of this.”

Burns will be a speaker at two of AHF Live’s panels: “Nuts and Bolts of Acquisition Rehab” and “Negotiating the HUD Maze: Program and Policy Update.”

Burns said that her firm also is interested in acquiring general partner interests in mid-term tax credit deals. She wants to discuss the best strategies for preserving existing housing.

This year’s event will be a new experience for Joseph Wesolowski, senior vice president, structured finance, for Enterprise Community Investment, Inc.

Wesolowski said he wants to learn more about incorporating green development into affordable housing design and policy. A new panel, “Green Building Made Easier,” should answer many questions and generate much discussion. The speakers scheduled to talk about arguably the hottest topic in the industry are: Paul Purcell, of Beacon Development Group; Jeff Lesk, of Nixon Peabody, LLP; Steven Winter, of Steven Winter Associates, Inc.; and Dana Bourland of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.

Wesolowski is one of the panelists in the session, “New Markets Tax Credits for Housing and Mixed Use.” Expected to join him are: James D. Howard Jr., of TransCapital Solutions, LLC, and Norris Lozano, of Portland Family of Funds.

“New Market Tax Credits (NMTCs) are a lot more flexible than low-income housing tax credits,” said Wesolowski. “Enterprise has been using it to create workforce housing. We are really interested in keeping workforce housing permanently affordable. I’m excited to share the information we’ve collected.”

Enterprise has received an allocation of NMTCs in every round they’ve been offered, said Wesolowski.

At press time, Enterprise was working on a workforce for-sale housing deal in Washington, D.C., using NMTCs, said Wesolowski. To his knowledge, only one other similar project using the credits has been done (see AHF March 2007).

AHF Live also is new for Mark Shelburne, counsel and policy coordinator for the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.

“I’m most looking forward to interacting with other developers from around the country,” said Shelburne. “Housing administrators need their feedback. I want them also to understand where we are coming from.”

At this year’s conference, Shelburne will discuss how developers can prepare winning applications. Expected to join him in the discussion are: J. David Heller, of The NRP Group; Catherine Racer, of Massachusetts Department of Housing & Community Development; Holly Glauser- Abel, of Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency; Jeanne L. Peterson, of Reznick Group; and Jim Sari, of The Landmark Group.

“The most universal mistake developers make on applications is that they don’t do what they say they are going to do,” said Shelburne. “If developers weren’t able to do something in a previous year, a housing agency is going to be dubious that they’re able to do it in the future.”

The fourth annual conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. Attendance is reserved exclusively for people who are primarily owners and developers of affordable housing, plus state and local housing agency representatives and nonprofit organizations focused on the business of affordable housing.