Affordable Housing Finance

COMING EVENTS

New Topics Planned for AHF Live ’08

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • September 2008

BY DANA ENFINGER

Find out what the future holds for affordable housing amid a grim economic climate and the promise of a new administration at this year’s AHF Live: The Tax Credit Developers’ Summit. This is a great opportunity to learn from the best in the industry and make valuable connections. This year’s event features some brand-new sessions.

The opening plenary session will feature Eugene Robinson, the popular syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and MSNBC contributor. With more than 25 years of reporting experience and an ear to the political ground in Washington, D.C., he appears frequently on MSNBC on shows such as “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” Robinson’s columns run in 145 newspapers across the country.

Let’s talk about sandwiches. No, we’re not talking lunch. We’re talking about a brand-new session, “Utilizing Historic Tax Credits.” You will learn about the sandwich lease structure that is often required to get tax credit deals done. There’s even more to learn during this session, including how affordable housing developers can be more creative in their approach to doing tax credit deals—particularly useful information as credit pricing is down significantly.

Do you need to get those affordable housing muscles in shape? Don’t miss our “Tax Credit and Tax-Exempt Bond Boot Camp.” The basics of the low-income housing tax credit and tax-exempt bond financing will be covered in this workshop. How can you improve your chances of getting tax credits? What are the pros and cons of using bonds? What is a private-activity bond cap anyway? Find all this out and more from our panel members, and you’ll be in better shape to tackle those deals.

Another new workshop, “Establishing Upfront Feasibility,” will show you how to put first-mortgage debt and equity capital together to establish initial feasibility.

The practical workshop, “Choosing the Best Debt Financing Strategy in an Unpredictable Market,” will help participants weigh the best financing plan for their deals and will delve into various ways of managing risk.

The event will conclude with AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards Luncheon. The winners of AFFORDABLEHOUSING FINANCE’s Readers’ Choice Awards for the Nation’s Best Affordable Developments will be honored. Five individuals also will be inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame: U.S. Rep. Barney Frank; former HUD Secretary Carla Hills; Conrad Egan, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference; Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies; and the late Carla Fox, founder of the Settlement Housing Fund.

The fifth annual conference will be held Nov. 5-7 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 finance agency representatives and nonprofit organizations focused on the business of affordable housing. The early-bird registration fee for those who sign up before Sept. 15 is $549. Regular registration is $649. Save $25 off each registration if three or more people from the same firm attend the event. Nonprofits and government agencies receive a $149 discount per registration. Visit www.ahflive.com for more information.