New Markets Tax Credit

Overview

“Every individual I have met at Blank Rome is impressive. They are strong in all areas. They are my first choice as counsel and will remain so.”

— Client feedback, Chambers USA

The New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) is a dynamic program, allowing for the financing of commercial and mixed-use real estate developments and operating businesses that are not viable without it. In December 2015, Congress extended the NMTC through 2019, permitting up to $3.5 billion in qualified equity investments for each of those years.

Because Blank Rome’s attorneys have been involved with the NMTC industry since its inception, we have a thorough understanding of the policies surrounding tax credits. We can effectively structure your transactions to maximize subsidy benefits and meet or exceed your business goals.

How We Can Help

  • Guide clients in creating and certifying community development entities (“CDEs”), applying for allocation of the credits from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the U.S. Treasury (“CDFI”), and structuring the transactions
  • Represent investors, leveraged lenders, CDEs, and qualified active low-income community businesses (“QALICBs”) and developers in all aspects of their investments
  • Represent nonprofit organizations who seek to expand their existing community initiatives, as well as historic tax credit developers, investors, and syndicators
  • Assist clients in leveraging the NMTC in order to maximize the application of the credit
  • Create innovative and complex structures in order to integrate the NMTC with other tax credit and subsidy programs

What Sets Us Apart

  • Members of Blank Rome’s NMTC team are frequently invited to write and speak on current tax and real estate issues at conferences such as the Novogradac Annual New Markets Tax Credit Conferences and CohnReznick’s Annual New Markets Tax Credit Summit and Conferences.
  • Several attorneys serve as adjunct professors or lecturers at the Graduate Tax Program (LL.M.) of Georgetown University Law Center, George Washington University Law School, and the Real Estate Institute at Temple University.
  • Members of Blank Rome’s tax credit team have published several books and articles on tax credits, including Joint Ventures Involving Tax-Exempt Organizations.

Experience

  • Represented a project sponsor in a $33.5 million mixed-use project in a medically-underserved low-income community in Brooklyn, New York.
  • Represented a project sponsor in a $9.8 million rehabilitation of a “green” building in New Haven, Connecticut.
  • Represented a new markets credit investor, historic tax credit investor, and CDE in a $20 million state and federal historic tax credit and NMTC financing of the historic Town Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland.
  • Represented a project sponsor in a $75 million charter school project in Crown Heights benefiting from grants from the local government and charitable organizations.
  • Represented a project sponsor in a $30 million commercial development in Wilmington, Delaware.
  • Represented an investor in the historic rehabilitation of the former American Can Company building in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a mixed-residential and commercial space.
  • Represented a project sponsor in a $13 million NMTC investment to fund the operation of an early childhood learning and development facility in Waterville, Maine.
  • Represented a project sponsor of the historic tax credit and NMTC-financed $53 million rehabilitation of the David Broderick Tower, the $86 million rehabilitation of the David Whitney Building, and the $35 million rehabilitation of the historic Griswold Lofts all in Detroit, Michigan.
  • Represented the lender, new markets credit investor, and CDE in the $26 million new markets credit financing of the Anacostia location of KIPP DC, a network of high-performing public college preparatory charter schools.

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