While many firms have experience in affordable housing, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A., can truly say our attorneys have the multidisciplinary approach that results in one of the most comprehensive multifamily housing and community development practices in the country. Our attorneys’ expertise extends to affordable housing, public finance, banking, construction, real estate, administrative law and litigation, community development, historic districts and a number of other entities that require a multifaceted hands-on approach to affordable housing and community development.
Our lawyers represent clients involved in virtually every aspect of the housing process – developers, national and local nonprofit entities, lenders, mortgage and investment bankers, public housing agencies, managers, contractors, underwriters, mortgage insurance companies and REIT.
Our clients include:
- Developers of government-financed and assisted multifamily housing projects
- Local housing authorities
- State housing finance agencies
- Management agents
- Financiers and equity syndicators of these projects
- Other public bodies
Members of our affordable housing group counsel clients in the following areas:
- Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), see below for more information
- Affordable housing bond issuances
- Affordable seniors housing/202 prepayments
- Compliance with antidiscrimination laws
- Legislative representation
- Construction issues
- Defaults, foreclosures, and property disposition
- Historic Tax Credits
- Housing litigation and enforcement
- HUD regulatory compliance
- HUD-insured multifamily finance
- Mortgage restructuring
- New Markets Tax Credits
- Prepayment and preservations/Section 236 decoupling
- Public housing privatization
- Rural Housing Service programs
- Section 8 contract expiration, renewal, and opt-out
- State law issues
Low-Income Housing Tax Credits
In the years since we worked on the very first Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) investment to close in Minnesota in 1987, we have represented developer clients in the direct financing billions in LIHTC project construction, consisting of approximately 400 projects. During that time, we have applied our knowledge and capabilities to become extremely proficient in LIHTC deal structure and finance to the benefit of our clients.
We also know how to fix broken deals. As an example, we helped a client acquire the managing interest in a portfolio of approximately 75 LIHTC properties. Over the next year and a half, we helped individually refinance and obtain new LIHTC equity on the 55 most troubled properties. During that process, we cleared up and solved significant varieties of LIHTC compliance and documentation issues, and in the end, our work preserved a vast amount of LIHTC investor equity already in place and exceeded the client’s estimates of the LIHTC available in the portfolio.
When it comes to affordable housing and community development projects, Winthrop & Weinstine is the firm of choice for many clients because of the attorneys who take a hands-on approach for creating the best solutions and value for the multiple players it takes to get the deals done.