Affordable Housing

/Overview

Our knowledge and experience of the development, financing, and regulation of affordable and public housing is unmatched. Our attorneys work closely with clients to preserve and create new affordable housing projects, and access capital markets for funding. Whether it’s securing multimillion-dollar financing for mixed-use projects or advising on a first-of-its-kind development, we have the experience, talent, and team to tackle any challenge.

In addition to our familiarity with every financing program being used in the affordable housing space, NP’s team includes former US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) attorneys who bring unparalleled experience in federally assisted housing supported by HUD and the USDA Rural Development agency. We also provide regulatory and transactional advice for clients to obtain HUD approval of and close on Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversions and other public housing repositioning transactions.

/Representative experience

• Joint venture with New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA): Representing all the developer teams joint venturing with the NYCHA in its RAD/Section 18 PACT transactions, which total over 25,000 units with twenty-two closings in the last ten years and over 10,000 units scheduled to close in the next few years. These transactions have included a 99-year lease with NYCHA, various regulatory agreements, and RAD, Section 18, Part 200, and local approvals. Financing for these transactions has included complex and innovative tax-advantaged structuring through the use of tax-exempt and taxable bonds, various types of loan structures, including conventional bank and Fannie and Freddie executions, and multiple sources of subsidy financing.
• Stonewall House, Affordable housing for LGBT Elders: Represent a client developing the 100% low-income, age-restricted project—the first of its kind in New York City.
• Eleven Parkside, Mixed-use Development: Represent developer in securing $50 million of financing for the latest addition to Parkside, the 3.1-million-square-foot transit-oriented mixed-use development in northeast Washington, DC.
• California's First RAD for PRAC Low-Income Housing Transaction: A joint venture between St. Stephens Retirement Center, Inc. and CRP Affordable Housing and Community Development, LLC to preserve the retirement center as affordable, supportive housing for seniors; first project of its kind in California and the fifth nationwide.
• Catholic Homes of the Archdiocese of New York: Served as counsel to the sponsors in the new construction of a supportive housing development that will contain 126 units, 63 of which are for victims of domestic abuse or families who suffer chronic homelessness in the Bronx. Financing included bonds from NYS HFA, supportive housing funds, LIHTC, energy (solar) credits, tax credit equity funds, and New York Energy loans.
• Affordable Housing Investment Fund: Represented an investment fund as transaction and regulatory counsel in the acquisition of 46 properties comprising roughly 12,000 affordable units. The transaction increases the value of the investment fund’s affordable housing assets under management to $6.4 billion.
• Wollaston Lutheran Church’s Bauer House: Represented a client in the closing of the nation’s first Green & Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) transaction, related to their senior residences. The complex transaction also involved a Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversion and FHA-insured Section 223(f) loan.
• Wallace Farm, LLC: Represented client in two contemporaneous transactions in connection with the sale of (i) Wallace Farm, LLC’s fee interest in a 96-unit affordable housing development, (ii) Christopher Fokas’ equity position in an adjacent 72-unit affordable housing development, and (iii) the option to purchase a fully permitted but undeveloped third development site, each located in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
• Phoenix Realty Group: Represented a real estate firm in connection with the acquisition of the Carol Gardens apartment complex. This significant Bronx property has over 314 multifamily units at 820 and 880 Thieriot Avenue, Bronx, New York. The Carol Gardens property will continue to serve as vital affordable low-income housing under New York City’s Mitchell-Lama program.
• Planning Office for Urban Affairs: Represented the client in connection with the development of 41 LaGrange Street, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The 41 LaGrange Street project was financed by both 4% and 9% Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, as well as Massachusetts State Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The project will provide 126 total units of affordable housing to the community, which will be located within one apartment building.

/Recognition

• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 National firm for Construction Law; Litigation - Construction; Litigation - Real Estate; and Real Estate Law in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms®.