Holland & Hart LLP

Holland & Hart lawyers across the Mountain West make up a regional practice with national scope and breadth in affordable housing and community development. With offices in Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Washington, D.C., we help developers and lenders to navigate the laws and regulations that apply to diverse projects and to maximize tax and financing opportunities to help their projects succeed.

Our affordable housing and community development teams bring together significant experience in real estate, finance, business, and tax to analyze and evaluate the business and tax matters related to affordable housing projects. We have experience in complex transactions that include low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, tax-exempt bond financing, FHA insured loans, HOME and CDBG funds, Section 8 contracts and renewals, and local and state housing programs.

Tax Credits
Holland & Hart lawyers advise clients during the application, syndication, and structuring processes essential to maximizing the value associated with LIHTCs and other credits available to affordable housing and community development projects. We routinely help clients identify, apply for, and utilize the following tax credits:

• LIHTCs
• Historic rehabilitation tax credits
• New market tax credits
• Renewable energy credits and grants

Finance
We frequently work with lenders and developers in connection with construction and permanent financing for new construction affordable housing communities and refinancing of existing projects. Holland & Hart has extensive experience in documenting affordable housing loans, and we commonly work with tax-exempt and taxable financing sources, including representing financial institutions in their capacity as issuers of credit enhancements for transactions.

• Bond financing
• Financing and bridge loans
• FHA insurance (HUD financing)
• Freddie Mac
• Fannie Mae
• Rural development loans
• Conventional financing
• HUD 202 capital advance loans for supportive housing for low income elderly persons
• Permanent financing (including risk-sharing programs) and the necessary mortgagor opinions
• Direct and secondary subordinate financing

Equity
Holland & Hart lawyers help clients with the legal aspects of raising and structuring equity capital in tax credit projects. We work with investors and developers to align business goals with qualified projects.

FHA Mortgage Insurance
We frequently represent borrowers seeking HUD/FHA-insured loans under various federal programs for the acquisition, development, rehabilitation, refinance, and restructuring of affordable properties. Such HUD programs include:

• 232/223(f) for the construction or substantial rehabilitation of nursing homes, intermediate care facilities and assisted living facilities.
• 221 (d)(4)/d(3) for the construction or substantial rehabilitation of multifamily rental housing projects.
• HUD 202 capital advance loans for supportive housing for low income elderly persons.
• Partial and full payment of FHA insurance claims and mortgage restructuring.
• Mark-to-market project restructuring.

HOME and CDBG
Our group works with developers and public organizations that utilize the HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, with a special emphasis on structuring transactions to maximize LIHTC in an affordable housing project.

Holland & Hart's Statement of Commitment to Diversity
We are proud of our tradition of fostering and maintaining a work environment in which the diversity of each individual is valued and celebrated. We believe that the contributions of each individual are essential to our continued growth and to our ultimate goal of providing excellent quality legal services to our clients, with greater creativity and innovation. We are committed to taking full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of our people and to promoting a greater diversity whenever and wherever possible.

Diversity Pledge
Holland & Hart is committed to promoting diversity by:

• Making every possible effort to recruit, hire, retain, and promote diverse persons at all levels of employment.
• Promoting greater sensitivity to the value of racial, ethnic and other forms of diversity, through diversity and sensitivity coaching or training for law firm members.
• Inviting to partnership diverse attorneys who meet the requisite criteria.

Diversity Initiatives
The following are additional examples of our commitment and efforts toward supporting and achieving diversity:

• We make a conscious effort to ensure that women and diverse attorneys are included as voting members of our committees of importance within the firm.
• We work closely with law school deans and placement directors in an effort to identify women and diverse law students who are interested in working at Holland & Hart.
• Holland & Hart offers medical and other benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees on the same terms as it does to spouses of employees.
• We created an Indian Law Practice Group and actively recruited Native American law students and lateral hires.
• Each year we contribute to such scholarship funds as the Colorado Native American Indian Scholarship Fund, the Sam Cary Scholarship Endowment Fund, the Colorado Asian American Bar Scholarship Fund, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Scholarship Fund, and the Colorado Women's Bar Association Scholarship Fund.
• In partnership with the University of Idaho School of Law, we sponsor a "Law by Day, Jazz by Night" each year for undergraduate minority students who have an interest in law.
• We took a leadership role in organizing and supporting the Colorado Pledge Group's Minority First Year Law Student Summer Clerk Program. Through this program, law firms agreed to add at least one diverse first year law student to their summer clerk program.
• We were involved in the creation of the Cross-Professional Business Networking Group, where diverse attorneys in our community can meet and network with non-attorney professionals of color. We view this as a way to help diverse attorneys increase their business development possibilities.

For more information regarding Holland & Hart's commitment to diversity, please contact Peter Houtsma at (303) 295-8259.