Affordable Housing & Community Development

Advised a mortgage lender on the FHA-insured refinancing of a 30-unit affordable senior and disability housing development in Massachusetts owned through a joint venture with a state housing finance agency. The team reviewed restrictive covenants preserving low-income housing affordability and renewed a Section 8 HAP contract, closing the transaction on time despite limited HUD availability during a federal government shutdown.

Advised a mortgage lender on a $37.2 million HUD Section 207/223(f) refinancing of a 150-unit affordable senior housing community in Northwest Washington, D.C. The transaction was supported by a new Mark-to-Market HAP contract extending project affordability for approximately 26 years and required coordination with District of Columbia agencies, the subordination of nine commercial leases and a cell tower lease, and the resubordination of existing restricted covenants.

Represented a mortgage lender in closing a $27.4 million FHA-insured loan to preserve 164 units of affordable senior housing across three sites in Washington state. Executed under HUD's RAD for PRAC conversion program, the transaction replaced existing HUD-held financing with HUD-insured financing and a 20-year Section 8 contract, and required the subordination of three existing state and county loans alongside the simultaneous funding of a new $1 million city grant.

Charter schools often utilize tax-exempt bonds to finance the acquisition, development and construction of the school facility in which the charter school is housed. The issuer of the bonds typically requires a letter of credit serve as credit enhancement for the bonds. In a number of these transactions in the Washington, D.C. area, Miles & Stockbridge has represented the letter of credit bank. These transactions are unique because collateral for the letter of credit consists, not only of real estate, but of the per pupil payment stream paid by the governmental chartering authority to the charter school. Such representation entails drafting and negotiating construction loan and letter of credit documents and intercreditor documentation; reviewing and negotiating bond documentation; undertaking due diligence with respect to the Charter School, including confirming its status as a charter school and the payments, as well as construction-related due diligence and real property due diligence.