Tax Credit Advisor Article Archives

Jonathan Rose Companies, headquartered in New York, describes itself as a “green” real estate policy, urban planning, development, project management and investment firm.

Sunlight warms the water at the Ohav Shalom Seniors Apartments. A new solar heating system has cut its cost to heat domestic hot water at this high rise by two-thirds.

Improved profitability, reduced operating costs, increased building value, and high investment returns. That’s what every developer wants, and that’s what will be possible in New York state thanks to governor Andrew Cuomo, through the recently initiated $5 billion Clean Energy Fund (CEF).

“Conservation only really works when it doesn’t affect or impact the end-user’s way of life.”

The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) was established as part of HERA 2008, and provides communities with funds to build, preserve and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for extremely low-income households. Program funds have now been released to the states.

A 2012 Deutsche Bank study titled “Recognizing the Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Multifamily Underwriting” analyzed 230 buildings encompassing over 21,000 units of affordable housing where energy efficiency retrofits were performed to understand how predicted energy savings stacked up to actual energy savings. The results: only about 61% of predicted savings were realized.

Everyone in America knows that student debt is out of control. Seventy percent of the Class of 2015 will graduate with debt averaging $35,000 apiece, adding to the $1.2 trillion in student loans outstanding, a debt class bigger than car loans, bigger than credit card debt.

The Woodlawn, a four-story, 18 unit, mixed use building in Portland Oregon, demonstrates how technological and design innovation fuel energy savings, which in turn bring tax credits and lower financial costs – and keep pushing communities into new, cost-saving terrain.

The challenge of providing affordable housing is often one of providing options to those that live in high cost metropolitan areas.

Welcome to our annual Green issue, one of our favorite issues each year. Why?

This month’s TCA explores an area of transaction opportunity that I am particularly passionate about. Energy efficiency and sustainability is a rare area where mission, policy, and business opportunity should align, yet there continue to be misconceptions, split incentives and other barriers that sometimes make it difficult to achieve utility efficient outcomes in the real world.

The treatment of military veterans has been an emotionally fraught and politically loaded topic since the beginning of the nation. It took until 1818 – 35 years after the British surrender – for Revolutionary War veterans to receive a pension.