John W. Gahan III Author Archives

Years ago, while moderating a session at the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association’s Summer Institute on Martha’s Vineyard and faced with an audience far more interested in the then ongoing TV coverage of the Summer Olympics than “Year 15” issues, I analogized my affordable housing panelists to the “Dream Team.”

The goal of a Low Income Housing Tax Credit partnership is not to negotiate and execute the world’s most perfect partnership agreement.

With regard to Opportunity Zone regulations in the midst of our nation-wide health emergency, specific language, intended to be instructive and, in my opinion, helpful, can leave lawyers in knots when the text is susceptible to being interpreted in more than one way.

In April, fueled by the realization that “the regulations have taken a little longer than anticipated” to be issued, aides to Senators Tim Scott and Cory Booker, the architects of the Opportunity Zone (OZone) legislation, hinted at a bipartisan legislative effort to extend some aspects of the program.

Gerry Golden, the venerable founder of The Golden Companies, dabbled with semi-retirement in 2018, having transitioned day-to-day operations of his affordable housing operation to his children, Gina and Greg, in 2017.

The last couple years of watching Washington has taught us that everything is fair game for subjective (call that “partisan”) interpretation.

Larry Lawyer was exhausted. He had spent all day at Insatiable Investor’s annual conference in Jackson Hole. The conference was abuzz with speculation on the newly elected president. Would there be corporate tax reform and would that kill the tax credit investment market? Yields for investors were already at historic lows.

As a developer, you know that the best time to think about what could happen with a particular LIHTC property at the end of the tax credit compliance period was when you negotiated the investment documents.

Imagine that you woke up one morning, expecting to see the person whom you married 14 years ago lying in bed beside you and instead you found a brand new spouse.

Whoever coined the phrase “no rest for the weary,” must have known someone trying to develop affordable housing, Gerry General mused as he left port for a Sunday afternoon sail. Lake Erie’s waters were a calm oasis for Gerry away from the frenetic pace of the office and Gerry had a lot on his mind.

Life was good, or it should have been, for Gerry General, the general partner of a partnership that owned Good Life Lofts, a 150 unit low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) property, located in Rising Rents, USA. But Gerry was a “glass half-empty” guy. As he tried to relax aboard his 34 foot Tartan sailboat, becalmed on the waters of Lake Erie, the future of Good Life Lofts weighed on his mind.

The formation of tax credit financial partnerships to build affordable housing can be a joyous occasion. Both general and investor limited partners are optimistic. Regrettably, years later, the exit can be mayhem.