Clocktower Tax Credits, LLC is sad to report that Acquisition Associate Sue Ellyn Idelson is retiring from the firm effective July 18, 2022.  Sue Ellyn joined Clocktower in 2015 and was instrumental in the firm’s growth over the last seven years.  Sue Ellyn engaged with real estate developers across the eastern US and helped dozens of them obtain financing through the sale and monetization of their Tax Credits.  She was instrumental in the financing and development of thousands of units of affordable housing throughout Massachusetts.  She also specialized in the Florida Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit, serving on the Board of Directors of the Florida Brownfields Association, while raising millions of dollars of equity to finance the environmental remediation of dozens of contaminated sites.

“Sue Ellyn put her heart and soul into her work,” said Clocktower President Jeff Jacobson, “and she developed strong relationships with so many of the parties integral to completing these complex financial structures.  She believed strongly in the projects that gained support from both the local communities and the State agencies providing subsidy to improve the built environment.  Her steady hand and can-do attitude will be missed by us here at Clocktower, as well as by those in industry.”

Sue Ellyn intends to focus on her family, travel, and pursuit of her multiple interests during retirement.  All of us here at Clocktower thank her for her many years of service, and wish her nothing but the best in this exciting time.

Clocktower Tax Credits, LLC is a national broker of State and Federal Tax Credits.  We work across the Real Estate, Renewable Energy, and Film & Digital Media industries, helping developers and producers secure financing through the sale or syndication of their projects’ tax incentives.

To schedule a meeting or site visit with a Clocktower associate, or hold an exploratory phone call or Zoom session, please call President Jeff Jacobson at (978) 823-0200, or email him at JJacobson@ClocktowerTC.com.

Clocktower Tax Credits, LLC was proud to be invited to the City of Boston’s celebration of the ongoing revitalization of Jackson Square in the city of Boston.  The celebration featured three affordable housing developers: Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), Urban Edge, and The Community Builders (TCB).

The three developers have been working hand in hand with the City of Boston for over 17 years on an initiative to redevelop more than eight acres of vacant land to increase the number of affordable rental housing units by 300 in the Jackson Square neighborhood. That number has long been surpassed and now stands at 487 with more to come as more of these projects are placed in service.  With limited parking in the City, one of the features of this location is the easy access to the Jackson Square MBTA station, giving residents easy access to Boston and its surrounds.

Clocktower is one of the funders providing tax credit equity to TCB’s project, named 250 Centre Street, that will create 76 new affordable housing units amongst the 219 units being created in total by the three developers.

If you have a project in Massachusetts, or anywhere in the country, that needs investor tax credit equity, don’t hesitate to call us.  We work with developers with prospective Low-Income Housing, Historic Rehabilitation, or other tax credit projects seeking Federal and/or State tax credit equity, and other unique state incentives such as the Pennsylvania REAP credits and the Massachusetts HDIP credits.  For inquiries, please contact Sue Ellyn Idelson at (978) 793-9574 or SIdelson@ClocktowerTC.com.

Chicago’s existing naturally occurring affordable housing stock decreased over 10% in the past decade, highlighting the need for continued tax credit-based development to provide housing to Chicago’s most vulnerable tenant populations.  The Preservation Lab, an urban planning research effort by DePaul University and Preservation Compact, researched the changing housing landscape.  They found that from 2012 to 2019, the total stock of existing affordable rental housing in Chicago dropped 10% while in the same period, overall rental housing supply increased 4%.  This shows a prioritization of market rate developments focused on larger multifamily projects in high cost of living neighborhoods in the city, targeting higher income tenants while oftentimes eliminating lower-cost housing stock on the site.

This is not the only way that non-tax credit affordable housing stock has been lost.  In many scenarios, the appreciation of property in a neighborhood as it gentrifies and subsequent rent increases prices the unit out of consideration for lower-income tenants.  In fact, the share of units with gross rent of $900 or less decreased from 40.4% in 2010 to 18.1% in 2019.  In addition, higher rates of ownership changes for the properties create a scenario in which more units become owned by newer investment groups, which seek immediate returns on their property and the higher valuation that they had to pay.  All of these factors create a current housing landscape in which market forces are driving developers away from existing, cheaper stock for lower-income tenants.  This highlights the need for the development of affordable housing through the use of the Federal LIHTC and state affordable housing tax credit programs, which create permanent supplies of housing for the most vulnerable populations in Chicago.

Clocktower is ready to help all Chicagoland clients looking to build needed units while using tax credits for preservation work or for new construction.  If there are any questions or similar projects seeking a tax credit equity source or a path for tax credit eligibility, please reach out to David Curtis at (978) 440-0742, or email him at DCurtis@ClocktowerTC.com.

The Massachusetts HDIP Tax Credit (Housing Development Incentive Program), now in its eighth year, is a desirable one-year tax credit offered to developers who build or redevelop a building into market-rate housing in one of the 26 designated Gateway Cities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts*.  The program recently made a change in the way it allocates credits amongst projects due to the demand for credits that have been outpacing the supply of the available credit authority of $10 million per year.  The HDIP program consists of three major components:

• The creation of by a municipality designated as a Massachusetts Gateway of a Housing Development (HD) Zone;
• The creation of a Tax Increment Exemption (TIE) district, inclusive of the HD zone, within a Gateway municipality;
• The approval by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) of a funding application for a specific project located within an approved HD zone and with an approved TIE agreement.

The third component, the application process, has changed from a rolling application process to a yearly scheduled competition format similar to other credit programs that DHCD oversees.

The program change was made in July 2021 and now requires the developer to submit a pre-application (assuming the HD Zone and TIE agreement are in place) on a fixed date followed by a combined preliminary/conditional certification application, also on a fixed date.  Once the developer receives an award through the HDIP competition, the developer can complete the project and can submit an application for final certification at any time once the developer has met its leasing or sale requirement.

The MA HDIP Tax Credits can be sold or transferred to a buyer who has a tax liability in Massachusetts.  Clocktower Tax Credits works with numerous investors who are looking to buy these credits that will help reduce their tax liability.

If you have a project in Massachusetts, or anywhere in the country, that needs investor tax credit equity, don’t hesitate to call us.  We work with developers with prospective HDIP, Historic Rehabilitation, or Low-Income Housing tax credit projects seeking Federal and/or State tax credit equity, and other unique state incentives such as the Pennsylvania REAP credits.  For inquiries, please contact Sue Ellyn Idelson at (978) 793-9574 or SIdelson@ClocktowerTC.com.

Lumber costs continue a volatile path upwards as the Russian invasion of Ukraine combines with inflation concerns to spread volatility in the lumber markets.  Since Russia began its invasion, American lumber futures have increased over 15% as weakened supply chains, sanctions and other trade issues raise concerns for materials availability for developers ready to proceed with projects after a period of relative stability for materials in the latter half of 2021.  With Russia being the world’s largest lumber exporter pre-invasion, the geopolitical crisis increases risk in an already expensive real estate market and the future rehabilitation of sites in need of significant capital improvements, as inflation eats into carefully balanced capital stacks and cash reserves.

The pricing shock harms affordable housing developments the hardest, as it becomes difficult to project future pricing for the building materials, acquire all of the necessary materials within a budget, and complete a project within the approved construction periods while expecting lower rents than market-rate housing.  To accommodate this, many projects will likely need additional funds and an increase in tax credit awards to provide an equity boost to offset costs.  This has made tax credits a valuable tool to offset uncertainty and continue boosting the supply of desperately needed housing stock.  Fortunately, a good number of state housing finance agencies have responded, using increased Federal allocations from COVID legislation to enhance tax credit awards.

Clocktower is ready to help developer clients with up-to-date equity pricing information on tax credit programs from a large array of diverse tax credit investors.  We have experience navigating complicated capital stacks and competitive tax credit application rounds.  If you have any questions or projects seeking a tax credit equity source, please reach out to Jeff Jacobson at (978) 823-0200, or email him at JJacobson@ClocktowerTC.com.