Housing Finance
Affordable housing is at our core.
Not only is affordable housing at the core of our firm’s practice, it is also fundamental to our values and commitment to making the Pacific Northwest a better place to live for our community.
Our Practice
Pacifica’s housing finance practice is unique in that our lawyers represent only public entities in affordable housing finance. We have substantial experience with tax-exempt bonds and 4% low-income housing tax credit financing, having represented an issuer and allocator of those resources for more than 30 years. As counsel to state allocators of federal low-income housing tax credits, Pacifica lawyers have extensive experience with competitive allocation issues, compliance monitoring, defaults, and workouts.
Additionally, Pacifica lawyers are at the forefront of new developments in housing finance, and actively advance the development of new financing tools by drafting, reviewing, and testifying on state legislation impacting affordable housing.
Our work as bond counsel to the public entity issuing the bonds usually commences when a property for development is identified by a developer – such as a housing authority, nonprofit, or for-profit entity. Our role as bond counsel to the public entity is to review the transaction for compliance with state, federal tax, and federal securities laws in order to render an opinion to the bond purchasers that the bonds are validly issued and that interest on the bonds is tax-exempt. To that end, our lawyers assist the bond issuer with all steps of the transaction, from the publication of required public hearing notices, to documentation of the financing structure, through formal public approvals and closing.
Local Governments
Pacifica’s housing finance practice also includes service to local governments making loans to affordable housing developers from local funds. These subordinate loans or grants are often used to provide last dollar financing to affordable developments, and may be part of a stack of funding sources made to a project.
Representative Matters
Some recent important projects Pacifica lawyers worked on include:
- Complete redevelopment of a 108-unit historic landmark Building 9 in northeast Seattle into Mercy Housing’s Mercy Magnuson South
- The multiphase repositioning of Rockwood at Whitworth, into a 211-unit continuing care retirement community in Spokane, by Rockwood Retirement Communities
- The new construction of a 95-unit affordable senior housing project in the Rainier Valley of Seattle developed by the Filipino Community of Seattle and HumanGood Affordable Housing
- The new construction of 354 units of affordable housing in Mill Creek, Washington by Vintage Housing
