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Workshop: Crafting the Historic Tax Credit Deal

  • Station 3 1919 Houston Avenue Houston, TX, 77007 United States (map)

Historic tax credits are an important part of the capital stack for many Texas developers to offset the costs associated with rehabilitating historic buildings. The Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit program, enacted in 2015, is worth 25 percent of eligible rehabilitation costs for buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the federal historic tax credit allows for an additional 20 percent. 

Preservation Houston and MacRostie Historic Advisors are hosting a panel of experts in the field to walk you through the basics of these tax credit programs and how to structure historic tax credit deals. Panelists will use local case studies to highlight the process and important issues to consider when working with these financing tools.

The workshop will be held at historic Station 3, 1919 Houston Avenue, a 1903 fire station that has been repurposed as an event space.

Registration is $20 for Preservation Houston members and students, and $25 for non-members. Reserve a seat below, or click here to complete your registration.

Register now


Panelists

Anna Mod
Anna is director of MacRostie Historic Advisors’ Houston office and is actively working on historic tax credit projects statewide. She has over 20 years of experience as a historic preservation professional working with developers, nonprofit and public sector clients. She is a respected statewide leader, lecturer, author and spokesperson for historic tax incentives and mid-century modern architecture. Her projects have won awards from AIA-Houston, Preservation Houston, Preservation Texas, DOCOMOMO/US and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Bill Franks
Bill is a native Texan and longtime Houstonian with extensive experience working with property owners, city and county governments, management districts and redevelopment authorities to restore and repurpose historic buildings in Houston, Dallas and Austin. For the past decade, Bill has worked on the conversion of underutilized buildings, transforming them into economic drivers that will endure for the next 50 to 100 years. His recent Houston projects include the century-old Carter Building in Houston, transformed into the JW Marriott hotel, and the historic Houston Bar Association Building, which was restored as an AC by Marriott hotel.

Kelly Longwell
Kelly is a director in the New Orleans office of the law firm Coats Rose, where she concentrates in the areas of real estate and taxation. She maximizes tax credit benefits for real estate developers and investors in structuring real estate developments across a wide spectrum of projects including hotels, apartment complexes, office buildings, residential condominiums and retail commercial space. Her experience includes diverse structures utilized by the parties to the transaction, including Section 1031 tax-free exchanges of property, sale/leaseback transactions, tax increment financing and equity syndications. Kelly advises on federal tax incentives, including the historic rehabilitation tax credit, New Markets tax credits, the low-income housing tax credit, facade donations and real estate syndications. Her diverse client mix also includes corporate and partnership taxation and tax-exempt organizations.

Peter Noonan
Peter is a senior vice president and manages the Tax Credit Services area of Commerce Bank, a $30 billion regional Missouri bank. His specialty unit within the bank works exclusively with tax credit-related transactions. Peter has purchased more than $100 million of state tax credits over the past two years, and more than a half billion dollars’ worth since he founded the operation in 2001. His team provides forward purchase contracts that are relied upon by lenders, investors and developers. He has generated state tax credits through banking activities and has personally completed two historic renovations using state tax credits in his hometown of St. Louis. Prior to joining Commerce Bank, Peter held commercial real estate lending positions at various banks. From 1996 to 2001 he was a full-time pianist with more than $1 million in album sales. He holds an undergraduate degree from DePauw University. 

Caroline Wright
Caroline is a tax credit project reviewer with the Texas Historical Commission. She has more than 13 years of experience working with historic preservation tax credits at the state level in Texas and Georgia and has been involved in hundreds of projects ranging from very small to very large. She enjoys working with community leaders and property owners and seeing how tax credits help preserve buildings and improve communities. Caroline also has professional experience with the National Park Service, and in the nonprofit and cultural resource management fields. She holds a Master of Architecture, Bachelor of Architecture, and Certificate of Preservation Studies from Tulane University.


Parking

Free parking will be available for workshop attendees in the lot just north of Station 3, at the corner of Houston Avenue and Spring Street.


Thanks to our event sponsors

Coats Rose
Commerce Bank
MacRostie Historic Advisors
Station 3

Earlier Event: October 13
20th Century Main Street Architecture Walk
Later Event: November 10
The Town of Houston Architecture Walk