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Services

Real Estate Law & Finance

Charity & Associates, P.C. provides clients with a broad range of real estate law and finance services, including matters relating to industrial and commercial real estate transactions. The firm represents national commercial banks, state, county and local governmental authorities and bond issuers, public housing authorities, for-profit developers, and nonprofit lenders and developers in such areas as commercial real estate lending, loan restructuring and workout of distressed assets, real estate development, zoning and land use, tax increment financing, tax credit financing, land acquisition and disposition, and commercial leasing.

In conjunction with the firm’s real estate law and finance practice, Charity & Associates, P.C. can provide a broad range of corporate and business law services to its clients, which services include the formation of business entities, representation in commercial disputes, business acquisition and disposition, and other corporate and business law matters.

For more information about a specific area of the firm’s real estate law and finance practice, please view the following:

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience serving as lender’s counsel to national commercial banks and for-profit and nonprofit lenders in making commercial real estate loans and issuing letters of credit. The firm’s clients are engaged in making various types of loans to provide real estate financing including construction loans, bridge loans, permanent loans, acquisition loans, predevelopment loans, asset-based loans, and mezzanine loans. Many of our clients also regularly issue letters of credit as credit enhancement and liquidity for municipal bonds and purchase tax exempt bonds and notes to provide project finance.

The firm’s attorneys represent our clients in all aspects of structuring loan facilities, drafting and negotiating loan documentation, conducting due diligence review of borrower and guarantor organizational structure, construction documentation, real property title, title insurance, survey, environmental due diligence, third party creditor documentation, and closing transactions.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience serving as lender’s counsel to national commercial banks and for-profit and nonprofit lenders in restructuring loans and working out distressed assets. When loans become distressed, the firm’s lending clients often call on the firm’s attorneys to assist in restructuring loan facilities and working with borrowers to solve issues around meeting debt service and curing events of default.

The firm’s attorneys have the expertise to draft all required documentation during a loan restructuring and workout including loan amendments and modifications, additional collateral security agreements, and forbearance agreements.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience counseling for-profit and nonprofit real estate developers, including public housing authorities, in the development of real estate projects ranging from shopping malls and transit stations, to mixed use developments containing residential housing and commercial space. The firm’s attorneys have the expertise to counsel developers from the time of identification of a potential development site to the completion of construction.

Charity & Associates, P.C. represents for-profit and nonprofit developers in all aspects of real estate development including formation of single purpose entities, zoning approval, site acquisition, obtaining equity financing, obtaining construction and permanent financing, and completing project construction.

Charity & Associates, P.C.’s zoning and land use practice entails assisting national and local developers obtain zoning and land use approvals including zoning amendments, variances, planned developments, special uses, and right of way vacations and dedications. Charity & Associates, P.C. helps developers understand the ordinances, regulations and laws governing the zoning and use of their property, and the firm assists developers in navigating the often complex processes involved in obtaining zoning and land use approvals.

Charity & Associates, P.C.’s attorneys have extensive experience interacting with the government officials that review zoning applications and project plans, and the firm’s attorneys regularly appear on behalf of clients before the of the Chicago City Council, the Zoning Board of Appeals of the City of Chicago, the Chicago Plan Commission, the Chicago City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks, and Building Standards and Committee on Transportation and Public Way, and other Chicagoland municipal governing bodies.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience representing lenders and developers in connection with developments that utilize tax increment financing.

Charity & Associates, P.C. represents lenders in bridging tax increment financing dollars. The firm’s attorneys understand the documentation required to properly secure tax increment financing bridge loans and our lending clients routinely rely on us to structure transactions in a way that best provides for repayment of loan funds that bridge tax increment financing payments.

The firm also represents developers in applying for and obtaining tax increment financing, negotiating and executing tax increment financing redevelopment agreements, and developing projects financed with tax increment financing dollars. The firm’s attorneys have a comprehensive understanding of tax increment financing ordinances and redevelopment agreements, available incremental taxes, eligible expenses, and tax increment financing payments to developers.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience representing lenders and developers in connection with developments financed with tax incentives such as federal low-income housing tax credits, federal and state historic preservation tax credits, new markets tax credits, and energy tax credits. Many of those developments also utilize funding sources such as HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) grants, Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grants, and Section 8 housing assistance payments (HAP).

The firm’s attorneys regularly represent our lending clients in bridging tax credit equity contributed by tax credit syndicators in connection with investments in affordable housing developments nationwide. We also represent developers in obtaining tax-credit investment and financing for the construction of affordable housing developments.

The firm’s attorneys counsel our clients in all aspects of structuring loan facilities, drafting and negotiating loan documentation, collecting and reviewing diligence, and closing transactions.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience counseling clients in the acquisition, disposition, and leasing of real property. The firm’s attorneys have the expertise to negotiate and close the acquisition and disposition of real property, as well as negotiating commercial lease agreements.


Municipal Law & Finance

Charity & Associates brings years of expert legal counsel to its Chicago clients. Charity & Associates, P.C. represents municipal entities, national commercial banks, and borrowers in municipal law and finance transactions. The firm counsels clients in the roles of bond counsel, co-bond counsel, underwriters’ counsel, issuer’s counsel, disclosure counsel, special counsel, borrower’s counsel, legislative counsel, and credit enhancer’s counsel. Charity & Associates, P.C. also counsels clients in project finance and has represented a number of clients in the establishment of public private partnerships.

The firm’s attorneys have participated in such transactions totaling more than $11 billion, including participating in issuances of fixed and variable rate long term bonds and short term notes, through negotiated sale and competitively bid, both tax exempt and taxable. In 2007, the Bond Buyer ranked Charity & Associates, P.C. fifth among Bond Counsels in Illinois based on maturities maturing in thirteen months or more. Charity & Associates, P.C. has a national reputation as bond and underwriters’ counsel and is listed in The Bond Buyer’s Municipal Marketplace Directory.

For more information about a specific area of the firm’s municipal law and finance practice, please view the following:

Charity & Associates, P.C. has participated in hundreds of issuances of fixed and variable rate long term bonds and short term notes, through negotiated sale and competitively bid, both tax exempt and taxable. The firm’s attorneys have experience preparing bond ordinances and indentures to develop the terms and structure of financings; TEFRA notices, advertisement for bids, notice of bond sales and bid forms and their publication; official statements, including sections describing the securities, the issuers, and the summaries of the terms of the transactional documents; bond purchase agreements, placement agreements, remarking agreements, escrow agreements, and reimbursement agreements for providers of credit enhancement for municipal bond transactions; continuing disclosure undertakings; blue sky surveys of the underwriters; bond and note forms; closing certificates and notifications of sale; investor letters; and opinions. All of the firm’s attorneys are members of the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience in project finance, having represented the Chicago Transit Authority with Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) financing of its 95th Street terminal improvement project and Your New Blue project; the City of Chicago in connection with the Retrofit One Project for the Chicago Department of Fleet and Facility Management, the privatization of the City of Chicago’s metered parking system, and the Orange Line Leveraged Lease transaction.

In addition, Charity & Associates, P.C. represented the Chicago Park District in connection with the Chicago Downtown Public Parking Garage System Concession and Lease Agreement.

Charity & Associates, P.C. is building on its green public finance practice to pursue new opportunities, as governmental agencies are receiving significant pressure to ensure that their capital projects are green, energy-efficient or have obtained LEED status. In addition, the firm represented The County of Cook, Illinois on the issuance of Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds.

Charity & Associates, P.C. has extensive experience assisting clients with post-closing compliance, including responses to Internal Revenue Service Information Requests, the examination of the bond proceeds spending records, drafting and filing tax levy abatement certificates, and event disclosure to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) through its Electronic Municipal Market Access system.

The firm’s attorneys also advise municipal entities in the creation and review of administrative procedures and in the development of loan programs and grant programs. One such example is the firm’s role in assisting the Illinois Finance Authority in the revision of its bond program handbook.