Butler Snow Advises on Approximately $200 Million Crosstown Mixed-Use Project in Memphis
Butler Snow served as special New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) and Historic Tax Credit (“HTC”) counsel to the developer, Crosstown Arts, a nonprofit organization, in connection with the redevelopment of the Crosstown Sears Building in Memphis, Tennessee (“Crosstown”). In addition, Butler Snow assisted with the structuring of certain other of the more than twenty funding sources for the project, including federal Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (“QECB’s”) issued by the Memphis Center City Revenue Finance Corporation and U.S. Housing and Urban Development grants. Once a thriving 1.5 million square foot retail store and distribution center in midtown Memphis, Crosstown has been vacant since 1993. Crosstown is one of the largest historic adaptive reuse projects in Tennessee history, and it involves the transformation of the building into a 1.1 million square foot urban center dedicated to the cultivation of health, education and the arts with restaurants, retail spaces, office and commercial spaces, a public charter school and mixed-income apartments among other things, along with the rehabilitation of a 1,150-car parking garage, all on a 19-acre site. To achieve this, Butler Snow assisted with several financing sources including: (i) approximately $55 million in NMTC loans from six different community development entities; (ii) approximately $36 million in HTC equity from Goldman Sachs; (iii) approximately $8.15 million in proceeds of QECB’s issued by the City; and (iv) approximately $6 million grant proceeds from the City under HUD’s Section 108 and Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (“BEDI”) grant programs.
See the following articles for more information about the Crosstown Memphis project financing and development:
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2015/feb/14/crosstown-crossroads/