Historic tax credit sunset spurs jump in NC renovation proposals

A building that once hummed with the whir of more than 100 people operating 10,000 spindles now lies dormant, a relic of a time when cotton was king and trains were the lifeblood of Southern commerce.

More than a century old, the 55,000-square-foot Clayton Spinning Mill closed in 1976. Its faded brick facade shows its age, but its owners believe it has some life in it yet.

They hope to turn the building and the surrounding land into a sports and retail complex with the help of the state mill rehabilitation tax credit they were awarded earlier this year, which will offset the cost of renovating the historic structure.

“You can’t do a project like this without the tax credits unless you’re walking around with $10 million in your pocket,” said Michael Hubbard, who owns the mill with fellow Clayton resident Steve Yauch.

The mill credit will expire at the end of the year for properties that haven’t been approved to receive it. With a month and a half left to apply for eligibility, dozens of developers are scrambling to get approval for rehabilitation projects like the Clayton mill, massive undertakings that often can’t be completed without the state incentive.

Tim Simmons, federal rehabilitation tax credit coordinator and senior preservation architect at the State Historic Preservation Office, said the number of applications submitted this year began to rise during the summer.

“I know that this year, mill projects are up,” he said.

The mill credit is one of three historic preservation tax credits that the state legislature chose not to renew this year. The 20 to 30% credits for residential and commercial properties will expire Jan. 1, while the 30 to 40% credit for mills will expire only for projects that haven’t received state approval before the year’s end.

Enacted in 2006, the mill credit can be used in addition to the 20 percent federal historic preservation tax credit for the rehabilitation of properties on the National Register of Historic Places. To date, the incentive has aided in the completion of 28 mill projects — more than half of them in Durham and Winston-Salem — and 43 more have been proposed in counties across the state.

But not all potential projects will be deemed eligible before the deadline. Myrick Howard, president of Preservation North Carolina, said any mills not yet listed on the National Register may not receive the credit because the listing process usually takes about a year to complete.

“These projects are going to be really hard to do without any tax credits, and there is a good chance we’re going to see mills like that being deconstructed for materials,” he said. “That’s taking an economic development opportunity and taking it apart and throwing it away.”

On Friday, the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources announced that 17 properties in the state had been added to the National Register, including the Merrimon-Wynne House in Raleigh.

The decision not to renew the historic preservation program aligns with the goals of the 2013 Republican overhaul of the state tax code, which reduced income tax rates for individuals and businesses and eliminated other tax credits. Between 2006 and 2012, mill rehabilitation projects qualified for about $128 million in credits, according to State Historic Preservation Office data. The tax credits for commercial and residential properties, available since 1998, have cost the state more than $230 million since their inception.

Economic benefits

In his 2015 budget proposal, Gov. Pat McCrory included a less expensive version of the historic preservation program that reduced tax credit percentages and capped eligible rehabilitation expenditures at $20 million. The modified program would reduce its cost to the state by $10 million to $15 million annually, according to State Historic Preservation Office data.

The House supported the less expensive program, but the Senate did not. Sen. Bob Rucho, co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, did not respond to several requests for comment.

“Tax credits are not an acceptable part of tax reform, so it hit a wall in the Senate,” Howard said.

He said he expects the legislature will consider implementing a version of the tax credit or an alternative incentive next year.

Proponents of the preservation program argue the economic benefit of rehabilitating historic mill structures far exceeds the initial cost to the state. The 28 mills rehabilitated with the help of the tax credit cost a total of $563 million to complete, and each supplies more jobs and tax revenue than it did before its renovation.

The American Tobacco Campus in Durham, a $167 million investment, stands as the largest project completed with the use of the mill credit. Capitol Broadcasting, which owns the campus, hired Durham-based Belk Architecture to transform the million-square-foot former cigarette production complex into mixed-use space home to shops, restaurants and office space.

The mill credit also allowed Belk Architecture to repurpose Durham’s Golden Belt complex, a seven-acre campus with an $8,000 tax value before its renovation. After it opened as a commercial and residential space in 2011, its tax value rose to $16 million.

The Chesterfield Building in Durham was also approved to receive the mill credit. The $100 million project, which will turn the former Liggett & Myers Co. cigarette production facility into commercial and office space, began earlier this year.

Retaining history

Eddie Belk, owner of Belk Architecture, said most mill rehabilitations aren’t possible without the help of the credit because the cost of preserving and repurposing a heritage building generally exceeds the amount of revenue the structure will generate while new tenants take root and build a customer base.

“The only way you can make a profit on these very large structures on many occasions is to invent a new enterprise and give it a new start,” he said. “The credits develop equity up front to help get the project done, and then it becomes a viable asset to the community.”

Though less extensive than many projects completed with the use of the tax credit, rehabilitation of the Clayton mill will cost $3 million to $5 million. The building’s 150 arched windows are bricked over, and restoring their original design could cost as much as $7,500 per window, Hubbard said.

Hubbard is looking to use both a 30 percent state mill credit and a 20 percent federal credit. If the project ends up costing $3 million, Hubbard estimates it could qualify for about $1 million in tax credits. While North Carolina buildings that are later added to the National Register will be able to apply for federal credits in the future, those often aren’t enough to make a project economically viable.

Renovating the Clayton mill without retaining as much of the original architecture would cost less and might not require the mill credit to complete. But Hubbard said he and and his team opted to preserve the integrity of a small-town fixture, a goal that resonates with some Clayton residents.

“When you find a new purpose for older buildings, you’re saving the history,” said Pam Baumgartner, historian at the Clayton Library and longtime resident. “Cotton was one of the first big industries here, and (the mill) really did have a big impact.”

Construction is expected to begin next year. Hubbard said he hopes the development will fill a need in Clayton, a town of nearly 18,000 whose population has increased by a third during the last decade.

“Clayton has boomed in its own right, and for the most part it’s starting to burst at the seams,” he said. “That’s why we’re looking at this project. It can be a destination for the town.”

Senate Fails to Renew Terrorism Insurance

A U.S. program that backstops insurance companies’ losses from acts of terrorism is set to end after the Senate didn’t extend it.

Efforts to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act for six years fell apart after Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who is retiring, held up the legislation. Without a renewal, the program will expire Dec. 31.

“It’s unfortunate, but his objection is going to kill TRIA,” Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said last night on the Senate floor. “I’m very sorry about that, but it’s a fact.”

The House passed an extension on Dec. 10 that would reimburse insurers after industrywide losses reach $200 million. The House measure would increase companies’ co-payments to 20 percent from 15 percent and gradually raise the threshold for government involvement.

Congress first passed the backstop after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when insurers said they were hesitant to sell coverage on New York City office buildings. Coburn’s objection stemmed from concerns over the underlying policy and a plan to set up a regulatory body to supervise insurance agents and brokers (the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act or NARAB).

Taxpayers assume most of the risk while “the insurance industry makes all the money,” Coburn said last night.

Energy Companies

The bill passed by the House includes a change to the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking regulation law to exempt agricultural and energy companies from having to post collateral for swaps that are traded directly with banks and not guaranteed at a third- party clearinghouse.

The measure also would require that the Federal Reserve include a governor with community banking experience.

Fifty-seven business organizations, including the National Association of Realtors and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., sent a letter to senators on Dec. 14 urging passage of the terrorism insurance law without other amendments. The groups said the program ensures “economic resiliency in the event of a terror attack.”

Without a reauthorization of TRIA, insurers will have the right to cancel terrorism policies after Jan. 1, Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek in the Dec. 9 issue. They are likely to do so for fear of insolvency should a massive terrorist attack take place with no government backup, according to the two academics, who wrote a paper on the law’s impact for the Wharton Risk Center.

Kunreuther and Michel-Kerjan asserted that a lapse could lead to cancellation of events such as the Super Bowl, a contention disputed by the National Football League.

“The Super Bowl will be played,” Greg Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of communications, said in a statement reported by news organizations including ABC and CNN.

The legislation is S. 2244.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) today issued the following statement expressing its disappointment in the failure to renew the prorgam:

“It is unconscionable that the U.S. Senate would adjourn without finishing their job and reauthorizing a long-term Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) when the threat of a terrorist attack against the United States is at the highest level it has been in a decade,” said David A. Sampson, PCI’s president and CEO. “TRIA plays a vital role in our national economic security. If a massive attack occurs before TRIA is reauthorized, there could be no terrorism insurance coverage or taxpayer protection. PCI is profoundly disappointed by the dysfunction in Washington and we urge the next Congress to address a long-term reauthorization of TRIA immediately when they convene in January.”

EB-5 Foreign Investors are Favoring Senior Housing

Despite recent criticism for perceived lack of supervision, the U.S. Immigrant Investor Program, or EB-5, is a popular way to boost investment in seniors housing development.

EB-5 was created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. The program grants permanent resident visas (green cards) to foreigners who invest at least $1 million ($500,000 in low-employment areas) into a new or failing company and create at least 10 new full-time jobs -- and is facing some negative press. Fortune magazine recently ran a cover story on an Indian investor who tried to make millions of fake projects through EB-5. Other EB-5 projects have yet to repay investors, like Jay Peak, a Vermont resort.

Recently, PDC Capital Group, in Costa Mesa, Calif., announced that it will invest $750 million in new senior properties through 2017. PDC's investment in 25 new SummerPlace Assisted Living & Memory Care residences includes over $250 million from EB-5 visa seekers. Groundbreaking took place at $26 million SummerPlace Lincoln, a 228-bed facility in Sacramento, Calif., that PDC says will create 135 new jobs.

PDC CEO Emilio Francisco says seniors housing creates the least risk for green card seekers because it strongly impacts jobs and communities. The average senior housing development costs $30 million, he says. EB-5 investment represents 20% to 30% of the capital stack, or $10 million per facility.

EB-5 calls for "regional centers" that coordinate foreign investment. The centers must focus on a contiguous geographic area and promote economic growth through jobs creation, improvised productivity, and increased export sales and domestic capital investment. The number of EB-5 applicants has skyrocketed. There were less than 100 approved centers in 2010; as of June, the USCIS had approved 579 new centers in total.

Omega Communities LLC, in Birmingham, Ala., has centers in Florida and Puerto Rico. COO James Taylor Jr. says the Florida center creates almost 30 new jobs per investor. Omega focuses on senior housing development and acquisition, putting together the capital stack, then bringing EB-5 investors. "It allows us to move much more quickly because the USCIS can be unpredictable in its approval times, and it's beneficial to go to a foreign country and show them a capital stack already in place to operate it for two years without additional funds," he says. "They get significantly more comfort that the project is viable and will be successful, they'll be more likely to get their investment back -- and also their green card."

Taylor says most EB-5 investors are Chinese, and are knowledgeable about the world supply-demand curve for seniors’ properties. Plus, China has its own senior housing crisis, due to its single-child mandate.

San Jose, Calif.-based NES Financial has 250 EB-5 projects with $10 billion in capital, and administers EB-5's Global Premier America Regional Center in California and projects by RockBridge Senior Living Group. Executive Vice President Reid Thomas says about 85% of NEB's EB-5 money comes from China. "There's a lot of positives about this investment vehicle -- and it doesn't cost the U.S. taxpayer a dime."

An S&P Ban Seen Having Big CMBS Impact

Word that the SEC may suspend S&P from rating commercial MBS transactions sent a shudder through the sector this week.

CMBS lenders said a ban would have a major negative impact on the single-borrower market, where S&P is the dominant rating agency. CMBS shops would likely have to turn to Moody’s or Fitch, which generally take a harder credit-quality stance on single-borrower deals. That would result in smaller loan sizes or higher interest rates, which could depress CMBS issuance by driving borrowers to other types of lenders or by rendering some acquisitions and refinancings uneconomical.

The secondary-market impact could also be significant if an SEC action voided S&P’s outstanding ratings during a suspension. That could force investors whose guidelines require a rating from a major agency to dump bonds, depressing prices.

Bloomberg reported on Monday that the SEC "is seeking to suspend" S&P from rating CMBS transactions. The news agency added that S&P was holding settlement talks in an effort to avoid the sanction.

Nomura researchers speculated that a ban could last one year. The SEC and S&P declined to comment.

The exact nature of the SEC’s investigation is unclear. In July, S&P disclosed that it was being investigated for possible violations of federal securities laws connected to its ratings and disclosures for six CMBS transactions in 2011. Bloomberg said the SEC was investigating whether S&P "bent rating criteria to win business."

Given the uncertainty about the likelihood, scope, timing and length of any SEC sanction, CMBS lenders said they were taking a wait-and-see attitude for now, continuing to quote loan terms on the expectation that S&P will rate transactions. But they acknowledged that they risk taking losses on loans being warehoused when an SEC action is announced.

Likewise, traders said the Bloomberg report had no immediate impact on prices in secondary-market trading.

S&P has almost disappeared from the conduit market because of a series of missteps since the crash and issuer complaints that its methodology doesn’t produce consistent rating patterns. But that same methodology produces relatively favorable credit-enhancement levels on single-borrower transactions, enabling lenders to write larger loans at lower rates. That has made S&P the dominant agency in that sector, with an 81% market share this year, versus 19% apiece for Moody’s and Fitch. Single-borrower transactions account for one-quarter of overall U.S. issuance.

But if S&P isn’t used, a lower percentage of a loan would qualify for an investment-grade rating. That would force a property owner to either borrow less or use mezzanine financing to make up the difference, increasing the blended coupon.

Lenders said the impact would vary widely from loan to loan, but as examples, they said that leverage ratios might decrease to 65% from 70%, and coupons might rise by 25-75 bp. Borrowers would then have to decide whether to pay the higher cost, borrow less, turn to another lender or not proceed at all.

Senior CMBS executives were glum about the prospect of a suspension. One said it would have "a major impact." Another said it would make "a material difference." A third said it would "cast a dark cloud over the CMBS market."

One veteran in the large-loan market said that profits have already been squeezed by increased lending competition this year. "We’ve been skating on thin ice as it is," he said. "If S&P goes away, it’s going to make this business extremely tough."

"Stand-alone deals will still get done," said another lender, "but it means the whole pipeline will have to get re-priced. If it

happens suddenly, there will be some people who’ll get stuck. They’ll have priced a deal a certain way, then find they have to change directions mid-stream. That’s where the pain will occur."

For the secondary market, the worst-case scenario is that S&P would be forced to withdraw its rating on outstanding bonds. Some buy-side shops have investment guidelines requiring that bonds carry a rating from S&P, Moody’s or Fitch. So if S&P’s ratings are dropped and neither of the other agencies rates the bonds, those investors could be forced to sell.

"If [S&P has] to take all their prior ratings off, that would be a problem," said one CMBS trader. But another trader noted that since the market crash, some institutional investors have dropped the requirement of having a rating from the traditional "big three." And the impact would largely be limited to post-crash single-borrower transactions.

So far, secondary-market prices haven’t been affected. This week, unrelated to the Bloomberg report, an unidentified holder sold about $55 million of single-borrower CMBS rated in most cases by S&P but not the two other major agencies. All of the bonds traded at levels that met or exceeded price talk circulated by dealers.

The SEC’s investigation is believed to stem at least partly from a controversial incident in July 2011, when S&P abruptly withdrew its ratings on a $1.5 billion CMBS transaction that had already priced and was about to settle. The unprecedented action derailed the multi-borrower transaction and caused issuers

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to lose millions, touching off a firestorm of criticism in the industry and prompting angry issuers to boycott the agency on conduit transactions.

S&P attributed the unprecedented action to the discovery of a possible inconsistency in how its analysts had been calculating the debt-service-coverage ratios for new and legacy transactions.

Commercial mortgage delinquencies returning to prerecession levels

The delinquency rates of most types of commercial and multifamily mortgages fell in the third quarter, with multifamily loan delinquency rates back at prerecession levels, according to Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) research.

The 30-day delinquency rate for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans was down 0.37 percentage points to 5.47%. The 60-day delinquency rate of commercial and multifamily loans held by life insurance companies fell 0.03 percentage points to 0.05%.

The 60-day delinquency rate for multifamily loans backed by Fannie Mae decreased to 0.09%, while the 60-day rate for Freddie Mac multifamily loans increased 0.01 percentage points to 0.03%.

The post-recession highs for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily delinquency rates occurred around 2010. In the fourth quarter of 2010, the 60-plus day delinquency rate for Fannie Mae was 0.71%, and was 0.33% in the third quarter of 2011 for Freddie Mac.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, the Fannie Mae 60-day delinquency rate was 0.08%, and the Freddie Mac rate was 0.05%.

Some delinquency rates were still above recession-era peaks. Approximately 1.28% of loans held by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and banks were delinquent 90 or more days in the third quarter. That delinquency rate peaked between 2010 and 2011 at above 4%, with the low at 0.8% around mid-2006.

CMBS 30-plus and real estate owned (REO) delinquency rates stood at just above 5% in the third quarter. The peak was in 2011 at close to 9%. Between 1997 and 2009, CMBS delinquencies were below 2%.

“Improving property fundamentals and values, as well as a strong finance market, are helping drive delinquency rates down across all investor groups,” said MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell in a press release.