Our Services
What we do
Turning Pay-as-You-Go TIF Incentives and Historical Tax Credits into Upfront Funds
We are a team of lending specialists uniquely positioned to help developers and municipalities because of our diverse backgrounds in economic development, commercial lending, and banking. We have an understanding of the issue from both sides of table. Municipalities need economic development. Developers want to build projects. We know that often times, deals don’t make it to the finish line because of the lack of equity needed to close the project funding. Monetizing incentives is an important tool that helps these deals fund gap equity.
At this point in the deal stage, you have identified your project, assessed that there are Tax Increment Financing (TIF) or Historical Tax Credit (HTC) eligible costs, and maybe started discussions with the municipality on how you can recover the additional costs to get this project complete. These discussions produce a Development Agreement which specifies certain terms to build the project.
The simplest means of reimbursing a developer for TIF eligible expenses is with a Pay-As-You-Go incentive. In the development agreement the municipality will specify how much they are willing to reimburse as well as the developer share of the tax increment payments they will get back each year. Untamed Equity supercharges this incentive by modeling these future payments and lending a lump sum amount to the developer upfront to bridge the gap equity needed to complete the project.
Our Services
Providing Services to TIF and HTC Projects
The Untamed Equity team has over 100 years of combined experience in commercial real estate lending and economic development. We have previously partnered to harness TIF loans and HTC bridge loans in cities across the United States, fueling $450 million in various projects.
Untamed Equity works with developers and municipalities to originate and service large commercial loans in TIF/HTC districts, which simplifies the financing process all around. Our expertise allows us to enhance economic development projects of all kinds by leveraging the power of TIF monetization.
Our services exist to keep projects flowing and economic growth expanding in cities across the country.
Origination
Our origination services allow developers to continue business as usual, because we handle everything from analyzing the model, creating a loan structure, collecting documentation, and closing the loan.
- Business Development
- Analysis of the model to create the structure
- Compilation of the underwriting investor package
- Collecting the documentation
- Closing the loan
Servicing
Until the loan is paid off, Untamed Equity will continue servicing the project. This includes the analysis of increment payments and maintaining our relationship by managing communication between the lending institution and the developer.
- Calculating and managing interest reserves
- Maintaining a relationship with municipalities
- Annual Reviews
- Communicating information among the investors
- Managing delinquency/default if necessary
- Generating statements for the borrower and participating institutions
- Booking the loan on the loan accounting system
- Processing the checks received by the municipalities
Renewal
As renewals happen, Untamed Equity will lead negotiations, update underwriting, facilitate investor approval, and document the renewal.
Developer Consulting Services
Untamed Equity offers consulting services to developers, using our experience and knowledge in reviewing hundreds of development agreements each year from municipalities across the country. We can:
- Optimize your incentives
- Enhance your development agreement
- Verify TIF calculations
- Identify additional incentives for your project
- Join your development team as the TIF experts
Municipality Consulting Services
Additionally, we can offer our experience to municipalities, coming alongside to share our knowledge in enhancing economic development projects in regions across the country. We can:
- Ensure your Development Agreement is lendable
- Demonstrate alternative TIF structures
- Create a repeatable program
- Educate Council members and stakeholders
- Engage as a Liaison between you and the Developer
What is TIF?
Tax increment financing helps build communities by providing economic incentives through tax-saving rebates following development. TIF has become an extremely useful tool for municipalities and developers and has supported the financing of hundreds of projects per year in nearly every state across the country.
The original intent of TIF districts was to finance urban renewal in blighted areas and make public improvements in communities. Since their inception in the 1950s, TIFs have evolved to include the promotion of economic development throughout a municipality. To encourage development, a TIF district creates a base level of assessed property value to which is assesses taxes for a given period. For the life of the TIF, growth in property value taxation above the baseline level (“the increment”) flows to the TIF fund to finance development in the district.
Put TIF & HTC Funds to Work
Fueling Economic Growth for Cities and Developers
Untamed Equity works with both developers and municipalities to harness funds for economic growth and commercial real estate development across the U.S. We review development agreements and structure the gap equity to utilize the incentives in the agreement. We deliver a funded project by partnering with institutions to hold the loans, then we service the project until the loan is paid off.
TIF Monetization Benefits for Municipalities
- Increases the value of TIF incentives
- Increases the likelihood of development being completed
- No use of the city funds is needed
- Mitigates much of the deal risk for the municipality offering the incentive
- Establishes payment expectations to ensure that increment value will be generated
- Municipality borrowing capacity at debt limits are not impacted
- Allows for more flexibility, avoids the complexities, and has lower costs than bonding and other alternatives
TIF Monetization Benefits for Developers
- Reduces upfront cash requirements
- Allows developers to invest in larger incented projects
- Creates higher return on investment
- No out-of-pocket payments
- Frees up value trapped in incented projects for use in an unrelated project
TIF Monetization Benefits for Participants
- We source the deal; less marketing and business development costs to you
- Superior lien position tied to real estate tax payments
- Fixed interest income with a 5 year reset
- Less costly loan; we handle the servicing and the maintenance
- Opportunity for CRA credit
- Opportunity for deposits pertaining to the interest reserves
- Longer term loan with TIF maturities from 15-30 years; less risk of refinancing
- Ability to diversify your portfolio
