Articles Posted in Uncategorized

In July, several U.S. Senators introduced the Revitalizing Downtowns Act to Congress. In our previous post, we discuss how the bill is modeled after the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit, would provide a federal tax credit equal to 20 percent of “qualified conversion expenditures” with respect to a “qualified converted building.

As the pandemic continues, many office buildings may remain vacant and unused, leaving downtowns with fewer opportunities for investment and revenue generation. One potential impact of the bill would be the increased investment in affordable housing. With many cities large and small struggling to provide enough affordable housing, the act would create an opportunity to develop vacant buildings into much needed affordable housing developments.

In addition to creating jobs, the creation of affordable housing has the potential to slow down the gentrification affecting many large cities, said former U.S. Congressman Lacy Clay, now a  Senior Policy Advisor at Pillsbury.

Read more here.

Category 4 Hurricane Ida cut a destructive swath from Louisiana to New York, and Tropical Storm Nicholas bears down on the Gulf Coast. Those in the affected area should prepare for insurance recovery. As business and property owners begin to recover from the storms, they should also prepare for the aftermath of bringing these losses to their insurance companies. As they prepare to take stock of their losses, plan their response, and examine their insurance policies and their recovery options, they are going to face many questions. How are we going to pay to repair damaged property? What is the quickest way to resume our business? Can we recover any of the profits lost when our business was interrupted or our customers’ or suppliers’ businesses were interrupted? How do COVID-19 restrictions impact our losses and recovery? Are there any government funds, such as FEMA assistance, available to aid our recovery? Pillsbury colleagues Joseph D. Jean and Tamara D. Bruno provide insights to these questions in the recent alert, Hurricane Ida & Tropical Storm Nicholas: Insurance Implications.

Texas and Louisiana are stepping up efforts to assume regulatory authority for an emerging wave of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects. Despite carbon sequestration being highly touted as a key tool to mitigate climate change, few commercial CCS projects have been permitted in the United States. Texas and Louisiana are moving towards regulating geological carbon sequestration by assuming “primacy” over wells built to sequester CO2. Louisiana’s primacy application is set for EPA review, while legislation in Texas recently simplified jurisdiction over carbon sequestration wells with an eye towards assuming regulatory control in the future. In State-Level Permitting Primacy May Boost Carbon Capture and Storage, colleague’s Anne Idsal Austin, Sheila McCafferty Harvey, Robert A. James, Jorge Medina, Alex Peyton explain.

In “Uniwest And Virginia’s Anti-Indemnification Statute: The Trap For The Unwary Should Be Closed” in the pages of Virginia Lawyer, colleague Jamie Bobotek recently examined why it is time for Virginia’s General Assembly to correct the uncertainty created by its anti-indemnification statute’s ambiguous language.

In the Spring 2021 issue of AFIRE Summit Journal, Pillsbury New York-based Real Estate partner Andrew Weiner discusses the Corporate Transparency Act and disclosure requirements for non-U.S. based investors. Summit Journal is the official publication of AFIRE, the national association for international real estate investors focused on commercial property in the U.S.

Read Andy’s full take here.

Zachary T. Atkins on Tesoro Logistics Northwest Pipeline LLC v. Department of Revenue, the Oregon Tax Court, Regular Division, held that although a unit of property acquired by one centrally assessed company from another qualified as “new property” for purposes of Or. Const. Art. XI, § 11 (“Measure 50”), the unit of property’s existing maximum assessed value (“MAV”) was preserved in the hands of the new owner.  Tesoro Logistics Nw. Pipeline LLC v. Dep’t of Revenue, No. TC 5252, 2021 WL 6700471 (Or. Tax Ct., Reg. Div., Feb. 19, 2021).  As a result, the Oregon Department of Revenue was not entitled to redetermine the MAV on account of the acquisition. Continue reading on the SeeSALT blog.

Pillsbury partner Breann Robowski will present during ABA/IPT’s 2021 Advanced Property Tax Seminar on March 18. Breann will present on the topic, “Valuing the Fee Simple Interest for Tax Purposes in Situations Not Involving ‘Dark Stores.’” For more information and to register, please click here.