Rita M. Schwantes


617.224.0620


Education

University of Michigan Law School, JD, 1996

Northwestern University, BA, 1991


Rita M. Schwantes has focused her practice at Klein Hornig LLP on real estate, affordable housing development, New Markets Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credits.  She has represented developers, nonprofits, for-profits, co-housing groups, cooperatives, lenders, health centers and charter schools in a variety of transactions, including bond financings, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program transactions, New Markets Tax Credit transactions, Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit transactions, sales, acquisitions, new construction, rehabilitation, and mixed-finance development.  Recently, Rita has specialized in structuring and closing complex NMTC and HTC transactions.  Rita is experienced in drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, joint venture agreements, management agreements, leases, condominium documents, restrictive covenants, purchase options, rights of first refusal, loan agreements, mortgages and intercreditor agreements.

At Klein Hornig, Rita continues to draw on her experience as a senior associate with Goodwin Proctor LLP, where she spent five years practicing commercial real estate. Her practice there included acquisitions, sales, development, management, equity investments, leasing, mortgage financing, mezzanine financing and credit facilities.

Rita's dedication to affordable housing and community development has roots in her year spent as a VISTA Volunteer in Miami after Hurricane Andrew destroyed many homes and businesses and strained the community.  Her interest was strengthened by her internship in the Housing Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services, her work in the Legal Assistance for Urban Communities Clinic at Michigan Law School, and her volunteer work advising pro se tenants and landlords at Boston Housing Court through the Volunteer Lawyer project

BAR ADMISSIONS

  • Massachusetts
  • Represents Boston and Washington, DC charter schools obtaining bond financings and entering into highly structured New Markets Tax Credit and Federal and state Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits transactions
  • Represents health centers developing new buildings or redeveloping historic buildings in New England using New Markets Tax Credits and state and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
  • Represented a nonprofit lender making a leveraged loan to a MA health center building a new center using New Markets Tax Credits
  • Represented a bank making leverage loans and bridge loans to for-profit and nonprofit developers redeveloping historic buildings in Virginia using New Markets Tax Credits and state and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
  • Represented a nonprofit rehabilitating a historic building in Rhode Island using New Markets Tax Credits and state and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
  • Represented a for-profit developer of a 166-unit multifamily rehabilitation of a historic mill in Rhode Island using both 4% and 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and state and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
  • Represented a Massachusetts public housing authority in the mixed-finance redevelopment of a state-aided public housing development
  • Represented a community development corporation in the acquisition of property in the Metro Boston area from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for conversion into a mixed-use site including a church, commercial uses, affordable rental units and homeownership units
  • Represented a HOPE VI developer for an approximately 700-unit project in Louisville, KY
  • Represented two cohousing groups who developed a cohousing community in the Metro Boston area
  • Represented a for-profit developer in two HOPE VI developments in South Carolina with approximately 350 rental units and 130 homeownership units
  • Represented a nonprofit refinancing and rehabilitating an affordable housing development for the elderly using bond financing and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits
  • Represented a nonprofit client selling a downtown office building
  • Represented the nonprofit developer of a 47-unit rental development in Chatham, MA
  • Represented a bank making a loan to the local community development corporation for development of 15 affordable condominium units in the Metro Boston area
  • Represented a cooperative obtaining public financing for rehabilitation of 33 units in Boston, MA