Overview
Honigman’s Economic Development Incentives practice group helps organizations maximize their access to federal and state government-sponsored programs intended to attract businesses to locate or expand in particular areas. We are an interdisciplinary team that draws on experience from our highly rated Real Estate, Corporate, Environmental, Tax, and Tax Appeal practices. Our professionals have extensive experience and success in using incentive programs to minimize cost and increase capital available for development projects.
For clients pursuing a new project, location, or expansion, we help identify available programs and plan the right mix to maximize benefit. We negotiate the best-possible deal with the appropriate state and local officials and monitor the outcome to ensure the benefits are properly received.
Our attorneys focusing on economic development incentives also assist organizations in identifying and securing tax breaks or tax benefits not necessarily predicated upon a new project or investment. We can quickly determine if a business’s existing property or operations are eligible for a program that previously may have been overlooked. We can also facilitate the sale of tax credits from those unable to use them to their full advantage.
Representative programs that our Economic Development Incentives practice attorneys have used to assist clients include:
- Redevelopment incentives – brownfield tax credits; obsolete commercial property tax exemptions; state and federal historical rehabilitation tax credits; downtown development authorities financing; tax increment financing (TIF) authorities financing; local development finance authorities and brownfield authorities TIF, land assemblage, infrastructure development, and other programs; and federal and state highway programs
- Business location/investment incentives – personal property tax exemptions, new markets credits, venture capital credits, and Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) business tax credits
- Manufacturing and high-tech incentives – industrial facilities property tax abatement, smart zone TIF, start-up business credit, and alternative energy credits
- Special zones and districts – federal Empowerment Zones and Renewal Communities, Renaissance Zones, tool and die Recovery Zones, Foreign Trade Zones, and Port Authorities
- Housing-related tax incentives – Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, Neighborhood Enterprise Zones, and federal mortgage guarantees
- Pollution-control incentives – pollution-control facilities property and sales tax exemptions, Small Business Pollution Prevention Loans, scrap-tire cleanup grants, and brownfield TIF
- Employment-related incentives – federal welfare-to-work and Work Opportunity Tax Credits, job training grants, New Employment Credit, and youth apprenticeship tax credit
- Other grants – Community Development Block Grants, site improvement grants, and freight infrastructure grants
- Below-market rate financing – Small Business Administration loans, tax-exempt industrial development revenue bonds, broadband authority loans, and state housing development authorities loans