Recently, VJ Tocci and Maria Pelaggi, team members of the Business Development department, attended the Historic Tax Credits and Brownfields Tax Credits event sponsored by Tocci.

The host for the event, a moderated panel discussion, was the Cherrytree Group which is well-known in the Boston area for handling these types of tax credits.

The panel included:

• George Vallone, President of Hoboken Brownstone Company, provided the developer’s perspective
• Paul Connors, VP of Business Development at Strategic Environmental Services, provided the environmental consultant perspective
• Bill Alpine, Esquire, Corporate Counsel and Director of Cost Recovery at Environmental Compliance Services, Inc. (ECI), providing a legal perspective
• Joe Quarantello, Senior VP of Risk Strategies, provided a compliance regulation perspective
• Warren Kirshenbaum, President of Cherrytree Group, LLC, provided a tax credit broker perspective
• Melina Ambrosino, VP of Operations for Cherrytree Group, smoothly moderated the event.

Environmental Brownfields Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credits are complex funding tools that contain several sensitive moving parts. The credits are intended to support and incentivize developers to restore contaminated sites and buildings with historic significance. These tax credits are similar in that they are carefully structured to ensure the correct, legal, and approved systems for hazardous site cleanup and building restoration are diligently followed. Tax credits such as these offer development opportunities where there were none before due to the significant cost in cleanup and decontamination of a site. Turning these sites into viable development properties enhances the surrounding property values and the desirability of communities.

Each panelist provided a unique expert perspective on how to navigate and utilize tax credits to their maximum benefit and how each of their roles contributes to the effort. It was extremely educational and although complicated, the tax credits are productive. Instead of letting buildings and sites remain in vacant and deteriorating condition, they are properly saved and re-used to survive long into the future.

Hearing from insiders on the history of how these regulations were developed and how potential modifications are currently being discussed, provided an interesting glimpse into this important “cottage industry” for construction. Audience participants included environmental consultants, designers, developers, building and land owners, municipalities, and engineers. These are the front-end users who shared in the open discussion on the strengths and limitations of the current system and how to improve upon it. Tocci is proud to have helped participate in bringing this year’s annual event together.