No matter what side of a real estate transaction you sit, the impact of US Government intervention in our business seems overwhelming. In some cases, we welcome the help as taxpayer funded liquidity programs has certainly helped to support our fragile economy. Unemployment benefits and PPP loans have enabled many borrowers and tenants to stay current. On the other hand, federal and local governments have imposed eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, and those restrictions have been renewed and remain in full force in a majority of states. Our panel of landlords, lawyers, lenders, and investors will debate their perspectives on the right direction for our country and the economy.
Sunstone is a fully integrated real estate operator, developer and fund sponsor in business since 2012. After 30 years in the commercial real estate business, the founders of Sunstone chose workforce multifamily housing as a sector because of its solid performance throughout varying economic cycles. Sunstone performs its own architectural design work, construction, asset management and fund management to achieve maximum efficiency, cost containment and investor returns. Its acquisition team sources transactions with proprietary software and a network of local brokers. Capital markets works with investors and lenders to optimize Sunstone's access to debt and equity. Risk is managed through a comprehensive due diligence and underwriting process with investment committee oversight. Hands-on portfolio management is effected from acquisition through disposition. Sunstone's markets include Texas, Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada.
Engineered TaxServices, Inc. (ETS) is a licensed engineering firm that focuses on federal, state, and local tax benefits. Engineered Tax Services was founded by CEO, Julio Gonzalez, to bring specialty tax engineering services to mainstream America. There are several federal tax incentives in which the IRS requires professional engineers and scientists to determine the tax benefits in the areas of real estate and manufacturing. Specific to real estate is the ability to depreciate real estate investments by components vs. the traditional expensing of real estate over a 39 or 27.5-year period. A forensic engineering study of a real estate property, in which the building is depreciated component by component, allows investors to expense up to 50% (and in some cases, more because of 100% bonus depreciation) of the purchase of their building up front.Decades ago, cost segregation was only available to real estate investors who worked with the Big 4 accounting firms who had dedicated engineering staffs. Mr. Gonzalez’s goal was to be a resource to the CPA community so that these services could be available to all real estate investors, big or small. Cost segregation continues to be one of the largest tax incentives for wealth preservation. There are very few investments that the United States Federal government allows investors to expense dollar for dollar. Real estate is the one investment from which you can deduct 100% of the purchase price against taxable income. Inherently, this allows for a 50% return on investment at a 50% federal and state tax bracket. Cost segregation allows the investor the ability to mitigate tax liabilities and preserve wealth by accelerating these deductions much quicker. Engineered Tax Services also uses its engineering, scientific and tax team to provide one of the most important federal and state tax credits available to United States businesses in the form of research and development tax credits (R&D). R&D Tax Credits are meant to incentivize manufacturing, innovation and technical design in the United States. These credits are essential to keep labor and promote job creation in the United States. Qualifying activities include developing new or improved products or manufacturing processes, tool and die development, technical design in the construction industry, software development, fracking and drilling technique development, and developing new or improved drugs or formulas, just to name a few. The R&D Tax Credit is a very important federal incentive meant to ensure that US companies remain competitive globally.
Allagash Partners offers institutional and HNW investors strategies focused on the wealth of opportunities within the US residential real estate market, stemming primarily from the longstanding, massive shortage in affordable working-class rental properties. These investments are currently being offered as both multi-property private equity real estate funds and as single property investments for compelling opportunities that do not fit within any current Fund’s mandate. The strategies are designed to be scalable and to consistently provide 15%+ net returns while also preserving investor’s capital. Allagash, through its subsidiary Allagash Opportunity Zone Partners which is in process of registering both with the SEC as an RIA and with the CDFI Fund at the Department of Treasury as a Community Development Entity, began active investment activities in 2019 with the Allagash Opportunity Zone CRE Fund I. The firm is now launching the Allagash Multifamily Opportunity Fund I, which seeks to opportunistically purchase, intelligently renovate, efficiently manage, and strategically sell underperforming working-class rental housing properties throughout the US. Allagash was founded by Tony Barkan who serves as Managing Principal and CEO and chairs the investment and operations committees. Allagash’s senior partners bring over 100 years of commercial real estate experience with particular expertise in working-class multifamily housing especially in secondary US markets, which Allagash believes can provide investment opportunities with outsized returns and moderate risk. Additionally, Allagash believes that projects which actively seek to provide a positive social impact should generate higher returns while presenting lower risk. As a result, Allagash seeks to work closely with communities into which it invests in order to understand their community development goals and methodologies for improving stability and resiliency.
Time Equities (“TEI”) has been in the real estate investment, development, investor management, and asset & property management business for more than 50 years. TEI currently holds over 300+ properties in its own diversified portfolio totaling approximately 33 million square feet of residential, industrial, office and retail property currently valued over $5 Billion. With properties in 35 US states, 5 Canadian provinces, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, the TEI portfolio benefits from a diversity of property types, sizes and markets.