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Hannah K.V. Cassidy

Nashville, TN Office

Hannah K. V. Cassidy is the Managing Member of Reno & Cavanaugh and is located in the firm’s Nashville, Tennessee office. Hannah’s practice focuses on real estate development, with particular emphasis on public-private partnerships and projects combining private financing with various state and federal funding sources, such as tax credits, bonds, tax-increment financing, payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) arrangements, AHP loans, federally-insured loans, and grants. She has closed hundreds of real estate development transactions combining private financing with various state and federal funding sources.

Hannah’s experience includes structuring programs to facilitate neighborhood redevelopment and affordable housing preservation. Examples of program structuring include:

  • Shared equity homeownership programs fostering long-term affordability and preservation of the public investment in affordable housing;
  • Redevelopment of an urban neighborhood by a foundation through partnership with multiple for-profit and non-profit partners;
  • A flood relief program facilitating redevelopment in the wake of Nashville’s 2010 flood utilizing CDBG Disaster Recovery funds; and
  • A pilot program for Section 8 to Homeownership administered by a non-profit partner of a participating jurisdiction.
  • Hannah has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Real Estate Law each year since 2010.

Selected Recent Transactions

  • Developed multi-tiered condominium, ground lease, and master lease structures to facilitate financing and development of a $123 million mixed use, mixed income, new construction project utilizing 4% LIHTC/bond financing and a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) arrangement in Nashville, TN.
  • Represented a nonprofit in negotiation of land disposition and development documentation with the District of Columbia and its master developer, joint venture documentation, and financing including LIHTCs, tax exempt bonds, and a local rent supplement program to facilitate the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of a portion of the St. Elizabeths Hospital campus into 252 units of affordable housing.
  • Represented a consortium of nonprofits in its application, structuring, and implementation of $30 million in competitive Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 funds to stabilize neighborhoods through acquisition, rehabilitation and redevelopment of foreclosed, abandoned and vacant properties.

Speaking Engagements

  • Panelist, Overview of Potential for Inclusionary Zoning in Tennessee, Tennessee Housing Development Agency Governor’s Housing Conference, Fall 2015
  • Speaker, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: Program Principles & Moving Parts, First American Title Insurance Company 2012 Commercial Seminar, Spring 2012
  • Speaker, Gap Financing in 2011, National Housing and Rehabilitation Association 2011 Annual Meeting, February 2011
  • Speaker, Successful Strategies for Winning NSP Round-II Funding, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, May 2009
  • Speaker, Securing Affordable Home Ownership after the Foreclosure Debacle: How and Why the Shared Equity, Urban Affairs Association, March 2009
  • Speaker, Shared Equity, Governor’s Housing Summit, December 2008

Prior Work Experience

Before becoming an attorney, Hannah worked for Howell Associates, a real estate consulting firm in Washington, DC. There, she performed market and financial feasibility studies for market rate and affordable housing developments and assisted developers with applications to provide affordable housing to the elderly through HUD’s Section 202 program.

Awards, Community and Professional Activities

  • Martindale Hubbell Peer-Review Rated AV PreeminentTM
  • Member, American Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, and Nashville Bar Association
  • Member, American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development
  • Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard University
  • John W. Wade Scholar, Bennett Douglas Bell Memorial Prize, Order of the Coif, Vanderbilt University School of Law
  • Senior Notes Editor, Vanderbilt Law Review
  • Secretary and Past President of the Board of Trustees, St. Mary Villa
  • Board Member, Dovehouse Ministries
  • Past Board Member, Exchange Club of Nashville
  • Past Board Member, Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW)
  • Past Board Member, Woodbine Community Organization

Education

Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D.

  • Senior Notes Editor, Vanderbilt Law Review

Harvard University, B.A.

Bar Admission

Tennessee Bar

Hometown

University Park, IL