Stephen D. Niles is a Partner in Holland & Knight's Real Estate Group, focusing on the representation of project owners, developers, investors, property managers, lenders and government agencies on multifamily housing and community development matters. Mr. Niles counsels clients with respect to the acquisition, refinancing, construction, rehabilitation and operation of multifamily housing projects. Much of his work involves properties with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) direct loans and grants, conventional loans, tax exempt bonds, project-based and tenant-based Section 8 assistance, and low income housing tax credits. He also handles a broad range of multifamily transactional and regulatory matters before HUD Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and various HUD field offices located throughout the country.
In his practice, Mr. Niles served as one of HUD's primary legal advisors on the development and implementation of HUD's Section 8 "mark-to-market" program for restructuring multifamily projects with FHA-insured loans and expiring Section 8 subsidy contracts. He also was one of the lead counsel on HUD auctions of well over $1 billion of HUD-held multifamily, single family and land development loans.
Mr. Niles has counseled developers and the Department of Defense's (DoD) financial advisors on the redevelopment and privatization of thousands of military housing units pursuant to DoD's military housing privatization initiative. He was the lead real estate lawyer on behalf of the developer for the privatization of housing units at Fort Benning (Georgia). Mr. Niles also counseled the Air Force's financial advisor on the privatization of housing units at Elmendorf AFB (Alaska), Wright Patterson AFB (Ohio), Hickam AFB (Hawaii), and several other military bases located throughout the United States.