Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, P.C.

Flight Club 2025 — Our Biggest Year Yet! What an incredible evening at our annual Flight Club Event during the AHF Live Conference! This year was truly special — we’re proud to share that it was record-breaking in attendance. To our clients, partners, and friends: Thank You. Your energy, collaboration, and continued trust are what make this tradition such a highlight for our team every year. Seeing so many familiar faces (and welcoming new ones!) reminds us why we love what we do. Here’s to another year of partnership, shared success, and elevating affordable housing together. We already can’t wait for next year!

Please join us in congratulating Sophia Helfand, Patrick Fraser, and Stella Oruruo on their admission to the Illinois Bar! We’re proud to celebrate this exciting milestone in their legal careers and look forward to their continued growth and contributions to our firm and clients.

We were proud to celebrate the grand opening of Lakeview Landing, a new six-story, 37-unit supportive housing apartment community in Lakeview designed for individuals with physical disabilities. Congratulations to OTR (Over The Rainbow Association), Lakeview Lutheran Church, and all of the partners who made this beautiful project possible. Special thanks to Mayor Brandon Johnson and Alderman Bennett Lawson for joining in the celebration! Our team was honored to attend the ribbon cutting and see this vision come to life.

Each year, our firm sets aside a Friday to step into the communities where our work has impact, seeing projects firsthand and connecting with the people making a difference every day. This tradition, renamed Mitty’s Mission Possible in honor of our late partner, friend, and colleague Eric “Mitty” Mittereder, reflects the camaraderie, mission-focus, and fun that he so deeply believed in. This year’s day included a special visit to the National Public Housing Museum, which officially opened in April 2025. As the only cultural institution in the U.S. solely dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of public housing residents, the museum sheds light on the struggles, resilience, and achievements of communities while framing housing as a human right. We also spent time in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, meeting with friends, clients, and community partners at United Yards, Back of the Yards Coffee Co., Araceli’s Bakery, The Chop Shop Barbería, La Selva, Friend Health, and The Plant — all places where incredible work is happening. A heartfelt thank-you to our hosts and partners who made the day so meaningful: Lisa Lee, National Public Housing Museum Aron Weisner and Scott Henry, Celadon Partners Jesse Íñiguez, Back of the Yards Coffee Co. Carolee Kokola, LEED AP, Bubbly Dynamics

Join IHC and ATT for Basis Calculation Deep Dive on 9/30! Register Below! Together with the Illinois Housing Council, we’re offering a 90-minute training on Eligible Basis in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects. This session will cover: What costs qualify for inclusion in Eligible Basis, what costs don’t qualify, and how some costs might need to be allocated between eligible and ineligible uses Strategies to maximize Eligible Basis will be discussed and IRS authority on bond issuance costs and other items will be highlighted Use of cost segregation studies to maximize pricing The impacts on eligible basis as it relates to historic projects and potential basis issues with solar as it relates to LIHTC projects Presenters: Glenn Graff, Attorney, Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen Bennett Applegate Jr., Attorney, Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen Jeff Dowd, CPA, Partner, CohnReznick LLP Sign-up for this 90-minute training session with light networking on September 30th in downtown Chicago using the link below: https://lnkd.in/gAB2N3fy  

Members of the Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen team attended the groundbreaking for the Parcel R-1 / 55 Hudson project in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood today. This innovative development includes:   Affordable rental housing Affordable homeownership condos A new branch of the Boston Public Library   The project sponsor, Asian Community Development Corporation, brought together a remarkable collaboration of stakeholders to make this complex project a reality. We were proud to represent RBC as the federal and state tax credit investor.   Kudos to the ATT deal team: Hilary Jaffe, Bernardo Rocha, Gricel Gonzalez, Jeanette Babus, Catherine LeMaster, Glenn Graff, Eric Lavin, and Kelly Williamson for their incredible work on this deal!

We were proud to sponsor this year’s National Association of State and Local Equity Funds (NASLEF) Conference in Detroit, NASLEF’s headquarter city, where housing and community development leaders came together to share ideas, celebrate progress, and look ahead to future impact. Glenn Graff, contributed his expertise on a panel discussion about Tax Credits, and our team enjoyed reconnecting with clients, friends, and industry peers at the conference and at a fun outing to a Detroit Tigers game.

Last week, our colleagues Nicole Jackson and Rebecca Hartstein had the honor of attending Chicago CRED’s 9th Annual Graduation Celebration.   As part of our firm’s ongoing strategic giving investment with Chicago CRED, an organization dedicated to ending gun violence in Chicago, we are proud to support their mission and celebrate this incredible milestone.   This year, more than 120 young men and women across Chicago CRED’s 9 sites earned their Penn Foster high school diplomas.   Congratulations to all of the graduates on this achievement!  

We had a fantastic time at this year’s Race Judicata! We were proud to be a sponsor and to have our team out on the course running and walking in support of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services. It was a beautiful night filled with community for a great cause!