Andrew S. Potts
Partner
Nixon Peabody
apotts@nixonpeabody.com
202-585-8337

Practice Areas
Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits
Syndication
Affordable Housing

Experience
Andrew Potts’s practice centers on the use of federal and state Historic Tax Credits (HTCs) and New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) as means for financing community revitalization projects. He also brings a wealth of experience regarding combining these tax credits with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and tax-exempt bond financing, as well as with other federal funding sources. These other sources include the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs as CDBG, HOME, HOPE VI, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), and FHA mortgage insurance, and the National Park Service's Save America's Treasures program. 

Andrew’s clients include both developers/building owners and investors/syndicators. Among developers, he represents for-profit and non-profit clients. He also has represented units of state, local, and federal government in exploring the opportunities and limitations of tax credit finance. His investor/syndicator clients include several of the industry's largest participants. The projects on which he has worked represent virtually all sectors of real estate including both affordable and market rate housing, hospitality, theaters and cultural centers, social services uses, and office, retail and industrial.

He has played an energetic role in public policy issues relating to historic preservation and affordable housing. Andrew currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee of the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association's (NH&RA's) Historic Preservation Development Counsel, and as a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Tax Policy Council. He also serves as pro bono counsel to the National Trust and in that capacity was active in advising on the HTC aspects of the landmark 2008 housing bill enacted by Congress. Andrew was also among those who worked with HUD to secure a new policy facilitating the use of FHA mortgage insurance on syndicated HTC projects. He was the clerk for the “Using Historic Properties as Economic Assets” Issue Area of the Preserve America Summit convened by the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Education and training are other aspects of  Andrew’s practice. He has served as the co-chair of the National Historic Tax Credit Conference sponsored by the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers as well as several other tax credit conferences through the years. He also has given talks regarding HTC and NMTCs for the National Council of State Housing Agencies, the League of Historic American Theaters, NH&RA, the National Trust, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Preservation360 Conference, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the National Main Street Center, and others. He is the author of numerous articles on tax credit and related topics, including a forthcoming legislative history of the Historic Tax Credit to appear in the Journal of Cultural Property Law.

Andrew currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the D.C. Preservation League, where he chairs its Government Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Preservation Action, and on the Board of the League of Historic American Theaters. A native Hoosier, Andrew is on the Board of Directors of the Indiana State Society of Washington, DC., and is a member of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. 

Before joining Nixon Peabody, Andrew served as Associate General Counsel of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and before that as a lawyer for the National Equity Fund. He was formerly an associate in the Chicago office of Hopkins & Sutter. He clerked for the Honorable Randall T. Shepard, chief justice of Indiana.  He is a 1992 graduate of the Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington).

Admissions
Andrew is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
Education
Indiana University, J.D.
Indiana University, B.A.

Affiliations
Andrew is a member of the Chicago and American Bar Associations (Affordable Housing and Real Property Section).