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<br />130312925v2 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP / Taftlaw.com / The Modern Law Firm <br />Catherine J. Courtney <br />612.977.8765 <br />CCourtney@taftlaw.com <br />2200 IDS Center, 80 South 8th Street <br />Minneapolis, MN 55402-2210 <br />Tel: 612.977.8400 | Fax: 612.977.8650 <br />taftlaw.com <br />Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer <br /> <br />December 15, 2023 <br />BY E-MAIL <br />Chris Heineman <br />City Administrator <br />City of Little Canada <br />515 Little Canada Road E <br />Little Canada, MN 55117-1633 <br />Re: Issuance of Conduit Revenue Bonds by the City of Little Canada for Multifamily <br />Affordable Housing Project known as Thompson Flats Located in West St. Paul <br />Dear Mr. Heineman: <br />This letter is provided to follow-up on discussions regarding the City of Little Canada (the “City” <br />or “Issuer”) acting as the issuer of multifamily housing development bonds (the “Bonds”) to finance the <br />acquisition and construction of a multifamily housing development for households of low and moderate <br />income, and functionally related facilities, including an underground parking garage, expected to be known <br />as Thompson Flats, located at 212 Thompson Avenue East, West St. Paul, Minnesota (the "Project"), at the <br />request of Thompson Housing Limited Partnership, a Minnesota limited partnership (the “Borrower”), with <br />Thompson Housing GP, LLC, a Minnesota limited liability company, as the general partner, which is <br />associated with Reuter Walton. Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP will act as bond counsel on the issuance of <br />such Bonds. <br />State and federal laws allow local government units to enter into arrangements to issue bonds and <br />loan the proceeds to private developers to finance or refinance affordable housing projects. This assistance <br />reduces borrowing costs for such borrowers and enables them to provide affordable housing for the <br />residents of the City more cost effectively. It is a fairly common means of obtaining necessary financing <br />for such projects. Oftentimes such projects will also take advantage of low-income housing tax credits, as <br />is the case with this project. <br />State and federal laws also permit local governmental units to issue such bonds for projects located <br />outside of such government's jurisdiction, provided certain requirements are met. The Dakota County <br />Community Development Agency (the "CDA") is a sub-allocator for projects located within Dakota <br />County. This means that, for projects located within Dakota County, applications for allocation of bonding <br />authority are typically made to the CDA instead of Minnesota Management and Budget ("MMB"). In <br />addition, local governmental units within Dakota County cannot issue bonds for these projects if the CDA <br />has allocation available. The CDA is currently not in a position to determine its allocation availability for <br />2024, and, therefore, the City of West St. Paul also cannot commit to act as issuer for this Project. Due to <br />the competitive nature and the timing of the allocation awards from MMB, the Borrower is requesting the <br />City to act as Issuer and make application to MMB for allocation of bonding authority. The CDA is