BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Cherrytree Group — a tax credit consulting and syndication firm based near Boston — announced a significant milestone by surpassing the $100 million mark in tax credits obtained and placed on behalf of real estate developers and investors nationally.
Since its founding in 2011, the company has specialized in the procurement of state and Federal tax credits for initiatives which generate renewable energy, create affordable housing, preserve historic structures or clean up contaminated soils and groundwater. In its most recent year, 2020, the company secured and syndicated $20,800,000 of tax credits, including $8.8 million in solar energy tax credits, $6.7 million in historic credits, $3.7 million in brownfields tax credits and $1.6 million in low-income housing tax credits.
“We are pleased to have reached this milestone during such a difficult time for citizens and businesses nationally,” said Warren Kirshenbaum, Cherrytree’s president. “The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted projects under construction, derailed financing and threatened the economic stability of completed projects.
“Developers needed every available tax incentive to help bring their projects to fruition,” Kirshenbaum said.
The Cherrytree Group assists developers in identifying tax credit-eligible projects as well as in applying for credits from Federal and state agencies. The company frequently syndicates tax credits to individuals, using an investment platform which the company developed to serve non-institutional investors — making available to individuals the same tax advantages long coveted by larger financial entities.
Highlights of the 2020 year included the closing on tax credits for 11 renewable energy projects in three U.S. states as well as for the completion of historic preservation projects in locations as varied as Harlem, New York and rural Indiana.
One of those tax credit projects, in Shelbyville, Indiana, converted a historic schoolhouse into rental apartments for low-income families. Its completion during COVID was a significant achievement and a testament to the depth of Cherrytree’s ability to support its developers, Kirshenbaum said.
Founded in 2006 by Kirshenbaum, a native of South Africa who emigrated to the U.S. as a law school student, Cherrytree has grown from one employee to a full-time staff of seven. The company recently renovated a 170-year-old former dry goods store with the assistance of historic preservation tax credits to function as its offices in Newton, Massachusetts.
