Join us in welcoming Rolan Joni Young as a partner and Chrsitine Owens Morgan as special counsel in our Real Estate Practice Group. Rolan brings her leadership in the affordable housing, economic development, community development, and community-based healthcare development and regulatory arenas. She has more than 25 years of experience in advancing significant real estate development projects in Connecticut.
Christine has extensive experience representing affordable housing developers in numerous real estate transactions, including assisting them with acquisitions and related financings. Her experience includes structuring joint ventures, addressing easement issues, and providing local counsel opinions on vital real estate development projects.
Rolan represents clients in commercial real estate, affordable housing, community and economic development, and public and municipal law matters. She assists commercial developers, lenders, public housing authorities, healthcare institutions, and for-profit and nonprofit organizations by stewarding projects through the legal complexities involved in building consensus and support for development proposals. The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven and one of the largest federally qualified Section 330 community health centers in the state of Connecticut are current clients. She has previously represented three other large federally funded housing authorities, two state-funded housing authorities, and two municipalities in Connecticut.
As a community leader, Rolan has championed social justice initiatives that have removed obstacles and created meaningful quality-of-life improvements for disadvantaged communities. Currently, Rolan serves as chair of the board of New Haven Bank and is a member of the Greater New Haven Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. She was chairperson of the board of directors of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority from 2006 to 2011, is a former chair of the board and a board member of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and previously served on the board of the New Haven Free Public Library Foundation. She served as the first woman president of the Greater New Haven NAACP and was a member of the Executive Board of the NAACP Connecticut State Conference.
Christine helps clients advance their commercial real estate and affordable housing and economic development projects. She addresses all aspects of clients’ real estate needs, including handling financing, acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, leases, easements, and local counsel opinions. She has represented lenders and borrowers in hundreds of transactions involving the financing of real estate or commercial transactions.
Christine has extensive experience representing affordable housing developers in projects involving rental units, condominium units for first-time homeowners, and mixed-use developments. She assists these developers in acquiring the development sites and financing the projects through conventional sources, governmental grants and loans, and tax credits. Financing for these projects frequently involves multiple funding sources, including conventional construction and permanent loans, governmental grants and loans, community loan funds, state and federal low-income housing tax credits, state and federal historic tax credits, tax-exempt and taxable bonds, HUD-insured loans, and Section 8 and RAD subsidies.
Actively involved in her community, Christine has served on several boards, including for the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc.; the Connecticut Bar Foundation; the former Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund, Inc.; and Christian Community Action, Inc.
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