Profile
Laura Hendee Siman focuses her tax and corporate project finance practice on tax incentive programs, including the Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) incentive, the New Markets Tax Credit program, and other state and federal tax incentive programs. Laura is part of the Tampa Tax Practice, which has closed over $15 billion of Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) and/or Qualified Opportunity Zone Business investments and has closed or is in the process of structuring several billion dollars in tax credit incentivized transactions. The team has accomplished more than 750 QOZ deployments and more than 300 captive QOF formations for high-net-worth individuals and family offices. Laura’s experience includes the preparation of entity organizational documents and deal-specific agreements relating to complex financial investments and tax-advantaged structures for projects across the United States.
Concentrations
- Qualified Opportunity Zones
- Qualified Opportunity Funds
- Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses
- Tax credit incentive programs
- New Markets Tax Credit Program
- Carbon Capture & Sequestration
- Real estate development
- Operating business expansion
- Affordable housing
- Project finance
- Tax-exempt organizations
Capabilities
Experience
- Representation of two QOFs for a $1.25M investment in a QOZB joint real estate JV in Tallahassee with a project budget of $186M.
- Representation of a real estate development and investment management firm focused on the development of market rate workforce housing in the southeast US for a $60M QOF offering.
- Representation of Memphis-based leading food snacks manufacturer in a $24M NMTC transaction.
- Representation of a $15.5M QOF merger.
- Representation of a $12.6M offering to restructure and fund a QOZB development.
- Representation of a non-profit corporation unwind of a $5.94M NMTC transaction.
- Representation of a QOF in the closing of a QOZB real estate joint venture with a development budget of $85M.
- Representation of a fully integrated real estate development and investment management firm focused on the development of market rate workforce housing across the Sun Belt, for a $17.85M apartment community in Augusta, Georgia.
- Representation of a fully integrated real estate development and investment management firm focused on the development of market rate workforce housing across the Sun Belt, for a $58.1M 300-unit multifamily rental community in Panama City, Florida.
- Representation of a global data center infrastructure provider in the closing of (i) an extension of a $1M Revolving Line of Credit and (ii) a new loan in the amount of $1.1M.
- Representation of a $90M QOF formation and its deployment of capital into six “captive” Qualified Opportunity Zone Businesses in South Florida.
- Representation of Northwest Florida Community Hospital in Chipley, FL in the closing of a $9M NMTC transaction to fund the development of a new ambulatory surgical center.
- Formation and offering of a $6.4M QOF that will invest in a residential real estate development project in Austin, Texas.
- Representation of a tax credit fund’s $19.138M equity investment in a 9% $22M Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) transaction for the development and operation of four residential apartment complexes in Fort Myers, Florida.
- Representation of a vertically integrated multifamily Chicago real estate development company who has successfully developed investments in emerging and established urban neighborhoods in Chicago and Florida. This Tampa Heights Mixed Used Development Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund supports the development of a 1.79-acre site into an $89.5M eight-story 252-unit residential, 10,000-sf retail space, and 381 parking spaces project.
- Representation of a QOF in the documentation of (i) a Series A Offering of up to $5,000,000 in preferred membership interests and up to $5,000,000 in convertible debt, and (ii) a Series B Offering of up to $8,000,000 in preferred membership interests and up to $8,000,000 in convertible debt, both to fund the construction of a USL soccer stadium and to develop a USL soccer team structured as a Qualified Opportunity Zone Business.
- Representation of a vertically integrated real estate investment firm specializing in rental housing for a new $8M preferred equity offering in New Jersey, which is structured as a QOF.
- Representation of the entity responsible for the formation and development of a new USL Super League women’s soccer team that is structured as a Qualified Opportunity Zone Business.
- Representation of a fully integrated real estate development and investment management firm in its formation of a new Qualified Opportunity Zone Business that will develop a $70M residential real estate project in Hardeeville, South Carolina.
- Representation of an independent energy producer delivering clean energy infrastructure and sustainability solutions for a cross border tax issues with Canada and possible qualification for energy tax credits to support their design, development, construction, and operation of a state-of-the-art $95 million utilities services facility supporting a $500+ million recycling and purification facility in Georgia for a third-party.
- Representation of a private not-for-profit economic development organization in connection with the development of a full city block in Brooklyn owned in part by the New York City Educational Construction Fund (“ECF”). This engagement is for the formation of a $11.95M QOF and a Qualified Opportunity Zone Business to support, in the short term, the redevelopment of a commercial space leased to a non-profit community center, and, in the long term, the demolition and new construction of a residential real estate development with ground for commercial space.
- Representation of a unique lifestyle hotel company and its $2.76M investment in a Miami Design District development project, which is structured as a Qualified Opportunity Zone Business.
- Tax Consultant, Deloitte LLP, 2015
- Certified Public Accountant - Alabama
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, "Ones to Watch," Tax Law, 2024
- Member, The Society of Real Estate Professionals, 2024-Present
- Member, Tampa Bay American Inn of Court, 2021-2022
- Member, Florida Bar Association
- Member, Tax Section
- Member, Young Lawyers Section
- Member, Hillsborough County Bar Association
- Member, Tax Section
- Member, Young Lawyers Division
- Volunteer, Saving Sight and Sound, Inc., 2018-Present
- Volunteer, Big Brothers Big Sisters, School to Work Mentor, 2022-Present
Credentials
Education
- LL.M., Taxation, New York University School of Law
-
J.D., cum laude, University of Florida Levin College of Law
- Member, Journal of Technology Law & Policy
- Order of the Coif
- M.S.A., Taxation, University of Miami
- B.S.B.A., summa cum laude, University of Miami
Admissions
- Florida