Ms. Wells focuses her practice primarily on real estate financing and affordable housing. She has extensive experience in structuring all types of real estate financing transactions for borrowers, lenders and investors, focusing on all forms of state and federal tax credits (LIHTC, NMTC, HRTC), CDBG, HOME and other federal funding programs. Following the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she worked closely with a diverse group of private and public entities to create and implement the now HUD recommended program for the use of public funds for affordable housing projects. Ms. Wells successfully closed more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in publicly funded loans for more than 100 projects in devastated areas of Louisiana.
Ms. Wells is also engaged in drafting land use restrictions and creating blueprints for new mixed-use, residential and commercial developments throughout Louisiana, including traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs). Furthermore, she focuses on negotiating loan documents, bank financing and refinancing transactions as both lender and borrower counsel.
As part of the Firm's Cruise Industry Practice, Ms. Wells works with vessel owners to obtain docking rights along the Mississippi River, negotiating leases and license rights with private and public entities, as well as providing title services. Her work with governmental entities ranges from small towns to state economic development offices, and she is familiar with many incentives available to vessel owners and operators seeking to develop riverfront docking areas along the Mississippi.