To: Contra Costa County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners
From: Joseph Villarreal, Executive Director
Date: September 12, 2023
Report Title: APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OR HIS DESIGNEE, TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH GOLDFARB & LIPMAN, LLP FOR REAL ESTATE LEGAL SERVICES ON AN AS-NEEDED BASIS FOR HACCC DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Executive Director of the Housing Authority, or designee, to execute a contract with Goldfarb & Lipman, LLP, in an amount not to exceed $500,000 to provide, as needed, real estate legal services surrounding HACCC development activity (which includes disposition activities), through October 27, 2027.
BACKGROUND:
HACCC is the limited partner in the DeAnza Gardens, L.P., a California limited partnership that is the owner of record for DeAnza Gardens Apartments in Bay Point, CA. Goldfarb & Lipman has provided invaluable service and advice to HACCC, specifically with regards to DeAnza Gardens and the original tax credit syndication of the property in 2003 and the substitution of HACCC as the limited partner in 2001.
Currently, HACCC is seeking to dissolve the limited partnership and refinance the loans on DeAnza Gardens Apartments which come with a balloon payment of approximately $6.5 million due on October 1, 2023. These two transactions are complex and involve legal documents that must be created and submitted to the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee and the Secretary of State. In addition, there is a need for legal services to review and amend, as needed, loan documents from the new lender to protect the interests of HACCC and the new ownership entity of DeAnza Gardens Apartments.
Moreover, HACCC is continuing to work towards the conversion of its entire public housing portfolio to project-based Section 8 rental assistance in the coming years and real estate legal services needed for these transactions will be sporadic but necessary to ensure compliance with HUD regulations and state and local laws. Having this contract in place will facilitate the use of legal services as needed when the time comes.
Goldfarb & Lipman LLP is a leading California law firm in the fields of real estate, municipal law, affordable housing, and economic development. Their practice is focused on all aspects of real estate law including housing and economic development, real estate syndications, public finance, land use, fair housing, cooperatives, condominium and other subdivisions, leasing, financing, environmental law, related areas of tax, corporate and employment law, and litigation. Goldfarb & Lipman combines the expertise of a small boutique firm with a wide array of services often only available from larger firms. Since the founding of Goldfarb & Lipman in 1971, they have developed an extensive practice focused on providing superior legal representation to both public entities and private developers. This diverse combination of clients includes cities, counties, public housing authorities and other public agencies, as well as private developers, with expertise representing nonprofit developers. Their broad public and private client base results in having attorneys with an unmatched ability to understand complex real estate development from multiple perspectives.
In soliciting this contract HACCC has made use of its ability to utilize interagency purchasing agreements. HUD requires housing authorities to competitively solicit goods and services. However, instead of conducting the entire procurement process in-house, HUD permits, and even encourages, housing authorities to procure goods and services via cooperative and interagency agreements. Such agreements can greatly simplify and expedite the procurement process since the housing authority does not have to develop specifications, solicit vendors for bids or evaluate those vendors that submit bids for every procurement. Also, cooperative agreements can offer substantial pricing discounts to housing authorities because vendors can price their products and services more aggressively when they know their customer base is significantly larger than just one agency. HACCC’s responsibility when using a cooperative agreement involves confirming that the original procurement was executed according to HUD requirements.
Regarding the original procurement, the Oakland Housing Authority issued RFP #22-004 in accordance with the Oakland Housing Authority’s Procurement Policy on February 24, 2022. A total of 632 vendors received notification of issuance of the RFP through the agency’s bidding systems, Economic Engine and Infolane. The RFP was also publicly posted on the Oakland Housing Authority’s website on February 24, 2022, and in the local newspapers on March 2, 2022, March 4, 2022, March 9, 2022, and March 11, 2022. Four firms responded by the deadline of April 7, 2022, for General Counsel Legal Services. All four responsive proposals were evaluated by the Evaluation Committee on August 23, 2022. A panel comprised of three individuals convened on August 23, 2022, to evaluate and rate each of the proposals.
All panelist scores were averaged, resulting in one final score for each company. The Evaluation Committee recommended awarding a contract to two firms: Goldfarb & Lipman LLP and Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson PC. Goldfarb & Lipman for OHA’s primary general counsel, human resources, law enforcement, real estate development and environmental legal services and Meyers Nave as a secondary general counsel firm for projects that may come up that may require their expertise. However, HACCC is only proposing to contract with Goldfarb and Lipman, LLP for its real estate legal services related to development activities.
HACCC anticipates that the total cost of the contract will be $500,000 through October 27, 2027. At that time, if the contract with Oakland Housing Authority is renewed, then we will return to this Board to extend our contract with Goldfarb & Lipman for an additional period.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Housing Authority’s (HACCC) total cost for this service will not exceed $500,000. Funding for this contract is included in HACCC's current budget using funds provided by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Should the Board of Commissioners elect not to award the contract to Goldfarb & Lipman, HACCC will be required to go out to bid for real estate legal services. This process would be lengthier and likely more expensive than procuring via this interagency purchasing agreement process.
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I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. |
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ATTESTED: |
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Joseph Villarreal, Executive Director |
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By: |