Nathan F. Ware

Partner

Cleveland
T +1.216.861.7427
F +1.216.696.0740

"Nathan Ware's areas of expertise include tax structuring, planning and project finance matters. He co-leads the firm's tax credit finance and economic development incentives team."

— Chambers USA 2021

Overview

Nathan Ware is a member of the firm’s Business and Tax Groups, and serves as co-leader of the firm’s Tax Credit Finance and Economic Development Incentives team. He focuses his practice on tax planning and structuring tax-advantaged investments in the context of development and project finance transactions.

He has significant knowledge of many of the federal general business credits (e.g., the investment credit including the rehabilitation credit, the New markets tax credit and the Low-income housing credit) and analogous state tax credit programs. He also has experience with conservation easements and opportunity zones. Notably, he has experience with various other state and local development tools including Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, tax-increment financing and tax abatements.

Nathan presents and writes regularly on a variety of tax credit issues. He is also a member of the Novogradac New Markets Tax Credit working group, the Historic Tax Credit Coalition and the Novogradac Opportunity Zone working group.

Select Experience

  • Dayton Arcade: Represented consortium of developers in connection with nearly $100 million financing for the redevelopment of a complex of historic buildings located in Dayton, Ohio and commonly known as the "Dayton Arcade." The project's complex capital stack included: state and federal NMTC financing, state and federal HTC financing, LIHTC financing, PACE financing, tax-increment financing, a structured lease and New Community Authority bond financing.
  • Mississippi Silicon: Served as counsel to a joint venture between RIMA S/A, a large Brazilian company, and a U.S. private equity firm in connection with a $42 million federal and $10 million Mississippi state new markets tax credit financing to develop a $200 million silicon metal production facility in Mississippi. The project also received senior financing from a German financial institution that was guaranteed by the German government. In addition, the state of Mississippi and the local government provided various grants and incentives for the project.
More »

Experience

  • Dayton Arcade: Represented consortium of developers in connection with nearly $100 million financing for the redevelopment of a complex of historic buildings located in Dayton, Ohio and commonly known as the "Dayton Arcade." The project's complex capital stack included: state and federal NMTC financing, state and federal HTC financing, LIHTC financing, PACE financing, tax-increment financing, a structured lease and New Community Authority bond financing.
  • Mississippi Silicon: Served as counsel to a joint venture between RIMA S/A, a large Brazilian company, and a U.S. private equity firm in connection with a $42 million federal and $10 million Mississippi state new markets tax credit financing to develop a $200 million silicon metal production facility in Mississippi. The project also received senior financing from a German financial institution that was guaranteed by the German government. In addition, the state of Mississippi and the local government provided various grants and incentives for the project.
  • TriState Capital Bank: Represented bank in connection with development of a comprehensive tax credit investment platform. Our scope of work included tax analysis related to use of the credit, risk assessment related to credit investments, development of preferred credit investment structure and establishment of internal procedures for post-closing monitoring and compliance.
  • Big River Steel: Represented project sponsor in the ground-up development and financing of a $1.5 billion state-of-the-art steel mini-mill in Northeast Arkansas, selected by IJGlobal Americas (formerly Project Finance Magazine) as the 2014 North American Mining and Metals Deal of the Year. Project capital sources include equity from financial and strategic investors, senior secured debt from private and government lenders, mezzanine debt, EB-5 financing, and various grants and other financial incentives from state, county and municipal governments and commercial partners.

Recognitions and Memberships

Recognitions

  • The Legal 500 United States
    • Recommended in Tax: U.S. Taxes - Non-Contentious (2022)
  • Chambers USA
    • Tax in Ohio (2021 to 2022)
      • Band 1 (2021 to 2022)
    • Banking and Finance in Ohio (2022)
      • Band 3 (2022)

Memberships

  • Novogradac NMTC Working Group
  • Novogradac Opportunity Zone Working Group
  • Historic Tax Credit Coalition

Community

  • Cleveland Christian Home
    • Board of Directors
    • Audit and Finance Committee: Chair
  • Orchard STEM School: Tutor

Admissions

  • Ohio

Education

  • LL.M., Case Western Reserve University, 2004,
  • J.D., The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law, 1999, with honors in Law, Order of the Coif
  • M.B.A., The Ohio State University, 1999, with honors
  • B.S., The Ohio State University, 1996, summa cum laude