Joe Whitsett, an Indianapolis native and prominent tax-credit real estate lawyer before founding TWG Development, LLC, has an affinity for historic buildings. Since 2007, TWG (originally The Whitsett Group) has been turning rundown buildings in and around the city from eyesores into attractive affordable housing for seniors and for families. The most recent example is a $9.6 million conversion of a four-story structure at 1352 N. Illinois Street—built in 1929 and formerly occupied by a commercial laundry—into 63 affordable seniors housing units. The project was awarded $836,756 in federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs), as well as $450,000 in additional state funding.
LIHTCs, along with Whitsett’s particular expertise as a tax attorney, have helped TWG become a $30 million operation over the last six years. And using the equity built up from its 26 (so far) affordable housing projects, the company has begun to diversify into market-rate housing development; for example, a 79-unit redevelopment of the former American building in downtown Indianapolis (now called 333 Penn Apartments) opened on December 1, and a conversion of the former Indianapolis Star headquarters building into 500 market-rate housing units is in progress.
Affordable housing, however, will continue to be the company’s primary focus. LIHTCs are such a lucrative incentive for developers and have been so good for TWG over the last six years that Whitsett and his partners have no intention of giving that up. Diversifying their development business into market-rate housing—and perhaps into office and warehouse space—is simply a way to hedge their bets.
