About Charlie Metzger

Charlie Metzger represents commercial real estate lenders and equity clients, as well as Affordable Housing developers and investors, in sophisticated real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, financings, joint ventures and affordable multifamily housing transactions. He excels in high-pressure situations to get deals closed on tight timelines.

Relentless focus on advocacy and service for real estate clients

Charlie has served as counsel to a diverse set of clients on a range of high-stakes real estate transactions, including transactions involving complex equity, financing and joint venture issues and tax credits, bond financing, and rental subsidies.

During law school, Charlie worked as a Law Clerk in the Legal Department of the New York State Housing Finance Agency, the tax credit authorizer and bond issuer for Affordable Housing development and preservation in New York State, as well as in the Legal Department of SONYMA, the State of New York Mortgage Agency.

Charlie also has extensive experience practicing nonprofit law and maintains an active pro bono practice. In law school, he spent several semesters working in the Fordham Law School Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic, representing startup and established 501(c)(3) nonprofits, including in the Affordable Housing space. He also served as an Associate Editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal and as a member of the Moot Court Board. At graduation, he received the Ann Moynihan Award for Outstanding Performance in the Law School’s Clinical Program and the Archibald R. Murray Award for Public Service.

At Katten, Charlie has served as pro bono outside counsel to a nonprofit Community Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, an arts and cultural preservation nonprofit in Chinatown, New York City, and a bond issuer in Illinois in connection with a new C-PACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy) Initiative.

Before law school, Charlie worked for several years in state and city politics in New York and New Jersey, including on the successful advocacy campaign to enact Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) and Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA) into law in New York City. Additionally, he taught Middle School History in Newark, NJ as a Teach for America Corps Member.

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Representative Experience

  • Representing a national life insurance company in connection with the origination of a $90 million construction loan to finance the construction of a residential multifamily complex in New Jersey.
  • Representing a national life insurance company in connection with the assumption of a $200 million mortgage loan secured by a mixed-use property in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Representing a lender in connection with a $300 million mortgage loan secured by a portfolio of student housing.
  • Representing an affordable housing developer in connection with two construction loans totaling more than $700 million to build residential multifamily housing in Long Island City, Queens, pursuant to the Affordable New York Housing Program.
  • Representing an affordable housing developer in connection with the $55 million refinance, by an agency lender, of a Mitchell-Lama Project in Brooklyn.
  • Representing an affordable housing developer in connection with a Bond-Financed, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Project in Jamaica, Queens.