Bio
Carolyn Medina is a member of the Affordable Housing & Community Development, Commercial Real Estate, Land Use, and Banking & Finance Practice Groups. She focuses her practice on commercial real estate development, finance, lending, and complex deal structuring. She brings particular depth to affordable housing tax credit transactions, guiding both nonprofit and for-profit clients through every stage of a deal – from initial structuring to closing and compliance.
Carolyn’s experience spans the full spectrum of affordable housing finance, including Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and historic tax credit transactions and compliance, bond financing, HUD Section 8 and Section 202 projects. She is well-versed in the nuances of public-private partnership structures and advises clients on how to optimize corporate arrangements to meet the demands of these complex, multi-party transactions.
Beyond affordable housing, Carolyn counsels clients across a broad range of real estate matters, including acquisitions, lending and mortgage finance, title and survey, permitting, leasing, dispositions, and portfolio management. Her practice also extends to corporate law and nonprofit governance for mission-driven organizations navigating the intersection of real estate and institutional compliance.
Prior Experience
Before joining DarrowEverett, Carolyn maintained a successful solo practice focused on affordable housing and commercial real estate. She served as a trusted advisor to many nonprofit and for-profit developers in Rhode Island. Carolyn began her legal career in Providence at one of its largest law firms, where she focused on land use and commercial real estate. Carolyn then worked as a Director of Real Estate Development at one of Rhode Island’s leading nonprofit developers of affordable housing. That hands-on experience gave her an insider’s perspective on the practical and operational challenges her clients face, and she carried those insights back to private practice when she launched her own firm.
Accolades
- Super Lawyers Rising Star; 2009, 2010, 2011
Practice Areas
Bar Admissions
- Rhode Island
- U.S. District Court (RI, CT)
- U.S. Court of Appeals, 1st Circuit
Education
- Roger Williams University School of Law, J.D. Honors Program; Magna Cum Laude, Valedictorian.
- State University of New York, College at Geneseo, Bachelor of Arts, English; Public Relations and Philosophy minors.
Involvement
- West Elmwood Community Development – Asset Management Committee
- Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association
Representative Matters
- Represented developer in a $70 million acquisition and redevelopment of Section 8 housing complex in Newport, RI. The project included LIHTC and bond financing.
- Represented borrower in a $12 million refinance of LIHTC development, including exit of limited partner, and coordination of approval and due diligence with the lender and state housing finance agency to closing. The project included remedy for title issues between abutting owners and assumption of environmental land use restrictions (ELUR).
- Represented developer of a condominium development. The matter included the creation of the condominium, all phases of development, amendments to condominium documents, Condo Association governance, and first sales of the units.
- Represented nonprofit developer in the wind-down and dissolution, including disposition of a 300-unit real estate portfolio with preservation of all units as affordable housing with new owners over four transactions. The matter included negotiation of the assumption of all forms of grants, loans, and subsidies by the buyers.
- Represented purchaser of a national pharmacy location. The project included assumption and transfer of the existing lease and rights of way over state land.
- Currently representing owners in a negotiation of conservation easement. The matter includes title, survey, and agricultural preservation.
Insights
Media
- A Practical Guide to Land Use Law in Rhode Island, (MCLE), 1st ed., 2017, 2022 – Ch., 2 (The Rhode Island Zoning Enabling Act) and Ch. 6 (The Rhode Island Low- and Moderate-Income Housing Act)
- “Massachusetts Homestead Law Overhauled”, USFN e-Update, April 2011