About Dean Spina

Dean Spina has over thirty-eight years of experience in economic development, real estate, bank financing and tax-exempt bond financing. He has been involved in real estate and local government matters from annexation to zoning, including subdivisions, property tax appeals, tax increment financing, land use approvals and the purchase and sale of property for industrial, commercial and residential development.

In 2017, Dean obtained reductions in assessed values of twenty-three tax parcels exceeding a combined $8,200,000. In 2021, Dean worked on in the appeals of a retail mall and two hotel properties with a combined reduction in assessed values, obtained with minimal expense, of nearly $6,300,000.

On behalf of developers, Dean has worked on scores of tax increment and tax abatement agreements with city and counties throughout Iowa, including the purchase of land from cities and counties and subsequent development of the land. He has worked on behalf of employers on numerous state economic development agreements.

Since 1985, Dean has prepared hundreds of industrial new jobs training agreements under the Iowa Industrial New Jobs Training Act.

Dean spearheaded a change in Iowa law that enabled numerous non-profit organizations in the state of Iowa to reduce their borrowing costs by the use of private activity bonds resulting in tax-exempt interest savings of millions of dollars. He has represented banks and non-profit organizations with tax exempt bond financings of senior housing, college buildings, a sectarian high school, children’s services campuses and office buildings for non-profit organizations, and for-profit businesses using Midwestern Disaster Area Bonds, including a large medical office building, retail and office buildings and an agricultural property.

Representing local and national banks, Dean has prepared complex loan documents for a shopping center, a casino, hotels, office buildings, and retirement and nursing home facilities. Dean has represented owners and borrowers on projects where funding was secured from or insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fannie Mae.

Dean has worked on the subdivision of large tracts of land into commercial, industrial and residential lots in several Eastern Iowa cities and counties, including but not limited to Tiffin, North Liberty, Coralville, Cedar Rapids, Muscatine, and Linn County.

Recognition by his peers has resulted in Dean’s selection by Best Lawyers in the areas of Economic Development and Public Finance and by Super Lawyers (Plains) in the area of Real Estate.

Dean has served on the board of directors of numerous non-profit organizations including a national museum, a housing trust fund, one of the nation’s foremost advocates for trees, home builders (local and state), a public market and organizations promoting social and racial justice and equal opportunity. He has been recognized as Associate Member of the Year in 2019 and 2021 by the Greater Cedar Rapids Area Housing & Building Association.