Mr. Yots is Special Counsel in the firm’s Economic Development & Public Incentives practice group, where he focuses on economic development and tax credit financing. Since 1996, he has represented developers, charitable organizations, and municipalities pursuing affordable housing, historic preservation, and adaptive reuse projects. He is widely recognized as a national expert in the fields of historic preservation and adaptive reuse.
In 2008, Mr. Yots co-founded Preservation Studios, a Buffalo-based historic preservation consulting firm that assists developers with historic tax credit projects. Under his leadership, Preservation Studios helped facilitate projects generating more than $1 billion in development activity throughout New York and the Northeast. In 2024, Mr. Yots divested his ownership interest in the company to its key employees.
In 2014, Mr. Yots founded Common Bond Real Estate, a real estate development company focused on adaptive reuse projects in Western New York. Through the strategic use of historic and brownfield tax credits, the company has helped develop more than 200 units of market-rate and affordable housing in Buffalo, along with numerous neighborhood commercial and retail spaces.
Mr. Yots is a frequent speaker and author on economic development topics. He also created and taught the course Introduction to Historic Preservation at Daemen University.
Mr. Yots earned his law degree, with honors, from the University at Buffalo School of Law. While in law school, he served as an editor of the Buffalo Law Review and was the first student editor of the American Bar Association’s Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law.
Jason has lived in Buffalo with his wife Rebecca since 1995, and he is the proud empty-nest father of two sons, Jacob and George.
Courts of the State of New York
4th District of New York
New York
University at Buffalo School of Law (J.D., 1996)
State University of New York College at Albany (B.A., 1993)
Buffalo Business First’s "40 Under 40"
