Commercial Real Estate

Practice Area

Sophisticated clients have counted on our commercial real estate attorneys’ astute financing knowledge to take advantage of all applicable financing options in complex deals. Additionally, our firm’s professional consultants have solved challenging community relations issues to help keep large commercial real estate projects moving forward to their successful completion. Harris Beach represents both large and small commercial developers, institutional lenders, corporations, partnerships and other entities in the development, finance, sale, purchase, and leasing of commercial real estate. Our attorneys are recognized, in particular, for their legal work in the development, leasing and financing of shopping centers, hospitals, nonprofit entity properties, office parks and industrial projects.

Our services include:

Property Acquisitions

We help our clients with all aspects of property acquisitions, including purchase and sale agreements, zoning and development approvals, equity or debt syndications, the formation of limited partnerships, limited liability companies and other entities, architectural and construction contracts, electric utility rate agreements, construction and long-term financing, tax deferral exchanges and tax-exempt and taxable bond financing options.

Project Development

Our real estate attorneys work closely with our corporate, tax, land use and environmental attorneys to counsel clients on all aspects of site acquisition and zoning and development approvals.  We coordinate the interests of developers and municipalities and work effectively with construction teams to conclude projects in a timely and cost-effective way. We work in partnership with our clients to balance their needs with the many constituencies affected by large development projects. We also work closely with zoning and planning boards. Our firm is politically active with both parties, which facilitates representation of our clients’ interests.

Financing

We offer our clients legal counsel in the formation of syndications, joint ventures and partnerships, construction and permanent financing, tax-exempt and taxable bond financing options, sale and leaseback transactions, synthetic leases, and securitized or structured finance, such as REITs, REMICs, and commercial mortgage-backed securities. Reflecting an emerging trend in commercial real estate finance, we have in recent years represented clients, including a major national commercial and retail property developer, in securitized or structured finance transactions in excess of $750 million that require handling rated single asset mortgage loans, complex trust and servicing agreements and private REITs. We also handle a wide range of related issues involving LIBOR or Eurodollar rate options, interest rate and currency swaps, participating (shared appreciation and convertible) mortgages, and real property tax abatements and exemptions.

Pre Closing Review and Title Insurance

Our firm maintains a full service title insurance agency, which has the authority to write title insurance policies for some of the country’s largest title underwriters. Our title agency has experience with insuring property interests and arranging for the necessary title curatives to provide insurance in form and substance satisfactory to our clients.

Environmental Compliance

Working with members of our Environmental Law Practice Group, we advise our clients on the responsibilities, exposures and liabilities that result from federal, state, and local environmental legislation and regulations. We guide clients through environmental impact review processes and the myriad regulations relating to traffic patterns, air pollution, coastal areas and wetlands. We also handle regulatory issues relating to land use, hazardous substances, and asbestos.

Brownfield Redevelopment

We have extensive experience in forming brownfield redevelopment joint ventures and in assisting owners of brownfield properties to package their holdings for bulk sale to institutional investors. We also help buyers obtain the necessary liability releases available through state brownfield programs.

Financial Restructuring

Our attorneys have extensive experience in restructuring equity investments in, or debt on, distressed properties.  We handle transactions that include “equity kickers,” arrangements that allow for shared appreciation or equity conversion for financial restructuring and workouts.

Due Diligence

We coordinate and manage all of the due diligence investigations and administrative details of a commercial real estate transaction, including title review and the placement of title insurance, analysis of property surveys, zoning and land use research and compliance confirmation, the review and analysis of all property related reports, such as environmental and engineering reports, and preparing all necessary documents.

Litigation

Working with our Business and Commercial Litigation Practice Group, we represent clients in land title disputes, foreclosure actions, deed-in-lien transactions, tax assessment proceedings, condemnation actions, zoning appeals, landlord and tenant disputes, and disposition of mechanic’s liens.

In addition to the services described above, a cornerstone of our commercial real estate practice is our work supporting the retail industry.

Click here to learn more about our retail real estate development specialty services.