Zoning & Land Use

The real estate group has extensive experience in commercial leasing transactions, both on behalf of landlords and tenants. Our practice extends to all types of leasing, including ground lease, retail, office, industrial and residential lease transactions.

The Real Estate group, often in conjunction with the Taxation and Corporate & Transactional groups, counsels clients on the formation of entities for participation in transactions and on other business and tax-related issues. We possess significant experience in partnership, LLC, and corporate issues. Our group works with clients to obtain maximum tax benefits relating to transactions, including planning and closing deferred like-kind exchanges of real property, structuring tenant improvement allowances, and structuring acquisitions and dispositions of real properties.

We have extensive experience representing lenders and borrowers in financing transactions of all types. We act as regular counsel to numerous financial institutions on loans secured by all types of real estate, including office, industrial, retail, and residential. Our representation includes the initial structuring, documenting, and negotiating of transactions, as well as due diligence with respect to underlying real estate issues. The financing transactions include conventional mortgage financing, industrial revenue and development bonds, and sale leasebacks.

We provide advice to our clients in obtaining economic development incentives from the local, county, and state authorities in order to purchase, construct, or renovate real estate projects. The economic development incentives have been in the form of tax increment financing, real estate tax abatements, community development incentives, and job creation tax credits.

We advise buyers and sellers in transactions involving sales and acquisitions of real estate of every asset class on both a portfolio and individual property basis. We are experienced in the specialized requirements of transactions involving office buildings, shopping centers, hospitals, nursing homes, residential buildings, and air rights and development sites. We have also represented clients in tax-free exchanges and other investment structures.

We provide land use advice and counsel to developers and users of commercial, retail, industrial, and residential facilities. Such land use representation includes zoning, environmental, historic preservation, legislative, and litigation services. We have experience in obtaining rezonings, variances, approval of planned unit developments, and transfers of development rights. We also represent governmental authorities in regard to the interpretation and enforcement of local zoning regulations.