Real Estate Transactions and Finance

Overview

Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell's Real Estate Transactions and Finance section is a recognized leader specializing in real estate matters involving all property types. Our attorneys recognize today's real estate transactions are increasingly complex, and timing is everything. Our attorneys represent a diversified client base in real estate transactions including real estate investment trusts, pension funds and their advisors, public and private university and healthcare systems, development companies, homebuilders, contractors, hotel companies, commercial banks, insurance companies, savings and loan associations and finance and leasing companies. Our services include legal representation in connection with:

Acquisitions and dispositions;
Ground leasing;
Commercial leasing and subleasing;
Acquisition, development and construction financing;
Conduit loans;
Participating and convertible loans;
Land use, entitlements and natural resources;
Development representation involving consultants, contractors, engineers, architects and joint use and access issues;
Partnership and joint venture structuring and negotiation;
Property sales, leasing and management;
Development risk management and tax counseling;
Public and public/private improvement projects, including cost sharing, development and reimbursement agreements;
Tenant in common structures and related tax free exchanges;
Equity participations;
Defeasance transactions;
Sharia compliant transactions;
Intercreditor agreements, loan syndications, participations and subordinations;
Co-lending agreements; senior/subordinate; pari-passu
Letters of credit and credit enhancement transactions;
Interest rate caps and swaps
Financial derivatives
Master servicer; special servicer; REMIC issues
DUS lending; Fannie Mae/Freddy Mae financing
Military housing; campus housing
Sale/leasebacks
Mortgage warehousing; repurchase agreements
Tax credits; affordable housing; new markets; historic
Lines of credit (secured and unsecured);
Mezzanine and subordinate tranche financing; and
Workouts, creditor’s rights and bankruptcy.

Our goal is to know our clients' businesses and objectives, to provide exceptional legal services, to be responsive to our clients’ needs and to efficiently manage the cost of our services.

Our attorneys regularly work on sophisticated matters in concert with talented and creative clients in connection with transactions involving raw land, residential subdivisions, office buildings, hotels, condominium projects and condo hotels, retail centers and pads, multi-family projects, bulk warehouse and service center facilities, healthcare facilities and university and military housing facilities. A few representative transactions our attorneys have been recently engaged to provide legal services in connection with include:

Leasing representation for an office building complex containing over one million square feet of rentable area.
Represented a client in connection with real estate matters arising from a nationwide development of biodiesel fuel facilities.
Represented a nonprofit borrower in connection with a $63MM tax-exempt bond financing of a new continuing care retirement community.
Served as Fannie Mae DUS Lender's counsel in connection with the closing of a $68MM tax-exempt and taxable bond financing, including federal and local tax credits, of a new multifamily high-rise development in Manhattan.
Represented an international financial institution in the creation of separate loan programs for various groups of independent distributors of nationally branded products, including the design and implementation of middle-market commercial loan documents.
Represented international financial institution’s role as servicer of national loan portfolios and the securitization of those loan portfolios, aggregating more than $2 billion in outstandings at one time.
Represented an international bank providing $30 million in letters of credit for bonds issued by government-created entities for the benefit of a not-for-profit hospital.
Represented an international bank as agent for lenders providing credit facilities aggregating $365 million for an American mortgage servicer and its Canadian affiliate, secured by mortgage servicing rights, servicing advances, mortgage loans, accounts receivable and receivables from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Representation of purchaser of nine industrial warehouse properties containing approximately 2,000,000 square feet, including loan assumptions for several of the properties.
Representation of purchaser of five shopping centers containing approximately 775,000 square feet of retail space, including loan assumptions for certain of the properties.
Representation of developer of 600+ acre master planned residential community in Texas, including land acquisition, negotiation of debt and equity financing, formation of homeowners' association and related covenants, conditions and restrictions and negotiation of sale of lots to builders.
Represented Fannie Mae DUS Lender in a $68MM low income housing tax credit project conversion from construction to permanent loan in New York City.
Represented a Chicago-based company in a $34MM sale/leaseback transaction for the development of a new headquarters building.
Represented an international syndication agent and lead lender on a $300MM syndicated secured commercial line of credit.
Represented an international letter of credit/credit enhancement provider of $50MM in tax-exempt and taxable bonds for the refinancing of an existing continuing care retirement facility.
Represented an institutional construction lender on a series of syndicated construction loans ($70MM/$42MM,) for the development of a multi-phase continuing care retirement facility.
Represented the syndication agent and lead lender on a $115MM club deal for the acquisition of a public company and associated working lines of credit.
Transitioned a money center bank’s mortgage warehouse lending group through termination of several billion dollar master repurchase agreements with zero principal losses for the client, notwithstanding bankruptcy filings by all but one of their mortgage repo line customers.
Structured the purchase and sale of significant farm and ranch properties with specified highly technical retained and conveyed groundwater rights.
Assisted a national developer in the acquisition of land for the development of a 650,000 square foot shopping center. Served as the developer's lead counsel in the second phase of the shopping center's "lease-up," negotiating leases and ground leases with a variety of local and national tenants.
Represented a national junior department store in its leasing activities throughout the United States, assisting in the leasing of over 50 locations representing nearly 1,000,000 square feet of leasable area.
Developed a structure for building a series of affordable housing projects that eliminates certain state and local sales and use taxes on the construction materials, thereby significantly reducing each project’s cost.
Handled environmental aspects of stock and asset purchases for multimillion dollar acquisition of television stations across the country.
Counsel on potential civil and criminal liability resulting from alleged discharge of pollutants from passenger ship into Lake Michigan
Conducted an ongoing environmental audit for Illinois EPA
Assisted USEPA to significantly reduce civil penalties imposed against client for alleged hazardous waste handling, storage and labeling violations
Lead environmental counsel for the preparation of an environmental impact statement and obtaining the necessary environmental clearances for a major tollway project in Texas.
Overseeing and counseling on obtaining appropriate authorizations from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers for a project impacting significant portions of waters of the U.S., including wetlands.
Provided legal oversight on the air permitting of a landfill gas extraction system.
Represented the international underwriter of a series of military housing privatization bonds in a transaction spanning 11 military installations across five states.
Represented the purchaser in multi-million dollar multifamily project portfolios in the South and Southeast.
National environmental counsel for multifamily, senior residential developers, and industrial developers. This includes handling and directing all their environmental work throughout the country, including Phase I environmental site assessments, remediation, interaction with agencies, and permitting.
Represented a national bank in extending a $60MM unsecured credit facility to a public company that provides health care institutions with software and information solutions.
Represented a national bank in the defeasance of loans secured by commercial property located throughout the United States.
Represented a publicly traded gas utility company in connection with its $1 billion syndicated credit facility.
Represented a publicly traded electronic global commodity and financial products exchange in connection with its $500 million syndicated senior credit facilities.
Represented a multi-state furniture retailer in connection with its $120 million secured revolving credit facility.
Represented a national insurance brokerage firm in connection with its $30 million senior secured credit facilities.
Represented a multi-state temporary staffing company in connection with its $7.4 million secured credit facilities.
Represented an international bank as lead lender and administrative agent in connection with the making and syndication of a $115MM construction loan for a high-rise luxury condominium project.
Represented placement agent in connection with the issuance of $585MM in taxable revenue bonds to privatize, renovate and construct military housing units at 11 military installations located in five states in the southeastern United States.
Represented a major international building products company in the negotiation of a 170,000 square foot build-to-suit lease for its new U.S. headquarters in a LEED Certified office building.
Represented the master servicer of two related REMIC pools in connection with the creation of a synthetic condominium in a 1.6 million square foot office building in Manhattan.
Ongoing representation of New York based developer in three high profile land assemblage and development projects in the mid-Atlantic states.
Representation of lender client in financing of wetlands bank created to allow offsets for wetlands disturbed in the course of development elsewhere in Virginia.
Representation of borrower client in connection with work out of acquisition and interim financing of large flex office / research condominium project in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Real Estate Transactions and Finance

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Real Estate and Finance