Our Real Estate Group represents owners, lenders, developers, governmental bodies, businesses, and other end-users of commercial, retail, industrial, and multi-family properties. We help our clients achieve their goals by offering practical, results-driven solutions. Our experience includes negotiating the terms of acquisitions and dispositions, real estate financings, development agreements, and the transfer of development rights; working through the many zoning and entitlement issues arising out of a proposed development; evaluating public improvement needs, incentives, and funding sources; platting, subdivision, and reconfiguration; negotiating design and construction agreements; developing strategies for the protection of environmentally sensitive areas, such as wetlands, and remediation of any environmental contamination; evaluating issues related to historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and conservation; drafting legislation and navigating the legislative and referendum process; managing corporate real estate assets; and, when needed, providing skilled litigation support.

Our projects represent the full range of real estate products, including office buildings and office parks; retail centers; industrial parks; single-family and multi-family residential projects; mixed-use projects; land development; condominiums and cooperatives; corporate headquarters; hotel, lodging, resort, and retirement facilities; marinas and coastal developments; public and government facilities; and healthcare facilities.

Our real estate practice has been named a Midwest Real Estate News “Best of the Best” top law firm since 2013. Our practice is ranked in IFLR1000 USA, as well as Chambers USA in the area of Real Estate (Ohio), where one client describes our team as having “the ability to identify our potential vulnerabilities and distill these into a quick and understandable explanation and suggested resolution.” Another client reveals that our team “has a good variety of experience and is able to tackle tremendously complex projects efficiently and effectively.”

Areas of Emphasis

• Acquisition, Development, and Disposition. We actively engage in the acquisition, development, and disposition of significant real estate projects on behalf of developers, owners, and investors. We are regularly involved in assemblages of properties, as well as construction of new projects and renovation and rehabilitation of existing projects. Our projects represent the full range of real estate development, including public and government facilities; office buildings and office parks; land development; condominiums and cooperatives; single-family and multi-family residential projects; lodging, resort and retirement facilities; retail centers; and mixed-use projects.
• Leasing. We have extensive experience in leasing transactions on behalf of both landlords and tenants. This expertise extends to all types of leasing, including retail, office, industrial, and governmental lease transactions.
• Corporate Real Estate. We work with a variety of businesses to help acquire, develop, and manage a vast network of corporate real estate assets across a multitude of industries. Our experience includes acquisition, development, and leasing of manufacturing, industrial, and warehouse facilities, corporate headquarters, satellite offices, and retail locations. We also assist clients in conjunction with our corporate team in evaluating real estate assets in complex mergers and acquisitions transactions.
• Litigation. Members of our practice group actively represent the interests of real estate lenders, developers, owners, and users in a wide spectrum of litigation matters involving the purchase, sale, leasing, operation, construction, and financing of real property. We have extensive experience in mediation, arbitration, and other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
• Financing. We represent 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 commercial, 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.
• Asset Securitization. We work with issuers and underwriters in the securitization of all types of real estate assets. Our work includes the origination of loans in contemplation of securitization, as well as work on the securitization process, assumptions of existing securitized loans, and, in certain circumstances, defeasance of existing credit facilities.
• Joint Ventures. We have worked with numerous clients on structuring and implementing joint ventures. Results, which otherwise would have been unattainable, can frequently be achieved through a multitude of joint venture structures. We act as a catalyst for these joint ventures and are key to the structuring and documenting of those relationships.
• Business and Tax Planning. Our attorneys, often in conjunction with our tax and corporate departments, counsel clients on the formation of entities for participation in transactions and on other business and tax-related issues. We have significant expertise in partnership, LLC, and REIT issues. We work with clients to obtain maximum tax benefits relating to transactions – including, for example, planning and closing deferred like-kind exchanges of real property, structuring tenant improvement allowances, and structuring UPREIT acquisitions and dispositions of real properties.
• Multi-Family/Mixed-use. Our attorneys represent local, regional, and national developers and investors in all aspects of multi-family and mixed-use developments, including apartments and condominium regimes with retail, restaurant, office, hotel, residential, and educational uses. In addition to site acquisition and development, our clients rely on our in-depth knowledge of unique joint venture and financing structures, including Tax Increment Financing, Property Assessed Clean Energy bonds, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, credit enhancement, and tax-exempt bond financing.
• Retail. Our attorneys represent national retailers and retail developers in all aspects of site selection, site acquisition, development, leasing, and financing of retail locations. Our core proficiencies include multi-state acquisition programs, lease abstract programs, document standardization, and excess property disposition programs.
• Zoning and Real Property Tax Challenges. We provide land use advice and counsel to developers and users of commercial, retail, industrial, and residential facilities. Our broad range of land use capabilities includes zoning, environmental, historic preservation, legislative, and litigation services, and our team is highly experienced in obtaining re-zonings, variances, approval of planned unit developments, and transfers of development rights. We also assist clients in connection with all forms of real property tax valuation and exemption applications, administrative hearings, and appeals.
• Hospitality. We represent developers, owners, and investors in connection with the development of hotels, resorts, golf courses, marinas, and similar assets occupying the hospitality industry. In addition to our core real estate, financing and development capabilities, our experience in this industry includes negotiating management and franchise agreements, financing, construction, and vendor contracts. Our team includes multidisciplinary experts to address the variety of legal issues encountered in the hospitality industry, including tax, employee benefits, and intellectual property.