Real Estate

Our Real Estate Group is engaged in virtually every aspect of real estate, including: development, finance, leasing, zoning and environmental compliance and permitting. Our attorneys represent a broad spectrum of owners, developers, investors, lenders and tenants in projects of all sizes. The Group has an active real estate development practice with lawyers experienced in a wide variety of real estate projects. We have worked on large-scale, mixed-use downtown development projects; retail project development for one of the nation's largest department store chains and one of the region's major supermarket chains; assisted living projects; apartment and condominium development projects; and health care and biotechnology facility projects. Group members have acted as general real estate counsel for these projects, which includes responsibility for all phases of planning, permitting, development and debt and equity financing. Many of these projects have involved negotiations with state and local agencies, such as the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Massachusetts Highway Department. In these situations, our understanding of political processes and the business realities of development have proven critical to our clients' success.

Practice Profile (PDF)

Representative Client Work

• Completed the transfer of over 65 leasehold interests covering over two million square feet of office space throughout the United States in conjunction with the spin-off of a new company from a national financial services company
• Represented lending group providing acquisition and renovation financing for a Class B+ office building in Washington, D.C. ($200 million)
• On-going representation of the largest independent restaurant owner in New England, one of the country's largest supermarket operators and the country's leading retail pet care supplier
• Served as counsel to REITs and real estate operators in raising over $4 billion through the sale of debt and equity securities in the past four years
• Nationwide leasing of more than six million square feet of Class A office space for a Big 4 accounting firm
• The development of Boston's World Trade Center, consisting of a 420-room hotel and 1 million square feet of office space
• Defended environmental and Superfund claims against manufacturers, including one action terminated with no fine or penalty against a well-known manufacturer of specialty consumer products, arising out of more than 100 years of manufacturing activities on the Boston waterfront
• The acquisition of nearly 4,000 sites for a tower company in a series of portfolio sales, including one which totaled over 1,900 sites in 47 states