Real Estate

Overview

We pride ourselves for being responsive to the emerging market trends and legal issues affecting the real estate industry, and are adept in advising real estate clients in their transactions with a keen awareness to their objective of capitalizing on investment opportunities and minimizing risk.

With a leading real estate practice, Tannenbaum Helpern has a national reputation for representing real estate owners, developers, private equity investors, REITs and lenders in sophisticated real estate investment and development transactions, construction matters and operational activities.

Tannenbaum Helpern attorneys have extensive experience in representing:

• purchasers and sellers in the sale and acquisition of commercial real estate investments across the U.S., including with respect to multi-family, office, industrial, hotel and retail properties;
• sponsors, developers and private equity funds in joint venture transactions with respect to real estate investments;
• borrowers in connection with all areas of real estate finance, including construction loans, bridge loans, mezzanine loans, and permanent and securitized mortgage loans;
• institutional and non-institutional landlords in connection with office, retail and industrial leasing;
• institutional lenders in connection with mortgage financings;
• owners and developers in construction contracts entered into with architects, engineers, consultants, general contractors and construction managers, as well as license agreements with neighboring property owners;
• owners and developers in claims involving architectural and engineering malpractice, defective work, delays, liens and other construction related disputes; and
• all real estate industry clients in both State and Federal Court, as well as in arbitrations, in connection with disputes arising out of leasing, purchase and sale, financing and joint venture transactions.

In addition, Tannenbaum Helpern offers a wide range of complementary legal services to our real estate industry clients, including real estate fund formation, tax planning and structuring, bankruptcy counsel and employment law services.

Representative Experience:

• Represented a prominent New York City developer in connection with the acquisition of Long Island College Hospital campus in Brooklyn, New York, and construction loan financing for the development of multiple campus parcels.

• Represented a New York developer and an opportunity zone fund in the joint venture acquisition of a church in Harlem and associated air-rights, to be developed into a mixed-use complex including residential and a community facility space.

• Represented owners of an apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in connection with a 99-year ground lease to a major New York City developer of large-scale residential projects in Manhattan.

• Represented multiple institutional owners of Manhattan office buildings in connection with numerous lease transactions.

• Represented several real estate private equity funds in connection with multiple joint venture real estate investments, including acquisition of office buildings in Indiana and Massachusetts, acquisition and development of multi-family housing in Florida and Georgia, acquisition of a regional mall in Buffalo, New York, acquisition of hotels in North Carolina, Utah and California, and acquisition of a portfolio of distressed mortgage loans.

• Represented a nationally known shopping center owner in connection with a portfolio sale of eighteen shopping centers in the Northeast U.S. to a publicly owned REIT on a tax deferred basis.

• Represented a private investor group in connection with the preferred equity investment in a distressed residential and commercial condominium project in the Chelsea area of Manhattan, including restructuring of the construction loan financing and mezzanine loan.

• Represented a seller of majority ownership in waterfront development site in Williamsburg, New York, pursuant to a complex joint venture agreement providing option to seller to maintain an investment in the development on a tax-deferred basis.

• Represented a national shopping center developer in connection with a securitized mortgage loan refinancing of six shopping centers in Puerto Rico.

• Represented a national real estate investment fund in connection with the acquisition, financing and subsequent sale of "Class A" office buildings in Miami, Florida and Hollywood, Florida, in separate transactions.

• Represented a seller in connection with the portfolio sale of six industrial facilities/warehouses in the Southeastern, U.S. to an institutional real estate fund.

• Represented a prominent New York City property owner in connection with the re-development, through a recapitalization with joint venture equity provided by a national real estate fund and institutional construction loan financing, of a light industrial warehouse in Long Island City, New York into a creative-use office building.

• Represented an international real estate fund sponsor in connection with the structuring and formation of its first real estate private equity fund focusing on U.S. real estate debt and equity investment opportunities.

• Represented one of the largest publicly-traded REITs in connection with complex developments, including 220 Central Park South, the Farley Post Office, Moynihan Train Station, Penn Plaza and the LIRR Main Concourse.

• Represented a national publicly-traded company in connection with the redevelopment of its portfolio department stores throughout the U.S.

• Represented a national hotel developer in connection with the conversion of the TWA terminal at JFK Airport into a hotel and conference center.

• Represented a developer of a high-end condominium building in an action against its mechanical engineer for design errors and omissions.

• Represented a developer of a hotel in an action against its materials supplier and installer.

• Represented parties seeking to unwind a multimillion-dollar joint venture to develop numerous commercial and residential properties in St. Maarten.

• Represented the seller of a landmark building complex against the purchaser in a real estate dispute.

• Represented a nationally known garage operator in a complex lease dispute concerning repair and maintenance obligations and related indemnification claims involving exposure in excess of $5 million.

• Represented nationally known garage operator in a dispute with the Board of Managers of a Manhattan condominium who asserted that a merger of garage entities triggered the condominium’s right of first refusal.

• Represented parties in Yellowstone proceedings, including the representation of a landlord against a nationally known retail tenant concerning a malfunctioning transportation installation.