Development of real property requires long-term planning not only to satisfy the concerns of government, interested groups and the business objectives of the client, but also to meet the potential requirements of investors, lenders, tenants and ultimate purchasers. Clients working with our Real Estate Development team can be certain their lawyers understand each step of the process – ranging from planning, environmental, land-use, third-party rights, and construction issues, to alternative energy and green issues.
Our lawyers have developed strong relationships throughout the field and with a number of industries to work cohesively with the government, property owners, contractors, tenants, and lenders to provide coordinated and comprehensive real estate development services.
Condominium, Cooperatives, Homeowners Association, Planned Unit Developments & Mixed-Use Projects
From modest beginnings in the early 1970s, community associations—condominiums, cooperatives and homeowner associations—have become the predominant form for new housing constructed in the United States. Several of our Community Association team members have been there since the beginning and are recognized industry leaders, making these projects work for the developer and the homeowners. Significant movement toward "Smart Growth" and "transit-oriented development” has fueled the growth of complex mixed-use projects, combining apartments and condos with retail malls, office space and hotels. These complex developments require specialized documents to address complicated issues, in which we establish the operating responsibilities from the simplest to the most complex project using easements, reciprocal covenants, and community association documents to structure retail, office, industrial and residential projects. Drafting the documents for even the most complex project still comes down to defining who owns what, who fixes what, who uses what, and who pays for what, as well as how decisions are made. The real skill we possess is in making the most complex arrangements clear and simple.
Our lawyers take a comprehensive approach and efficiently apply their years of focused legal representation to solving association problems in a variety of areas such as land use, corporate law, bankruptcy, labor law, complex litigation and tax law. Because community association problems frequently involve litigation or land-use and municipal government law, our clients also work with our lawyers who have this unique depth of knowledge.
We represent a substantial number of lenders making either acquisition and construction loans to developers for community associations, or making renovation or improvement loans secured by an assignment of assessment income. Our clients are also developers and builders involved in condominium projects, cooperatives and planned unit developments; owners' associations carrying out the ongoing operation of community associations; management firms involved in common interest community management; and individual purchasers and owners in various community association projects.