The attorneys in the Real Estate Practice Group at Lewis and Roca assist clients in all areas of real estate acquisition, entitlement, financing, development, leasing and disposition. We draw from a broad range of experience to assist a diverse array of clients, which include national institutional and hedge-fund investors, commercial and residential developers, large healthcare and university systems as well as local, privately-held companies. We work closely with our clients to understand their goals and ensure that deals are done effectively and efficiently, leading to successful outcomes for our clients.
We routinely counsel our clients regarding all types of commercial real estate transactions, including equity joint venture transactions in connection with the acquisition, development, operation and financing of commercial office buildings to residential subdivisions, condominiums and apartment complexes, hospitality, mixed-use and retail shopping centers and industrial developments. Lewis and Roca attorneys can assist with the structure and documentation of the entire transaction, including purchase and sale agreements, easement agreements, assignments and other closing documents. We can assist in all aspects of the due diligence process, including title and survey review and environmental compliance.
We also have extensive experience in representing both landlords and tenants and companies of every size in the negotiation of commercial leases, including retail, industrial, restaurant and ground leases. The attorneys in our gaming practice group regularly draft and negotiate leases, management agreements, and development agreements relating to casino operations.
Our experience extends to all types of real estate financing. We represent borrowers and lenders in all phases of acquisition, predevelopment and construction financing, which includes mortgage lending, conduit lending, as well as sale-leaseback, low income housing tax credit, franchise, mezzanine and other forms of financing. We have assisted investor and developer clients in the acquisition of distressed assets and loans and have represented lending institutions and loan services in loan workouts, judicial and non-judicial foreclosure of real property, deeds-in-lieu, and receivership appointments.
We represent developers of residential, commercial and mixed-use communities, condominiums and shopping centers in land acquisitions and development, including drafting and negotiating community documents and joint development agreements. Our attorneys often provide land use and zoning counsel to clients for all types of development. Several of our attorneys in our Tucson, Reno, and Las Vegas offices have extensive experience in the land use area and regularly represent landowners in rezoning, variance, subdivision, economic development agreement, annexations, initiative and referendum matters.
Several of our attorneys in the Phoenix, Reno, and Las Vegas offices have construction law experience, and can review, negotiate, structure and draft construction, construction manager at risk (CMAR), and design-build contracts for owners, contractors, subcontractors and design professionals.
We also have extensive experience in asset purchase sales involving both real and personal property as well as in Uniform Commercial Code secured transactions.
Business entity selection and formation are of course also centrally important to structuring any transaction. Based on a client's needs and the proposed transaction, Lewis and Roca's Business Transactions attorneys can provide advice with regard to business entity selection, tax issues, and entity structure. We routinely form special purpose entities for our real estate industry clients. We can draft and negotiate business entity formation documents, including bylaws, operating agreements, partnership agreements, and joint venture agreements, and advise with regard to maintaining corporate compliance with state law. Our attorneys have experience with mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations and domestications. Our attorneys can structure, draft and negotiate management, consulting, and license agreements, including for restaurant, liquor, and, gaming operations. We can provide review for regulatory and licensing compliance.
Our representative experience includes:
- Currently represent county government entity on the construction of a new $300,000,000 court facility.
- Represented privately-held real estate development companies in the land acquisition for, and development, construction, and leasing of, retail centers.
- Consistent representation of diversified financial services company with assets in excess of $56 billion, in connection with secured and unsecured credit facilities related to real estate investment and development. The client owns approximately 500 properties and over 100 million square feet nationwide.
- Represented large and small companies with regard to all aspects of commercial and office leasing.
- Represented major biotech clients in California on leasing of both office and laboratory space. One of these leases was dubbed the "Best Office Lease - 2002" by the San Francisco Business Journal.
- Represented a national grocery chain in the land acquisition, development and construction of regional distribution center and grocery store sites.
- Represented a large savings and loan association in connection with real estate development, real estate lending, loan workouts, foreclosures, land development, and savings and loan regulatory matters.
- Represented local businesses in plan amendment, rezoning, variance, and other governmental entitlement actions.
- Represented large self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust in connection with retail leasing across the nation.
- We served as borrower’s counsel in a complex credit enhancement transaction which involved the issuance by the client of a significant amount of commercial paper in the New York commercial paper market backed by a letter of credit issued by an offshore lender. The risks of the offshore lender and the obligations of the borrower to the offshore lender were collateralized by a first lien deed of trust upon a major resort property and related collateral. The amount involved was in excess of $60,000,000.
- Represented a private buyer group in connection with a $165 million acquisition by merger of a publicly traded real estate holding company.
- Represented seller is multiple sales of assets ($10 million, $7 million, $4 million) involving home centers, real estate, hospitality. Issues included liquidation of S corporation and novation of government national park concessions contract.
- We served as special Arizona counsel in a multi-state secured real property financing transaction where the lenders were a consortium of life insurance companies and banks. The transaction involved the use of a special purpose corporation as the borrower and, in addition to the usual collateral involved in a loan transaction secured by improved real estate, a trust indenture and other agreements. While we were not primarily responsible for the drafting of these documents, we did review and offer comment with respect to each of them and were primarily responsible for all Arizona aspects of the transaction including the drafting of the Arizona collateral documents.
- Represented seller in $40 million stock transaction involving Arizona and Colorado real estate assets.