Commercial

  • January 15, 2025

    Cost Concerns Keep Real Estate Atop Florida Policy Agenda

    This year sees new leadership in the Florida Legislature, a change that can shift priorities, but with housing affordability, condominium reforms and property insurance presenting significant challenges even after recent legislative actions, the incoming House speaker and Senate president have indicated that they will pay close attention to these real estate-related issues in 2025.

  • January 15, 2025

    Judge Warns DOJ: Settle Burger Forfeiture Suit Or Pay Up

    A Michigan federal judge on Tuesday expressed frustration with Justice Department officials' delays in resolving a civil forfeiture action over an alleged $11 million healthcare fraud scheme involving money laundered through Big Boy Restaurant, telling federal prosecutors they have until next week to settle the case or pay the chain's recent legal bills.

  • January 15, 2025

    Fried Frank Guides $177M Financing For NYC Office Building

    GFP Real Estate, a commercial real estate owner and manager, has borrowed more than $177 million from merchant bank BDT & MSD to acquire and partially convert a Manhattan office building into residential units, in a financing deal advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, according to official property records.

  • January 15, 2025

    Texas Development Projects To Watch In 2025

    The Texas development boom is showing no signs of slowing in 2025, with major projects from office campuses to mixed-use and industrial all set to create ripples throughout the state's real estate industry.

  • January 15, 2025

    Real Estate Attys Eye Busy Texas Legislative Session

    With Texas' biennial legislative session underway, the housing and development issues that gummed up 2023 to the tune of multiple special session extensions appear poised to come back fresh in 2025.

  • January 15, 2025

    California Real Estate Policy To Watch In 2025

    Municipal mansion taxes, clunky permitting processes and a recently passed law enacting building and design standards for logistics facilities are among the real estate policies teed up for review in California in 2025.

  • January 15, 2025

    Casino Bids, Zoning Reform To Shape NYC Real Estate In 2025

    The world of New York City real estate is anticipating major changes in 2025, including advancing casino proposals, implementing a major zoning reform and considering a new hotel licensing law.

  • January 15, 2025

    Midwest Real Estate Projects To Watch In 2025

    While Chicago developers are eyeing a host of new skyscraper projects, various other Midwest cities are primed to see big changes to their skylines over the coming years.

  • January 14, 2025

    NY Appeals Court OKs Arbitration Stay In $60M Hotel Fight

    A New York appeals court has affirmed a lower court order pausing an arbitration initiated by a hotel co-owner in a $60 million dispute with another co-owner over the purported mismanagement of eight hotels nationwide.

  • January 14, 2025

    Mich. Judge Won't Step Aside After Atty Turnover Quip

    A Michigan federal judge refused to step aside from overseeing a lawsuit from a pastor who alleges a township's zoning ordinance discriminates against religious entities, ruling Monday that comments he made about the number of attorneys the pastor has had or praise he gave prior counsel do not show any bias against the plaintiffs.

  • January 14, 2025

    Biden Order Outlines Steps For Bolstering AI Infrastructure

    President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday that aims to shape the country into an artificial intelligence infrastructure leader by working with the private sector to build data centers.

  • January 14, 2025

    Experts See Long Road To LA Rebuild Despite CEQA Freeze

    With the wildfires continuing in Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to suspend environmental and other permitting rules in an early step to ease the regulatory burden once rebuilding starts from the disaster, expected to be one of the costliest in U.S. history.

  • January 14, 2025

    Ackman Retracts Sullivan Dig In $1.5B Howard Hughes Offer

    Pershing Square Holdings founder Bill Ackman has leaked a $1.5 billion proposal on social media that calls for merging his hedge fund and real estate developer Howard Hughes Holdings, and appeared to blame Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in a post for the informal release before he walked back that comment.

  • January 14, 2025

    SF Office Vacancy Rates Stay Steady With Dry Pipeline

    San Francisco's office market saw vacancy rates remain largely unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2024, a time in which no significant office property developments were underway, according to a report from CBRE.

  • January 14, 2025

    DOI Greenlights Calif. Tribe's $700M Casino, Housing Project

    A California tribe is set to build a $700 million project near the San Francisco Bay area that is proposed to include a casino and resort, two dozen homes and a biological preserve, following years of litigation and controversy surrounding the endeavor.

  • January 14, 2025

    Long Island Industrial Leasing Fell In Q4, CBRE Says

    Leasing activity and net absorption of Long Island industrial properties declined significantly in the fourth quarter of 2024 amid rising vacancy rates, according to a report from real estate services firm CBRE.

  • January 14, 2025

    Real Estate Lawyers On The Move

    Schiller & Wilkes and Quarles & Brady are among the law firms that have made recent real estate or construction hires.

  • January 14, 2025

    Easement Worth $1M, Not $18M, Gov't Tells 11th Circ.

    The U.S. Tax Court was right to believe expert testimony that a claimed conservation easement donation of roughly $18 million was only worth $1 million, the government told the Eleventh Circuit, urging it to reject the donors' claims that the expert was unreliable.

  • January 14, 2025

    Simpson Thacher, Sullivan Rep CBRE's $400M Coworking Buy

    CBRE Group Inc. announced on Tuesday it will purchase coworking company Industrious National Management Company LLC for $400 million in a deal guided by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

  • January 14, 2025

    Eversheds Sutherland Adds Ex-Cole Schotz Atty

    Eversheds Sutherland has hired commercial real estate transactions attorney Emanuel Tsourounis II, a former Cole Schotz PC partner, for its team in New York City.

  • January 14, 2025

    Buchanan Ingersoll Grows In Fla. With Nason Yeager RE Atty

    Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC has strengthened its real estate capabilities in Tampa, Florida, with the addition of a Nason Yeager Gerson Harris & Fumero PA attorney.

  • January 14, 2025

    Macquarie, Data Center Biz Enter $5B Financing Partnership

    Digital infrastructure and data center company Applied Digital Corp., advised by Lowenstein Sandler LLP, on Tuesday announced it has entered into a $5 billion financing facility with funds managed by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP-led Macquarie Asset Management for its high-performance computing business.

  • January 14, 2025

    Expert Sees Land Use, Building Codes As Key To LA Rebuild

    Kimiko Barrett, senior wildfire policy analyst at nonpartisan research organization Headwaters Economics, told Law360 Real Estate Authority that because California has been a leader in crafting wildfire policy, the state's decision-makers are now venturing into new territory to assess the successes and failures of those innovative measures.

  • January 13, 2025

    Judge Says California Tribe Can't Block Casino Land Decision

    A California tribe can't block the Interior Department from taking 65 acres into trust for a fellow state tribe's proposed casino project, a federal district judge said, arguing that it has not satisfied the burden to prove an immediate threat of irreparable harm.

  • January 13, 2025

    Newsom Waives Permits, Enviro Rules To Rebuild LA Faster

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom in an executive order Sunday suspended state environmental rules and permitting in coastal areas, a move intended to help rebuild from wildfires causing extensive destruction in Los Angeles.

Expert Analysis

  • Cannabis Supercenters: Key Benefits And Legal Issues

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    Barstow, California’s novel plan to convert an abandoned mall into a cannabis supercenter could offer a potential blueprint for cannabis companies to thrive in a saturated market and for communities to repurpose underutilized retail spaces — but certain financing, zoning and leasing issues will need to be assessed, says Christopher Gordon at Fox Rothschild.

  • EB-5 Reform Continues To Weigh Heavily On Participants

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    Recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance helps clarify aspects of the 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, which increased oversight of EB-5 regional centers, but does not end the industry's continuing state of uncertainty, says Robert Divine at Baker Donelson.

  • EV Chargers Can Bring Benefits For Calif. Property Owners

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    California property developers and owners face growing pressure to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure — but this can be a unique opportunity to add value to real estate assets, and can be accomplished in multiple ways, say Riley Cutner-Orrantia and Eurie Hwang at Crosbie Gliner.

  • Brownfield Renewables Guidance Leaves Site Eligibility Murky

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    Recent IRS guidance sheds some light on the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for renewable energy development on contaminated sites — but the eligibility of certain sites for brownfield status remains uncertain, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.

  • Pending Legislation Holds Promise For SF Buildings

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    Recently introduced state and local legislation could make it easier for office-to-residential conversion projects in San Francisco to secure approval and funding sources, although financial incentives similar to those implemented by other states may be necessary to ensure the feasibility of such projects, say Caroline Chase and Nick DuBroff at Allen Matkins.

  • SVB Collapse Underscores Policy And Regulatory Pitfalls

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    The recent failures of three American banks reveal hidden vulnerabilities, raise concerns about moral hazard, and highlight the need for tighter regulation and closer monitoring of unrealized investment-portfolio losses in the U.S. banking system, says attorney Patrick Meson.

  • NY Bankruptcy Court Pivots On Commercial Rent Damage Cap

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    A New York bankruptcy court departed from its prior precedent in the recent Cortlandt Liquidating case, effectively lowering the commercial rent damages cap, and making the court a little less friendly for landlords but potentially an attractive venue for debtors planning to reject significant commercial leases, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Bankruptcy Sales Uncertain After Justices' Section 363 Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's holding in MOAC v. Transform that Section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code is not a jurisdictional provision means parties to 363 sales are now at the mercy of courts that may have differing perspectives on the issue, creating uncertainty for trustees, third parties and purchasers, say Thomas Loeb and Carrie Brosius at Vorys.

  • Commercial Real Estate Lending Checkup Amid Market Unrest

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    Given the sustained volatility of current lending markets, now may be a good time for financing institutions to dust off their commercial real estate agreements and update them if necessary, say Emil Petrossian and Alexander Miller at Glaser Weil.

  • La. Suit Could Set New Enviro Justice Litigation Paradigm

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    Inclusive Louisiana v. St. James Parish, a lawsuit filed recently in Louisiana federal court that makes wide-ranging and novel constitutional and statutory claims of environmental racism based on centuries of local history, could become a new template for environmental justice litigation against governments and businesses, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Policyholder Lessons From Sandy No-Coverage Decision

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    A New York federal court recently decided that in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Madelaine Chocolate knew Great Northern Insurance’s all-risk policy offered no coverage for storm surge — an important reminder that policyholders should review policy language for ambiguities or anti-concurrent causation clauses, say Dennis Artese and Joshua Zelen at Anderson Kill.

  • 5th Circ. Offers Expert Opinion Guidance For Insurance Cases

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    A recent Fifth Circuit decision in Majestic Oil v. Lloyd's of London provides insight into how Texas' concurrent causation doctrine could affect insurance cases where the cause of damage is at issue, and raises considerations for litigants faced with new or revised expert reports after the deadline has passed, say Brian Scarbrough and Cianan Lesley at Jenner & Block.

  • FTC Proposal Greatly Widens Auto-Renewal Regulation

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    The Federal Trade Commission's proposed rule on automatic renewal subscriptions would impose significant new obligations on sellers of negative option plans and expand the agency's enforcement powers, likely requiring companies to examine and change their practices, say attorneys at Squire Patton.