Commercial

  • February 28, 2025

    Feds Say Tribes Can't Block New Oregon Casino

    The federal government and an Oregon Native American tribe are pushing back on a bid from three other tribes to block the operation of a new casino in Oregon, telling the D.C. Circuit that the tribes filed their emergency motion improperly and are likely to lose on the merits of their case.

  • February 28, 2025

    Seattle Property Owner Slaps Exxon With Cleanup Suit

    A Seattle property owner hit Exxon Mobil Corp. with a lawsuit seeking to hold it liable for the costs of cleaning up pollution from a former gas station, according to a complaint the energy giant removed to federal court on Friday.

  • February 28, 2025

    Cheyenne Sioux Tribe Says US Must Pay For Building Repairs

    A Wyoming tribe is asking the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an order that determined the federal government is not responsible for paying for a deteriorating building on its reservation, arguing that the contract over the structure is rooted in a treaty-based, nation-to-nation relationship.

  • February 28, 2025

    GSA Wrongly Axed Lease Over Smelly Building, Board Says

    The General Services Administration should not have terminated an office building lease with the Social Security Administration even though the agency ultimately left after employees complained of strange odors, the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals has ruled.

  • February 28, 2025

    Newmark Guides $450M Houston Trophy Skyscraper Refi

    Texas-based real estate investment manager Hines and real estate investor and Canadian developer Ivanhoé Cambridge have obtained a $450 million refinancing loan for a 47-story Houston trophy office skyscraper in a deal guided by Newmark Group Inc., the commercial real estate adviser announced.

  • February 28, 2025

    Nixon Peabody Adds Smith Gambrell Real Estate Atty In NY

    An experienced real estate attorney who focuses his work on commercial transactions has made the move from Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP to Nixon Peabody LLP's New York office.

  • February 28, 2025

    Dallas-Area Officials OK Features For $2.5B Mixed-Use Project

    Planning officials in Frisco, Texas, have signed off on a parking garage, an amphitheater and a group of 10 retail and restaurant buildings for a developer's $2.5 billion project north of Dallas called Firefly Park.

  • February 28, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Gibson Dunn, Skadden

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone acquires Safe Harbor Marinas, National Grid sells its green subsidiary in the U.S. to Brookfield, Apollo Global Management buys Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc., and Teleflex splits into two publicly traded companies.

  • February 27, 2025

    Honduras Loses Bid To Duck US Developer's $11B Claim

    An international tribunal has rejected Honduras' bid for an early exit from a politically sensitive $10.7 billion claim asserted by a U.S. property developer over a nixed law that created special economic zones known as ZEDEs, ruling Wednesday that the developer was not obligated to first exhaust local remedies.

  • February 27, 2025

    Real Estate Fund Says Property Cos. Lost Investor Funds

    A real estate investment fund has sued various companies associated with a man accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of defrauding investors in an alleged $1 billion scheme, telling a Florida state court that the companies made off with millions of dollars of investor funds meant to go toward specific real estate projects.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge Axes NYC Loan Row, Sanctions Firm For Depositions

    A New York federal judge has dismissed a commercial real estate lender's claims against two guarantors for a 2022 loan it made, ripping the lender and its ex-counsel, Fox Rothschild LLP, for deposition no-shows.

  • February 27, 2025

    NRA Urges High Court to Consider NY Carry Law Case

    The National Rifle Association and the superintendent of New York State Police are at odds over whether the U.S. Supreme Court should take up a case regarding a state law requiring "good moral character" as a prerequisite to obtaining a gun permit, with both sides filing dueling briefs to the justices.

  • February 27, 2025

    Landlords Can't Duck Injury Claim From Dweller Not On Lease

    A Washington state appeals court said Thursday that landlords must face a claim from a pregnant woman who was injured from a fall down a flight of stairs, even though she had not signed the rental lease, in an opinion that said the lower court erred by tossing the case on the eve of trial without giving proper notice.

  • February 27, 2025

    Starwood Execs Say Multifamily Starts Will Keep Dropping

    Starwood Property Trust executives said on a Feb. 27 earnings call that they believe impending tariffs and immigration policy will drive rents up and multifamily starts down, even as the company reported foreclosing on three multifamily properties in the fourth quarter.

  • February 27, 2025

    Wildfires Threaten Over $2T Worth Of Properties, Risk Co. Says

    About 4.3 million homes worth $2.15 trillion are facing heightened risk of wildfire damage across the United States, while intensifying climate conditions continue to impact the affordability and availability of insurance, risk modeling company ZestyAI reported Thursday.

  • February 27, 2025

    Insurer For Mass. Gaming Board Off Hook For Land Dispute

    A Massachusetts state court judge said Landmark American Insurance's duty to defend the state's Gaming Commission in a long-running lawsuit over the site of the Encore Boston Harbor Casino ended nearly three years ago.

  • February 27, 2025

    Energy Co. Sued Over Rent, Radioactive Waste Disclosures

    A Brooklyn property owner and two companies accused National Grid of owing rent on the site of a former industrial facility and impeding their businesses by not telling them quickly enough that there were radioactive materials there.

  • February 27, 2025

    Judge Won't Force Victim's Atty's Reports In Sex Assault Case

    A Florida state judge on Thursday denied a request by three men, including a real estate broker, facing sexual assault charges to force discovery of reports by the victim's attorney at Morgan & Morgan PA.

  • February 27, 2025

    How Adams' Latest Move Might Checkmate The DOJ

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams' push to permanently dismiss his federal corruption case is a clever legal strategy that appears to have backed the government into a corner, experts say.

  • February 27, 2025

    Mich. Bill Would Bar Local Tax Caps That Require Rate Cuts

    Michigan would bar local governments from enacting property tax caps on annual revenue that require an automatic tax rate cut under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.

  • February 26, 2025

    Trump Orders Fed Agencies To Plan For Large Layoffs

    The White House is telling federal agencies to submit plans for "large-scale" layoffs by mid-March, accusing them of siphoning funding for "unproductive and unnecessary programs" and "not producing results for the American public."

  • February 26, 2025

    AI Efficiency A Risk For Data Centers? Attys Don't Think So

    The risks facing deals in the data center space currently revolve around whether power is available and when — not whether artificial intelligence models may become so efficient that certain types of digital infrastructure facilities lose their appeal, attorneys told Law360.

  • February 26, 2025

    Dewberry Ruling May Lead To More Defendants In TM Fights

    Plaintiffs in trademark disputes likely will consider including multiple defendants in their complaints when it's unclear who holds the profits from the alleged infringement, according to intellectual property attorneys, after the U.S. Supreme Court remanded a case because nonparty affiliates of a defendant were ordered to pay an award that reached nearly $47 million.

  • February 26, 2025

    Real Estate Takes Stock Of Federal Lease Upheaval

    As the federal government rebalances its real estate holdings, firms that lease to federal agencies are assessing their exposure. Some firms are poised to benefit from the cost-cutting or have leases that are shielded from termination. But a weak office market may make it easier for the government to drop even those leases.

  • February 26, 2025

    Zimbabwe Says $440M Arbitral Award Can't Be Enforced

    The Republic of Zimbabwe is opposing a bid for summary judgment by a Swiss-German family and two forestry and sawmill companies several months after the D.C. Circuit ruled that a lower court could enforce $440 million worth of arbitral awards against the country.

Expert Analysis

  • Portland's Gross Receipts Tax Oversteps City's Authority

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    Recent measures by Portland, Oregon, that expand the voter-approved scope of the Clean Energy Surcharge on certain retail sales eviscerate the common meaning of the word "retail" and exceed the city's chartered authority to levy tax, say Nikki Dobay at Greenberg Traurig and Jeff Newgard at Peak Policy.

  • Proposed Law Would Harm NYC Hospitality Industry

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    A recently proposed New York City Law that would update hotel licensing and staff coverage requirements could give the city commissioner and unions undue control over the city's hospitality industry, and harm smaller hotels that cannot afford full-time employees, says Stuart Saft at Holland & Knight.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers certification cases touching on classwide evidence of injury from debt collection practices, defining coupon settlements under the Class Action Fairness Act, proper approaches for evaluating attorney fee awards in class action settlements, and more.

  • Brownfield Questions Surround IRS Tax Credit Bonus

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    Though the IRS has published guidance regarding the Inflation Reduction Act's 10% adder for tax credits generated by renewable energy projects constructed on brownfield sites, considerable guesswork remains as potential implications seem contrary to IRS intentions, say Megan Caldwell and Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.

  • DOJ Paths To Limit FARA Fallout From Wynn's DC Circ. Win

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    After the D.C. Circuit’s recent Attorney General v. Wynn ruling, holding that the government cannot compel retroactive registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the U.S. Department of Justice has a few options to limit the decision’s impact on enforcement, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Shipping Containers As Building Elements Require Diligence

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    With the shipping container market projected to double between 2020 and 2028, repurposing containers as storage units, office spaces and housing may become more common, but developers must make sure they comply with requirements that can vary by intended use and location, says Steven Otto at Crosbie Gliner.

  • NY Tax Talk: Triggers For Tax On Software-As-A-Service

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    Recent decisions by New York’s Tax Appeals Tribunal and Division of Tax Appeals, finding that services bundled with prewritten software were tangible property, provide insight into the features and customer interactions that render such products subject to New York sales tax, say Elizabeth Cha and Madison Ball at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • NY Ruling Offers A Foreclosure Road Map For Lenders

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    A New York appellate court recently upheld a summary judgment ruling in favor of a commercial lender's foreclosure in U.S. Bank v. 1226 Evergreen Bapaz, illustrating the proofs lenders will need to prosecute a foreclosure action, especially where the plaintiff is an assignee of the originating lender, say attorneys at Sherman Atlas.

  • Kentucky Tax Talk: Appeals Court Revisits Leases' Tax Effects

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    With better facts and greater emphasis on the Kentucky Constitution, Walgreen Co. may succeed in its latest Kentucky Court of Appeals challenge to a tax assessor's method of valuing leaseholds on real property for purposes of determining ad valorem tax, say Mark Sommer and Elizabeth Ethington at Frost Brown Todd.

  • Utilizing Liability Exemption When Calif. Cities Lease Property

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    With rising costs pushing California municipalities to lease real estate assets instead of purchasing them, municipalities should review the ample case law that supports certain exceptions to California Constitution Section 18(a) requirements, providing that certain long-term lease obligations are not considered to be liabilities, says Steven Otto at Crosbie Gliner.

  • How NJ Worker Status Ruling Benefits Real Estate Industry

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    In Kennedy v. Weichert, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently said a real estate agent’s employment contract would supersede the usual ABC test analysis to determine his classification as an independent contractor, preserving operational flexibility for the industry — and potentially others, say Jason Finkelstein and Dalila Haden at Cole Schotz.

  • A Checklist For Lenders Preparing For CRE Loan Defaults

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    Considering the recent interest rate environment, lenders should brush up on the proper steps that they should take when preparing to respond to a borrower's default on a commercial real estate loan, and borrowers should understand what lenders will be reviewing, says attorney Norma Williams.

  • 7th Circ Joins Trend Of No CGL Coverage For Structural Flaws

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    The Seventh Circuit, which recently held potential structural instability did not count as property damage under a construction company's commercial general liability policy, joins a growing consensus that faulty work does not implicate coverage without tangible and present damage to the project, say Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty, and Elan Kandel and James Talbert at Bailey Cavalieri.