Commercial

  • February 07, 2025

    Judge Sides With Ga. Railroad In Eminent Domain Battle

    A Georgia state court judge sided Thursday with a railroad company in an eminent domain fight with residents opposing the construction of a rail spur through their property, upholding a Georgia Public Service Commission ruling that gave the green light to the condemnation.

  • February 07, 2025

    Under The Radar: Bankruptcy News You May Have Missed

    A onetime financial adviser to UpHealth is opposing the debtor's Chapter 11 plan, Hearthside Food Solutions' official committee of unsecured creditors has balked at the company's executive bonus proposal in bankruptcy, and one-time investors in defunct real estate investment firm RealtyShares willingly dismissed a suit against the firm's former directors, litigation that had outlived the firm's Chapter 7 by more than a year.

  • February 07, 2025

    Ballard Spahr Prepares Move To New Downtown Denver Office

    Ballard Spahr LLP plans to move 60 of its attorneys and other employees to a new downtown Denver office in August, having signed an 11-year lease for 19,000 square feet of space, the law firm announced Friday.

  • February 07, 2025

    Katten Real Estate Partner Joins Greenberg Traurig In Chicago

    Greenberg Traurig LLP has added former Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner Daniel Elrod as a shareholder in its Chicago real estate practice, bringing experience advising debt funds, life insurance companies and institutional lenders on a variety of deals.

  • February 07, 2025

    Aztec Fund To Sell 3 Office Buildings To Settle Ch. 11 Dispute

    Private equity investment group Aztec Fund told a Texas bankruptcy judge Friday it will sell three office buildings and aim to liquidate through Chapter 11 to resolve a dispute over the insolvency case with Bank of America.

  • February 07, 2025

    2 RE Execs, Brother Assaulted 60 Women, Feds Say

    Three brothers from Florida, including two prominent real estate executives, denied sex-trafficking charges in Manhattan federal court Friday alleging they conspired to drug and rape women, as a prosecutor said the authorities have interviewed over 60 victims.

  • February 06, 2025

    Atlanta Can't Dodge Suit Over Foiled Starbucks Development

    The City of Atlanta can't dodge allegations from a property owner that it illegally condemned a disused fast food joint, and in doing so foiled his plans to redevelop the land into a Starbucks coffee shop, a Georgia federal judge said Thursday.

  • February 06, 2025

    Policyholder Attys See Calif. Smoke Case As Boon For LA

    Smoke-damaged businesses in Los Angeles could benefit from a California federal court decision in January that likened smoke to asbestos, while differentiating smoke from viruses for insurance coverage purposes, according to policyholder attorneys.

  • February 06, 2025

    SL Green, RXR To Appeal NYC Office Renovation Funds Fight

    A joint venture between SL Green Realty Corp. and RXR Realty plans to appeal a New York state court finding that an affiliate of the mostly defunct New York REIT can do what it wants with a $90.7 million pot set aside for major renovations of the jointly owned Worldwide Plaza.

  • February 06, 2025

    Pot Co. Jushi Can't End Rival Shop's Antitrust Claims

    Cannabis distributor Jushi Holdings could plausibly be shown to have taken advantage of a Massachusetts town's retail marijuana permitting process and conspired with the sellers of a shop it purchased in 2021 to block a competitor from opening nearby, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled.

  • February 06, 2025

    Nixon Peabody Adds Greenberg Glusker Cannabis Co-Chair

    Nixon Peabody LLP is boosting its West Coast litigation team, bringing in a former federal prosecutor, who was most recently the founder and co-chair of the cannabis practice at Greenberg Glusker LLP, as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

  • February 06, 2025

    PFAS Landscape Likely To Change Again In 2025, Atty Says

    Property developers were thrown into a new regulatory landscape in 2024 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated two PFAS as hazardous substances, but there appears to be even more upheaval on the horizon.

  • February 06, 2025

    Fried Frank Advises Carr Properties On Freshfields' DC Move

    New York law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP agreed to take three floors as it moves to a new office in Washington, D.C., with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP advising landlord Carr Properties on the deal.

  • February 05, 2025

    Loeb & Loeb Real Estate Leaders Eye Tariff Mitigation

    In the first in a series of Q&As on the Trump administration’s tariffs and their impact on the U.S. construction industry, Law360 Real Estate Authority chatted with two experts at Loeb & Loeb LLP.

  • February 05, 2025

    Seattle Garage Not Covered For Deadly Shooting, Insurer Says

    An insurer said Wednesday that it does not owe the owners of Seattle's "sinking ship" public garage coverage in an underlying wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man fatally shot while parking his car at the downtown facility.

  • February 05, 2025

    Judge Won't Pause Crowdfunding Case After Fraud Indictment

    A target of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first crowdfunding enforcement action can't pause that three-year-old case to defend himself against unrelated charges that he ran a pump-and-dump scheme with a hallucinogenic mushroom company, a Michigan judge ruled Wednesday.

  • February 05, 2025

    Nixon Peabody Taps Ex-Faegre Drinker Environmental Atty

    Nixon Peabody LLP hired a former Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP environmental attorney for the firm's New York City office.

  • February 05, 2025

    Alaska Sues In DC Over Tribe's Anchorage Gaming Hall

    The state of Alaska is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior and an Alaska Native tribe in D.C. federal court, seeking to wipe out a series of agency decisions the state says upended jurisdictional authority over Alaska lands and authorized the tribe to operate a gaming hall in Anchorage.

  • February 05, 2025

    Insurers Sued Over $8M In Water Damage At Wash. Condos

    Farmers and Western National have allegedly breached their property insurance policies by refusing to cover nearly $8 million in hidden water damage at two Seattle-area condominium complexes, according to separate complaints filed by the condo owners associations.

  • February 05, 2025

    Real Estate Group Of The Year: Gibson Dunn

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP advised on deals including Signature Bank's loan sale, two mega multifamily portfolio sales and the rise of an ultra-luxury tower in New York City in 2024, placing the firm among the 2024 Law360 Real Estate Groups of the Year.

  • February 05, 2025

    Construction Group Of The Year: Orrick

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP guided New York City's Department of Design and Construction as lead counsel on the development of the agency's design-build program, which includes a $13 billion project to replace Rikers Island with community-based jails by using a novel project delivery method for the city, earning the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Construction Groups of the Year.

  • February 05, 2025

    Proskauer Fights Another DQ Bid In NJ Hospital Antitrust Suit

    A New Jersey federal magistrate judge was right to allow Proskauer Rose LLP to continue as counsel for RWJBarnabas Health Inc. since the firm's prior advice to CarePoint Health on its use of COVID-19 relief funds is unrelated to the antitrust lawsuit currently playing out between the two companies, according to the firm.

  • February 05, 2025

    Modern CRE Finance Asks More Of Real Estate Practices

    Dramatic shifts are happening in the way commercial real estate is financed. Transactions have gotten “faster, larger and more complicated,” in the words of one attorney, and real estate practices have had to adapt to an evolving sector.

  • February 04, 2025

    Watchdog Says Site Selection For New FBI Building Flawed

    A U.S. General Services Administration watchdog found that the GSA's contentious process for determining the site for a new FBI headquarters involved several flaws that made it difficult for site selection officials to accurately decide between proposed locations.

  • February 04, 2025

    Sonesta Plans $850M Hotel-Condo Tower In Miami

    Sonesta International Hotels Corp. has entered into an agreement with a group of Florida developers to build an 82-story tower to house The James Hotel & Residences Downtown Miami, according to the hospitality chain.

Expert Analysis

  • Sellers Seeking Best Deal Should Focus On Terms And Price

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    Rising interest rates and a decline in the automotive mergers and acquisitions market mean that a failed deal carries greater stakes, and sellers therefore should pursue not only the optimum price but also the optimum terms to safeguard their agreement, says Joseph Aboyoun at Fox Rothschild.

  • Illinois Trump Tower Ruling Illuminates Insurance 'Occurrence'

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    In Continental Casualty v. 401 North Wabash Venture, an Illinois appellate court found that Trump Tower was not entitled to insurance coverage for operating its HVAC system without a permit, helping to further define a widely litigated general liability insurance issue — what constitutes an "occurrence," say Robert Tugander and Greg Mann at Rivkin Radler.

  • A Bird's Eye View Of NYC's New Parapet Inspection Law

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    Building owners in New York City should be ready for the city's new parapet inspection requirements going into effect in January, which will likely necessitate additional construction work for countless buildings not previously subject to formal inspections, says Benjamin Fox Tracy at Braverman Greenspun.

  • How Fla. Bankruptcy Ruling May Affect Equity Owners

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    A Florida bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Vital Pharmaceuticals — which rejected the Third Circuit’s Majestic Star decision that determined a bankrupt corporation’s flow-through status was not protected by the automatic stay — may significantly affect how equity owners can mitigate the impact of flow-through structures in bankruptcy, say Eric Behl-Remijan and Natasha Hwangpo at Ropes & Gray.

  • Calif. Ruling May Open Bankruptcy Trustees To Tort Liability

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    In Martin v. Gladstone, a recent California appellate court decision, the application of tort concepts to bankruptcy trustees could pose a new concern for trustees and federal receivers when controlling and maintaining commercial property, says Jarrett Osborne-Revis at Buchalter.

  • Considerations For Navigating Mixed-Use Developments

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    As mixed-use developments continue to rise in popularity, developers considering this approach to urban planning must be aware of key considerations ranging from title and zoning laws to proper engagement with stakeholders, says Mehdi Sinaki at Michelman & Robinson.

  • 1st Tax Easement Convictions Will Likely Embolden DOJ, IRS

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    After recent convictions in the first criminal tax fraud trial over allegedly abusive syndicated conservation easements, the IRS and U.S. Department of Justice will likely pursue other promoters for similar alleged conspiracies — though one acquittal may help attorneys better evaluate their clients' exposure, say Bill Curtis and Lauren DeSantis-Then at Polsinelli.

  • Compliance Primer: Foreign Investment In US Real Property

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    The rise in foreign investment in U.S. real property, especially agricultural land, has led to increased national security concerns, meaning it’s important to understand reporting requirements under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act and state-level statutes, and to monitor legislative proposals that could create more stringent reporting and review processes, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • How CRE Loans Would Shift Under New Bank Capital Rules

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    Attorneys at MoFo discuss how commercial real estate loans would fare under federal banking agencies' proposed changes to how large banks risk-weight loans, particularly how CRE loans are weighed based on the current standardized framework versus the proposed expanded approach.

  • Calif. GHG Disclosure Law Will Affect Companies Worldwide

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    California's Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, which will require comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions disclosures from large companies operating in the state, will mean compliance challenges for a wide range of industries, nationally and globally, as the law's requirements will ultimately trickle out and down, say attorneys at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • What Retail Landlords Must Know About Permitted Transfers

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    As trying economic times require tenants to create options to cease their operations by transferring their lease obligations to other parties, retail landlords must give significant thought to how permitted transfers are drafted, and how parties are to be protected in the present and the future, says Scott Grossfeld at Cox Castle.

  • Proactive Measures While NY Foreclosure Law Is In Limbo

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    While questions about the scope and constitutionality of New York's Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act might not be resolved by courts for years, lenders, borrowers and other interested parties can take action to protect their rights and potentially expedite appellate review, say Allison Schoenthal and Andrew Kim at Goodwin.

  • EB-5 Investment Period Clarification Raises More Questions

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    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' recent clarifying guidance for EB-5 investors, specifying that the statutory investment period begins two years from the date of investment, raises as many questions as it answers given related agency requirements and investors' potential contractual obligations, says Daniel Lundy at Klasko Immigration Law Partners.