Commercial

  • March 03, 2025

    5 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In February

    Justices in Suffolk County Superior Court's business litigation session tackled a range of issues in February, including greenwashing, consumer protection and development disputes.

  • March 03, 2025

    NC Hotel Developer Hits Ch. 11 After Defaulting On $17M Loan

    A North Carolina hotel developer embroiled in a $17 million lawsuit over a defaulted loan to build a Hyatt hotel near the Asheville airport filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, reporting assets and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.

  • March 03, 2025

    JLL Can't Get Early Win In $7.4M Broker Fee Suit, IT Co. Says

    Information technology staffing company Nityo Infotech Corp. is fighting JLL's early win bid in New York federal court in a $7.4 million brokerage fee dispute, arguing that it doesn't contractually owe anything to JLL.

  • March 03, 2025

    Firms Raise $470M For Opportunity Zone Projects In 4 States

    Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and real estate company Silverstein Properties on Monday said they have capped a fund at $470 million to invest in a group of four multifamily and mixed-use developments in four states, with nearly 2,000 housing units and 1.5 million square feet of space between the projects.

  • March 03, 2025

    NYC Real Estate Week In Review

    Weil Gotshal, Vinson & Elkins and Kanfer & Holtzer are among the law firms that picked up work on the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week.

  • March 03, 2025

    Jet Co. Says Insurer Can't Modify Airport Damage Appraisal

    A private jet charter company said a Liberty Mutual unit underpaid its claim for property damage to airport facilities following a March 2023 storm, telling a Kentucky federal court that the insurer is now seeking to unlawfully modify an ongoing appraisal of the claimed loss.

  • March 03, 2025

    Real Estate Cos. Strike $75K Deal In Time Shaving Suit

    A real estate investment company and its subsidiary will pay $75,000 to end a lawsuit alleging it underpaid cleaners by requiring them to clock out before they finished their work, according to a filing in New York federal court.

  • February 28, 2025

    Virginia Wary Of Going 'Too Far' On Data Center Regulation

    The results of Virginia's state legislative session show that lawmakers in a key market for the data center sector are taking a cautious approach to regulating the industry, as only a fraction of proposed rules have made it to the governor's desk.

  • February 28, 2025

    FDIC Can't Nix SVB Trust's Claims Feds Must Turn Over $1.93B

    A California federal judge has tossed a pair of claims from SVB Financial Trust's lawsuit alleging that the FDIC wrongfully took control of $1.93 billion in deposits amid Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, dismissing due process claims for good but allowing the trust to pursue promissory estoppel allegations and so-called turnover claims.

  • February 28, 2025

    Quarterly Calls: DeepSeek, Wildfires, Park Ave

    See what some of the largest real estate companies and investment firms told investors and analysts about the market and the prospects for data centers, multifamily housing and offices.

  • 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.

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.