Residential
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August 14, 2024
AmeriFirst Creditors Cleared To Pursue $10M Clawback Suit
AmeriFirst's unsecured creditors can seek repayment of $10.3 million they alleged were fraudulently transferred, a Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled Wednesday, saying there are open questions about a secured lender's influence over the defunct mortgage services provider leading up to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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August 14, 2024
Calif. Court Demands Edits To Rent Control Ballot Proposal
A California court has ordered the state to amend a voter guide that will be sent to all residents next month, requiring tweaks to arguments against a proposal to repeal a law that prevents local governments from enacting certain rent control measures.
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August 14, 2024
Rising Star: Kirkland's Michael Shultz
Michael Shultz of Kirkland & Ellis LLP has advised investor Blue Owl on several major transactions, including its $15 billion acquisition of real estate investment trust STORE Capital Corp. with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, earning him a spot among the real estate law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 14, 2024
Opinion May Reduce Mixed-Use Mix-Ups On Fla. Housing Law
A recent legal opinion from the Florida Attorney General's Office should add clarity to a portion of the Live Local Act, the state's year-old affordable housing law, that appeared to be giving some local governments pause — or possibly an excuse — to avoid its implementation, according to one of its authors.
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August 14, 2024
EliseAI Becomes 'Unicorn' After Latest $75M Fundraise
EliseAI, a conversational artificial-intelligence platform focused on the housing industry, on Aug. 14 announced it had reached "unicorn" status after the successful close of a $75 million Series D funding round.
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August 14, 2024
JLL Lines Up $33M JV Equity For $95M Multifamily Project
JLL arranged a $33.3 million joint venture equity partnership for a $95 million Madison, Wisconsin, multifamily development project that will have 309 units and six mid-rise buildings, according to an official announcement.
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August 14, 2024
Rising Star: Latham's Dustin Paige
Latham & Watkins LLP counsel Dustin Paige's work on large, complex deals, including a $7 billion joint venture between Digital Realty Trust and Blackstone Inc. to develop four hyperscale data center campuses and Flynn Properties' $1.1 billion acquisition of an 89-hotel portfolio and its subsequent refinancing, has earned him a spot among the real estate attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 14, 2024
Rising Star: Perkins Coie's Mica Klein
Mica Klein of Perkins Coie LLP has advised Microsoft on a series of data center and electrical substation construction projects across North, Central and South America and represents the Seattle Mariners in a major stadium renovation, earning her a spot among the construction law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 14, 2024
Brewers Owner Implicated In Fight Over Stolen Beach Sand
The principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers has been drawn into a testy dispute accusing one of his companies of stealing public beachfront sand in Malibu, California, and using it to build out a nearby private development.
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August 14, 2024
Holland & Knight Atty Previews DC Flood Construction Rules
With only weeks left in the public comment period of Washington, D.C.'s proposed flood hazard rule change — a regulation that significantly widens the area under strict climate-driven building guidelines — attorneys like Holland & Knight LLP partner Amy L. Edwards have been analyzing maps, base flood elevations and what constitutes a public use in client projects.
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August 14, 2024
DC Tax Relief Can Aid Office Projects, But It's No 'Silver Bullet'
While tax relief programs may help a handful of office conversion projects in Washington, D.C., and make financial sense, much more needs to happen to bring the city's struggling downtown back to life again, real estate experts say.
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August 14, 2024
SEC Says Ga. Firm's Ponzi Scheme Fueled 'Lavish' Lifestyle
An Atlanta-area firm that promised investors lucrative returns on real estate deals was in reality running a "classic Ponzi scheme" by funneling portions of the $300 million it received into buying a yacht and a luxury condo for its founder, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.
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August 13, 2024
CFPB Says Predatory Lenders Targeting Muslim Homebuyers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday it found that an often predatory form of home financing, known as contracts for deed, has become increasingly prevalent in Muslim communities.
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August 13, 2024
NYC Developer Lands $72M For Luxury Condo Project
The developer behind a 117-unit luxury condominium development under construction in Queens, New York, secured $72 million in construction financing from Naftali Credit Partners and Axos Bank.
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August 13, 2024
New Realtor Complaint Challenges NAR's Membership Rule
The National Association of Realtors is facing a new proposed class action, this time from Michigan real estate brokers and agents challenging state and local requirements that they be members of local and national Realtor organizations to use the association's multiple listing services.
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August 13, 2024
Fried Frank Guides Howard Hughes' $40M Air Rights Deal
Howard Hughes Corp. has purchased $40 million worth of air rights from New York City for two Manhattan properties in a deal guided by Fried Frank, as the real estate company presses forward with the redevelopment of a Seaport lot.
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August 13, 2024
Goetz Fitzpatrick Adds New Partner To Roster Ahead Of Merger
As it prepares to merge with a Northeastern law firm at the start of next year, New York-based construction and real estate firm Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP announced the addition of a name partner from another Empire State firm Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz Coschignano PLLC.
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August 13, 2024
SCALE Lending Inks $75M Loan For NJ Multifamily Project
A New Jersey developer will wrap up construction of a 294-unit apartment community and begin leasing after SCALE Lending provided $75 million in bridge financing, refinancing its earlier construction loan, the lender has announced.
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August 13, 2024
Connecticut Justices Restore City's Lien On Burned Building
The city of Hartford can place a lien on an apartment building that was heavily damaged in an arson fire to make sure that it recoups the funds that paid for 39 families to relocate, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in overturning a trial court's decision to discharge the lien.
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August 12, 2024
New York Appeals Court Revives NYU's Zoning Suit
A New York appeals court revived and remanded New York University's suit against the city over an amended zoning law that the university claimed would wrongfully restrict it from building dorms and classrooms in a rezoned area of Manhattan.
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August 12, 2024
Claims Trimmed In Goldman Family's NYC Property Battle
A New York state judge has tossed several claims that inheritors of the late Sol Goldman's real estate empire filed in a dispute over control of the family business, while keeping mismanagement claims against the deceased billionaire's daughter alive.
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August 12, 2024
Construction Co. Says Tribe Can't Escape $1.9M Wage Suit
A New York construction company is fighting a bid by an entity created by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to dismiss a $1.9 million wage dispute for work done on an $11.75 million Cape Cod, Massachusetts, housing project, arguing that sovereign immunity can't protect it from the litigation.
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August 12, 2024
Co. Says Title Insurer Acted In Bad Faith Over Deed Dispute
An owner of two adjacent parcels of land in Philadelphia accused its title insurer in Pennsylvania state court of ignoring its repeated requests to settle an underlying deed dispute and basing its coverage position on an "obviously nonsensical and unsupportable" appraisal.
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August 12, 2024
2nd Circ. Nixes 'Excessive' $5M Award For Housing Nonprofit
The Second Circuit on Monday overturned a $5 million award to a nonprofit that faced pushback from a Connecticut town while trying to open a group home for individuals with disabilities, finding that it was unconstitutionally excessive, but at the same time castigated the municipality's officials for "highly reprehensible" conduct.
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August 12, 2024
Ind. Tax Board Reverses Valuation Of Rental Property
An Indiana tax board must reconsider the use of a single-family property that is rented out by its corporate owner, since the local assessor valued the home like an owner-occupied residence, the state's tax court said.
Expert Analysis
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Debate Over CFPB Definition Of Credit Is Just Beginning
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recently worked to expand the meaning of credit, so anyone operating on the edges of the credit markets, or even those who assumed they were safely outside the scope of this regulatory perimeter, should pay close attention as legal challenges to broad interpretations of the definition unfold, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Closer Look At Feds' Proposed Banker Compensation Rule
A recently proposed rule to limit financial institutions' ability to award incentive-based compensation for risk-taking may progress through the rulemaking process slowly due to the sheer number of regulators collaborating on the rule and the number of issues under consideration, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief
As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.
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In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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What's New In Kentucky's Financial Services Overhaul
Kentucky's H.B. 726 will go into effect in July and brings with it some significant restructuring to the Kentucky Financial Services Code, including changes to mortgage loan license fees and repeals of provisions relating to installment term loans and savings associations, say attorneys at Frost Brown.
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A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches
Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.
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Tax Assessment: Recapping Georgia's Legislative Session
Jonathan Feldman and Alla Raykin at Eversheds Sutherland examine tax-related changes from Georgia’s General Assembly — such as the governor’s successful push to accelerate income tax cuts — and suggest steps to take before certain tax incentives are challenged in the state's next legislative session.
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11th Circ. Ruling May Foreshadow Ch. 15 Clashes
The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in In re: Talal Qais Abdulmunem Al Zawawi has introduced a split from the Second Circuit regarding whether debtors in foreign proceedings must have a domicile, calling attention to the understudied nature of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Cleary.
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Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
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A Look At New IRS Rules For Domestically Controlled REITs
The Internal Revenue Services' finalized Treasury Regulations addressing whether real estate investment trusts qualify as domestically controlled adopt the basic structure of previous proposals, but certain new and modified rules may mitigate the regulations' impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.