Acquisitions, Dispositions & Leasing

• Long-term representation of one of the nation’s largest owners, managers, and developers of first-class office space. Representation includes work in connection with its office and retail leases in seven major Class A office towers in Manhattan.
• Representation of a large state teachers’ retirement system in a joint venture for the development, financing, master leasing, and ultimate sale of the new State Street Bank headquarters in Boston’s Financial District.
• Represented a nationally recognized developer in the acquisition, permitting, and sale of over 1 million square feet of land in the Seaport District of Boston.
• Represent a national multifamily residential developer and property manager in acquisition, development, and financing projects. Ongoing projects include developing a $70 million complex in New York and developing an $80 million complex in Massachusetts.

Communications & IT Real Estate

• Representing a REIT in installing distributed antenna systems within the office buildings and other properties in its portfolio. The goal is to have neutral host distributed antenna systems that will improve wireless telephone and data service for all carriers in these properties. The systems will also improve public service emergency communications and building staff and building system monitoring communications within the building.
• Obtained building access rights, leases, or licenses to wire over 500 million square feet of office, residential, and retail properties for communications services.

Financings

• Construction financing and construction document negotiations for an approximately 2.2 million-square-foot R&D / office/ manufacturing facility campus (including up to $95 million of tax increment financing) in Emeryville, California, on multiple ground-leased parcels.

Government & Public Relations

• Collaborated with ML Strategies professionals in representing the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in connection with its plaza revitalization plan on its 14-acre world headquarters, Church Plaza, in the Back Bay of Boston, including all aspects of community planning, historical landmarking, environment, development, and project entitlements, and a development of approximately 900,000 square feet.
• Decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court protecting fast-track approval for affordable housing.

Green Building

• Represented the owner of an industrial park in structuring power sale agreements for a combined heat and power plant and the related sale of a parcel to a solar manufacturer.
• Represented a developer and third-party owner of roof-mounted and parking pavilion solar PV systems in the development of more than 7 MW of distributed solar PV capacity.
• Represented a property owner in a 1 million-square-foot rooftop solar lease to a solar developer that installed the solar panel system and sold the solar energy to the building’s tenant.

Litigation & Disputes

• Represented a developer and his investment group in a series of lawsuits and arbitrations resulting from disputes arising out of partnership agreements, including a $140 million mixed-use building and six other mixed-use residential and commercial facilities.
• Represented a client who purchased a very expensive building lot in downtown Edgartown in a boundary dispute on Martha’s Vineyard. A subsequent survey revealed that the property line might not be where the seller said it was, and if so, the lot was too small to be buildable. We sued the developer/seller, obtained an attachment on adjoining land still owned by the seller so as to allow for a lot line adjustment, fought off an appeal of that attachment, and obtained an agreement from a neighboring condominium that the lot line was really where we had been told it was. We then mediated our monetary claims to successful settlement with the developer/seller.
• Represented the real estate lender in restructuring of a property and dealt with various issues, including the use and characterization of cash collateral and a hostile takeover through the plan confirmation process.
• Represented a national commercial real estate operator in one of the largest bankruptcy proceedings ever brought in the District of Massachusetts involving claims owed on the premier office tower in Boston — at the close of Mintz Levin’s presentation of evidence in the trial, the debtor agreed to pay $679 million to our client.
• On behalf of a global real estate services provider, devised strategy that led to dismissal of wage and hour class action before the class was certified and before any briefing or discovery took place with respect to class certification.
• Negotiated the workout of a Massachusetts developer with $6 million in debt to a regional bank for a fully permitted multifamily project that was partially built.
• Successfully represented a shopping mall owner in a lease dispute with a national retailer anchor tenant. Our client was adding another national retailer to its mall, and the existing anchor tenant sued for an injunction, claiming a contract right to veto any changes in the mall’s footprint. After we convinced a judge in the Business Litigation Session of the Superior Court to deny the injunction request, and after expedited discovery, the existing anchor tenant settled with us on very favorable terms on the eve of trial, allowing the new tenant to open its anchor store on schedule.

Public & Private Partnerships

• Secured local and state approvals for transit-oriented housing redevelopment of a historic waterfront industrial site in Salem, Massachusetts, on behalf of a major national rental apartment developer. The project involved significant coordination with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the Massachusetts Highway Department to implement project pedestrian, bicycle path, and other waterfront recreational amenities integrated with the adjacent MBTA North Shore commuter rail line and station on one project boundary and a bypass road on the other project boundary.
• Represented bondholders in restructuring of tax-exempt debt issued to finance development of military housing projects on US Air Force bases in Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, and Massachusetts.

Real Estate Funds

• Represented a real estate fund with $1 billion of assets in an out-of-court restructuring of loans.
• Representation of a group of leading privately held real estate investment funds in more than 150 acquisitions and dispositions totaling over $4 billion, and in over 500 leasing transactions.
• We have handled numerous matters for a real estate investment fund involving commercial real estate disputes (construction, access, lease interpretation, among others) in Chicago, Texas, Missouri, Massachusetts, Virginia, California, Maryland, and elsewhere.
• Closed 18 transactions for a privately held real estate investment company, including acquisitions, dispositions, and financings valued at approximately $450 million.

Representative Clients

• Boston Properties, Inc.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Broadcom Corporation
• Colony Realty Partners
• CVS Caremark Corporation
• DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.
• General Electric Company
• GenOn Energy Holdings
• Gillette (Procter & Gamble)

• Lincoln Property Company
• Manulife Financial / John Hancock Financial
• Northeast Utilities Systems
• Pulte Homes
• Sentinel Properties, Inc.
• Spectra Energy Corp.
• The Moinian Group
• UrbanAmerica Advisors, LLC