Real Estate, Construction & Infrastructure

The interruption to business-as-usual in the commercial real estate industry brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented and, while hopefully only temporary, the full extent of the impact may not be entirely understood for some time to come. Below, we explore just some of the options both landlords and tenants will want to consider when looking to answer that question.

On March 24, we posted a summary of California’s “shelter in place” order issued on March 16, 2020, and in particular discussed the relationship between it and the Bay Area county orders already in effect at the time. As expected, the Bay Area counties have since lengthened the duration of their shelter in place orders to May 3, 2020 (except Solano County, which extended to April 30) and implemented tighter restrictions.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the United States, like many states has reacted by providing certain multifamily landlord and tenants with economic benefits during this unprecedented global pandemic. On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). Section 4023 of the CARES Act contains several provisions that assist borrowers of federally backed multifamily mortgage loans due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

On March 23, 2020, Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts issued COVID-19 Order No. 13 requiring all businesses and organizations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that do not provide “COVID-19 Essential Services” (“Essential Services”) to close their physical workplaces and facilities to workers, customers and the public as of 12:00 noon on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 until 12:00 noon on April 7, 2020. On March 31, 2020, Governor Baker issued a related order, COVID-19 Order No. 21 (the “Order”) extending the operation of its previous order to May 4, 2020 and updating the list of Essential Services based on federal guidance.

This alert discusses what companies outsourcing critical business process functions to India should do in light of the Indian government’s order that telecom, IT, and other technology companies should, as far as possible, work from home.

This alert reviews executive orders by New York Governor Cuomo and administrative orders by the New York State courts that have stayed residential and commercial evictions and foreclosures in New York.

On March 23, 2020, Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts issued COVID-19 Order No. 13 (the “Order”) requiring all businesses and organizations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that do not provide “COVID-19 Essential Services” (“Essential Services”) to close their physical workplaces and facilities to workers, customers and the public as of 12:00 noon on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 until 12:00 noon on April 7, 2020.  

On March 16, 2020, the City and County of San Francisco issued an order requiring all individuals in San Francisco County to “shelter in place” from March 17, 2020 through April 7, 2020. The surrounding Bay Area counties (e.g. Santa Clara County, Alameda County, etc., etc.) also issued orders largely mirroring San Francisco’s directive.

As part of the “New York State on PAUSE” response to the COVID-19 outbreak, on March 20, 2020 Governor Cuomo issued Executive Order No. 202.8 requiring a 100% reduction of the in-person workforce of all non-essential businesses in New York State. While the reduction of in-person workforce is broad reaching, the essential services exception serves to allow landlords to continue providing basic security, janitorial service, and other services truly needed for maintaining and operating their buildings.  Furthermore, landlords and tenants should be able to maintain the IT infrastructure needed for remote work, provided they are doing so in a manner that otherwise comports with the NY State on Pause requirements. 

This alert covers new regulations taking effect on February 13, 2020 that significantly broaden CFIUS’s jurisdiction by granting it significant new review power over foreign investments in US businesses and real estate.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) has held that a contractor seeking to enforce a lien dissolution bond under G.L. c. 254 § 14 need not record an attested to copy of its complaint with the Registry of Deeds. In City Electric Supply Co. v. Arch Insurance Co., the SJC vacated a decision of Norfolk Superior Court—refusing to apply the recording requirement of G.L. c. 254 § 5 to G.L. c. 254 § 14.

Jon Welner discusses two statutes that make California a unique place to develop projects, the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Prevailing Wage Law, as well as some best practices for developers to successfully navigate potential challenges.

In the early 1980s, in an effort to generate much-needed revenue for the City of Boston to offset federal and state budget cuts, the Massachusetts Legislature passed legislation entitled, “An Act Establishing the City of Boston Funding Loan Act of Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Two and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority” (the “Act”).

A recent article I co-authored and published in the New York Law Journal recaps and highlights the key takeaways in the federal district court’s decision in Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P. (E.D.N.Y, Feb. 18, 2018), relating to the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) and the street art on a group of buildings known as “5Pointz” in Long Island City, New York.

On July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority announced, without specifying a replacement, that it would phase-out the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) by the end of 2021. LIBOR, a rate measured by short-term borrowing among large banks, has for decades been the reference rate underlying trillions of dollars’ worth of global financial transactions.

Following the acquisition or financing of a property, most parties to the transaction are happy to circulate the “Congratulations!” missives as soon as the closing has occurred – the seller has their proceeds, the buyer/borrower has their property and/or the loan funds, and the prior financing(s) have been paid off.

Blockchains, best known as the technology behind digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are beginning to be implemented in a variety of commercial applications. The technology is attracting not only financial institutions and stock exchanges, but fields as disparate as the music, diamond, healthcare, insurance, and shipping industries.

California usury law is addressed in multiple places: the California Constitution, statutes, case law, and initiative measures. Due to the patchwork nature of this body of law, differing interpretations and ambiguity are commonplace.

Data centers are the twenty-first century nexus between the commercial real estate and telecommunication business sectors. Owners, operators and developers of data centers face the difficult task of continually adapting to the rapidly evolving priorities of their ever expanding clientele in order to remain competitive and appealing to the largest number of actual and potential consumers.

Enacted by Congress in 1930 and revised in 1984, the Perishable Agriculture Commodities Act (PACA) protects sellers of perishable agricultural commodities, defined as “fresh fruits and fresh vegetables of every kind and character whether or not frozen or packed in ice, and cherries in brine as defined by the Secretary of Agriculture” by subjecting a “merchant, dealer or broker” of perishable produce.