Real Estate & Commercial Development

Overview

Parker Poe’s Real Estate & Commercial Development Practice Group has a proven track record of successfully getting real estate projects from concept to closing and protecting clients’ real property in disputes. At close to 50 attorneys, we are one of the largest real estate practices based out of the Southeast working on client projects across the U.S. These attorneys have dedicated their practices to representing developers and investors, owners, buyers, sellers, landlords, lenders, borrowers, and tenants on all aspects of real estate transactions, regulatory issues, and litigation. Our legal advising in key areas such as acquisitions, sales, leasing, financing, land use and zoning, joint ventures, and resolving disputes is nationally recognized in peer reviews and legal services rankings.

Clients appreciate our full-service capabilities and our team’s diversity, both in terms of industry knowledge and individual backgrounds. Our real estate team includes attorneys with experience in forming and implementing all types of joint ventures for investing in and owning real estate assets as well as restructuring portfolios. With land use attorneys in key markets across the Southeast, we can position clients for success from the beginning by understanding how potential projects fit into local governments and communities’ goals and shepherding clients through the planning, entitlements, and zoning process.

Our transactional attorneys have structured, negotiated, and closed real estate transactions around virtually every type of real property, including office buildings, industrial sites, shopping centers, mixed-use developments, multifamily, education campuses and affiliated facilities, corporate research and development campuses, health care campuses and outpatient care facilities, wind and solar farms, and more. Our attorneys have a breadth of experience representing both lenders and borrowers in real estate financing projects, allowing our team to advise clients on all sides of a real estate transaction. The real estate transactions team at Parker Poe has bought, sold, leased, and developed millions of square feet of property and acres of land on behalf of client projects. We can handle a broad variety of deal sizes efficiently. Our transactions team is also supported by colleagues in our construction, tax, corporate finance, condemnation, environmental, and economic development practices to handle any issue related to a real estate project.

When unforeseen circumstances occur around real property and a dispute arises, Parker Poe has extensive experience in all facets of real estate litigation, including construction litigation, environmental claims, health and safety issues, landlord-tenant matters, land use and zoning issues, title disputes, and more. Our real estate litigation team has received the coveted National Tier 1 ranking by Best Lawyers for four straight years. Learn more about our experience in real estate litigation here.

Services

Acquisition, Development, Exchange and Sale

We assist clients with investment and development projects. We structure transactions involving recreational and resort properties, commercial and residential condominiums, office buildings and manufacturing facilities.

Commercial Leasing

We negotiate leases for retail, office and industrial projects, including big-box power centers, neighborhood shopping centers, office towers and business parks.

Affordable Housing and Tax Credits

We represent developers and owners of affordable housing projects qualifying for low-income housing tax credits, financed with conventional loans and bond financing.

Financing

We negotiate and close construction and permanent financings, refinancings, mezzanine and joint venture structures, securitized loans and synthetic and leveraged leases.

Real Property Disputes

We advise clients in a wide range of real property-related disputes, including professional negligence lawsuits and disputes involving real property rights and damages, as well as administrative proceedings.

Representative Experience

Acquisitions (Buyer's Counsel)

Acquisition of regional malls, specialty retail centers and franchised restaurants
Multiple tract assembly for center city entertainment district and office tower
Purchase of limited service franchised hotels
Land assemblages for homebuilders
Site acquisitions for industrial and manufacturing facilities
Purchase of golf course assets
Acquisition of cellular tower sites and facilities

Sales (Seller's Counsel)

Sale of multiple apartment projects across the United States to real estate investment trusts (REITs) and private investors
Sale of uptown outparcel for development of extended stay hotel with parking arrangements in adjacent deck
Multiple sales of shopping centers in the Carolinas and Virginia
Sale of multiple industrial facilities along East Coast

Financings (Borrower's Counsel)

Securitized financing for hotels
Financings for shopping centers
Financings and refinancings for multifamily housing developers and owners
Lines of credit for land development and home building operations
Syndication of equity interests for limited service hotels

Development (Developer's Counsel)

Land acquisition, construction financing and take-out joint ventures for apartment projects in the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee
Equity membership golf and marina communities
Industrial/warehouse facilities using tax incentive structures
Development of multiple condominium projects
Multiple conversions of apartment projects into condominiums

Exchanges (Taxpayer's Counsel)

Tax-deferred exchanges and acquisitions for institutional land owners
Deferred tri-party exchanges for industrial parks and build-to-suit buildings

Leases

650,000-sq.-ft. lease for bank headquarters office tower (Tenant's Counsel)
Multiphase ground leases for residential condominiums, office buildings and high-tech research facilities (Landlord's Counsel)
Supermarket leases, including 50,000+ sq.-ft. leases and built-to-suit and retrofit-to-suit leases (Tenant's Counsel)
Leases for 500,000+ sq.-ft. of industrial warehouse space (Landlord's Counsel)
Leases for new stadium-seating theaters throughout the Southeast (Tenant's Counsel)