Commercial
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April 23, 2025
Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Minority Farmer COVID Debt Relief Suit
The Federal Circuit declined to revive claims by socially disadvantaged farmers who said the government owes them millions of dollars after repealing a coronavirus pandemic-era debt relief program, ruling Tuesday the farmers failed to show the government had a mutual intent to enter a binding contract.
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April 23, 2025
Mich. Town Beats Casino's Suit Over Rejected Racetrack Plan
A Michigan federal judge found the state's final horse-racing casino operator jumped the gun in spending $10 million on a suburban Detroit property only to see negotiations with local officials break down, stranding the company without a physical location.
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April 23, 2025
Judge Says Calif. Tribes Can't Intervene In $700M Casino Row
A District of Columbia federal judge refused on Wednesday to allow three California tribes and a company to intervene in another California tribe's suit accusing the federal government of wrongfully rescinding gambling eligibility for the tribe's $700 million casino project.
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April 23, 2025
US Office Demand Falling, Usage Stagnating, Yardi Says
The demand for office space is declining in the U.S., while office leases aren't being extended and utilization rate has slowed, according to an April report from commercial real estate research firm Yardi Matrix.
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April 23, 2025
Colo. Resort Developer Nixes Suit To Pursue Barbuda Claims
A Colorado-based resort developer has voluntarily dismissed a Denver District Court lawsuit accusing a business partner on a Barbuda resort project of violating a noncompete by working on a similar resort, and plans to pursue his claims through a case in Barbuda, according to the developer's lawyer.
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April 23, 2025
Goodwin Guides KHP $300M Hotel Fund
KHP Capital Partners announced Wednesday that it had wrapped its latest real estate fund guided by Goodwin Procter LLP after raising $300 million, adding that it plans to invest in up to 10 hotel renovation and repositioning opportunities via the fund.
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April 23, 2025
Goldman Heiress Fights Chancery Ruling In NY Estate Dispute
The late Sol Goldman's billionaire daughter Jane Goldman is appealing a Delaware Chancery Court declaratory ruling that her nephew, Steven Gurney-Goldman, has rights to administer and settle his deceased father's interest in the family's vast real estate empire as an estate executor.
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April 23, 2025
Ariz. Bars Property Values Above Local Assessor Valuations
Arizona barred county board rulings in property valuation disputes from exceeding the valuation determined by a local assessor under a bill signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs.
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April 23, 2025
Minn. Tax Court Slashes $5.5M From Warehouse Value
A Minnesota warehouse property was overvalued by about $5.5 million, according to the state tax court, which used sales and income approaches and rounded downward to reflect its recent purchase price.
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April 23, 2025
Commercial Foreclosure Atty Joins Offit Kurman's NYC Office
Offit Kurman said Wednesday that it had added David Yohay, a veteran real estate attorney with expertise advising lenders on commercial foreclosures, to its commercial litigation practice group in New York City.
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April 23, 2025
Gibson Dunn Real Estate Atty Joins Milbank's NY Office
Milbank LLP announced Tuesday the addition of a former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP lawyer to its New York office, highlighting his experience handling commercial real estate transactional matters for clients such as private equity and sovereign wealth funds, top financial institutions and family offices.
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April 23, 2025
It's Getting Harder To Be A Data Center Speculator
Opportunistic investors have discovered they can make a pretty penny selling land after securing power for a proposed data center. But utilities have found ways to weed out the speculators, such as requiring a seven-figure deposit up front.
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April 23, 2025
NJ AG Sues RealPage, Landlords, Claiming Rent Price 'Cartel'
RealPage Inc. and 10 of New Jersey's largest landlords are colluding to raise rents in violation of state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws, forcing Garden State residents to overpay for housing, Attorney General Matt Platkin claimed Wednesday in a federal lawsuit.
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April 23, 2025
Sidley-Led Stonepeak Plugs $1.5B Into New Data Center Biz
Infrastructure and real assets-focused private equity shop Stonepeak, advised by Sidley Austin LLP, revealed on Wednesday that it launched a new North American hyperscale-focused data center company with a $1.5 billion equity commitment.
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April 23, 2025
Aztec Fund Says Ch. 11 Deal With Bank Of America On Track
Private equity investment group Aztec Fund can seek votes on its Chapter 11 liquidation plan after a Texas bankruptcy judge gave conditional approval of its disclosure statement.
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April 23, 2025
No Coverage For Shopping Mall In Shooting Suit, Insurer Says
Scottsdale Insurance Co. has told a Florida federal court that the owner of part of a shopping plaza isn't owed coverage for a $1 million personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who was shot in the parking lot of the shopping center, arguing that the incident didn't occur on the covered premises.
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April 22, 2025
Wyndham Must Face Suit Alleging It Enabled Sex Trafficking
A New Jersey federal judge Tuesday rejected Wyndham Hotels' bid to escape a woman's lawsuit accusing the company and one of its franchisees of ignoring signs she was trafficked for sex at a Hawthorne Suites in Northern California, finding the woman sufficiently alleged Wyndham was liable for her injuries.
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April 22, 2025
2 Firms Guide $200M Multifamily, Industrial JV Venture
Global real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson and a subsidiary of Japanese developer Tokyu Land Corp. formed a real estate investment joint venture that's guided by Goodwin Procter LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and aims to focus on U.S. multifamily and industrial projects.
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April 22, 2025
DOJ Wants Time During 9th Circ. Vegas Room Rate Arguments
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked to participate in the Ninth Circuit argument for an appeal from Las Vegas casino-hotel guests accusing the operators of using software to inflate room rates, the first algorithmic price-fixing case to reach an appeals court.
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April 22, 2025
McCarter & English Caught In Mall Developer Estate Suit
The family of a deceased Connecticut retail developer has filed suit against the estate of a deceased attorney and his former firm, McCarter & English LLP, accusing him of mismanaging the developer's trust while extracting steep attorney fees.
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April 22, 2025
More Than A Dozen Firms Guided Largest Q1 Hospitality Deals
A&O Shearman and Hengeler Mueller are among more than a dozen law firms that guided the 10 largest global hospitality mergers and acquisitions of the first quarter, all but one of which were announced in the first two months, prior to the ensuing March trade war escalations.
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April 22, 2025
Intel Asks For Final End To Claims Over Chipmaking Problems
Intel Corp. has told a California federal judge that a group of investors on a second try failed again to show that the company concealed problems in its domestic computer chipmaking business before posting results on Aug. 1 that led to its largest single-day stock decline since 1985.
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April 22, 2025
Scott + Scott To Lead Medical Cannabis REIT Securities Suit
A Maryland federal judge picked Scott + Scott as the lead class counsel Tuesday for a proposed securities class action accusing a medical cannabis-focused real estate investment trust of misleading shareholders about its declining rents, declining property management fees and the state of its leasing operations.
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April 22, 2025
Calif. Pension Fund Injects $150M Into Self-Storage Assets
Real estate management firm Nuveen closed a California pension fund's account in order to make a $150 million investment that's part of a larger $166.6 million investment in U.S. self-storage assets, the firm announced Tuesday.
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April 22, 2025
Court Appoints Monitor In SEC's $1B PE Fraud Case
A Florida federal judge has appointed a founding partner of a Florida law firm to serve as a monitor in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's suit against a private equity firm it says defrauded investors in a $1 billion fund focused on real estate and small business funding.
Expert Analysis
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Tips For Handling Single Asset Real Estate Bankruptcy Cases
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Bankruptcy counsel should consider several strategies when representing either a debtor or lender in single asset real estate debtor Chapter 11 cases, which generally arise when a debtor is forced to file for relief to stop an impending foreclosure sale.
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Increased Scrutiny Raises Int'l Real Estate Transaction Risks
Recently proposed regulations expanding the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' oversight, a White House divestment order and state-level legislative efforts signal increasing scrutiny of real estate transactions that may trigger national security concerns, say Luciano Racco and Aleksis Fernández Caballero at Foley Hoag.
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Portland's Gross Receipts Tax Oversteps City's Authority
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.
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Proposed Law Would Harm NYC Hospitality Industry
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.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons
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.
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Brownfield Questions Surround IRS Tax Credit Bonus
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.
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DOJ Paths To Limit FARA Fallout From Wynn's DC Circ. Win
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.
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Shipping Containers As Building Elements Require Diligence
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.
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NY Tax Talk: Triggers For Tax On Software-As-A-Service
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.
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NY Ruling Offers A Foreclosure Road Map For Lenders
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.
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Kentucky Tax Talk: Appeals Court Revisits Leases' Tax Effects
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.
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Utilizing Liability Exemption When Calif. Cities Lease Property
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.
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How NJ Worker Status Ruling Benefits Real Estate Industry
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.