Commercial

  • April 16, 2025

    Real Estate Lawyers Chart Dealmaking Under Tariffs

    As real estate transaction attorneys navigate uncertainty in the market, some deals are being put on ice, while elsewhere, clients are rushing to negotiate protections from price hikes or find opportunistic deals.

  • April 16, 2025

    Trump Ends Clinton, Carter Policies On Fed Facility Sites

    President Donald Trump rolled back two decades-old orders directing the federal government to prioritize urban areas and historic districts when choosing locations for federal facilities.

  • April 16, 2025

    IBM Sues Insurers Over $900M In Environmental Expenses

    IBM has taken several of its excess commercial general liability insurers to New York federal court, arguing that following IBM's coverage settlements with underlying insurers, they are now on the hook for over $900 million in environmental remediation expenses incurred under policies issued between 1961 and 1970.

  • April 16, 2025

    Luxury Boutique Offices Sprout Up Around Miami

    Though there have been hints of a slowdown in the Miami office market, which has seemed impervious to the economic headwinds roiling the sector nationwide, one area moving at full speed is the development of high-end boutique projects in desirable enclaves outside the city's central business district.

  • April 16, 2025

    Office Demand Steady Despite Trade Policy Turbulence

    Commercial broker Cushman & Wakefield said shifting U.S. trade policy didn't have a noticeable effect on demand for office space in the first quarter as the sector showed continued signs of stabilization.

  • April 16, 2025

    Dems Ask GSA To Explain Federal Asset Disposal Plans

    Democrats on the House Oversight Committee urged the General Services Administration to explain its moves to list federal properties for disposal, expressing concern about how the agency has identified buildings for sale.

  • April 16, 2025

    Prologis Says Logistics Renters Cautious Amid Tariff Tumult

    Prologis executives said on Wednesday that logistics asset leasing activity dropped 20% over the past two weeks, with many companies waiting to see how things pan out after President Donald Trump temporarily paused higher tariffs on all countries except China.

  • April 16, 2025

    Exxon Urges Justices To Resolve Seized Cuba Property Claim

    Exxon Mobil Corp. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize a ruling frustrating its attempts to collect damages from Cuban property confiscated decades ago, arguing the Trump and Biden administrations' opposing stances on such lawsuits present a chance for the court to settle the political debate.

  • April 16, 2025

    Exelon Buys DC Office Building From Brookfield For $175M

    Utilities giant Exelon Corp. has bought a Washington, D.C. office building that serves as a headquarters for one of its electricity subsidiaries from Brookfield Properties for $175 million, according to deed records.

  • April 16, 2025

    Meridian Capital Promotes Legal Head To General Counsel

    Meridian Capital Group announced Tuesday that its head of legal has been promoted to general counsel in a move that comes about a year after the firm came under new leadership.

  • April 16, 2025

    Pryor Cashman Adds New Real Estate Partner For NYC Office

    Pryor Cashman LLP announced Wednesday that it had hired Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP attorney Paul J. Proulx for the firm's real estate and land use/zoning teams in its New York City office.

  • April 15, 2025

    Massive Calif. Fire Assessment Pass-Through Sparks Suit

    Public interest nonprofit Consumer Watchdog sued California's insurance chief in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday to stop him from allowing insurance companies to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in assessment costs as surcharges onto policyholders, claiming the decision was made without any public input, in violation of the state's Administrative Procedure Act. 

  • April 15, 2025

    Funding Cuts Cause Q1 Hurdles For Life Sciences Real Estate

    The U.S. life sciences real estate market was hit with challenges in the first quarter of 2025 due to funding cuts for the National Institutes of Health that were announced earlier this year, according to a report from real estate company Savills.

  • April 15, 2025

    Chinese Real Estate Developer Hit With Involuntary Ch. 11

    Three creditors of Chinese real estate developer Xinyuan Real Estate Co. Ltd. filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the company late Monday, saying it is in default on $170 million in note debt.

  • April 15, 2025

    Brooklyn Office Space Seeing Leasing Surge, CBRE Reports

    New York City's borough of Brooklyn went through "a surge of leasing" for office space after a total of 509,000 square feet was leased in Q1 2025, according to a CBRE report published Tuesday.

  • April 15, 2025

    Brookfield Lands $1.3B From Citibank For Hudson Yards Office

    Brookfield Properties secured $1.25 billion in financing from Citibank on its 16-story Five Manhattan West building in a transaction advised by Dechert LLP and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

  • April 15, 2025

    NY Developers Land $237M Refi For Major Mixed-Use Project

    The developers behind a 70-acre mixed-use development in Sleepy Hollow, New York, secured a $237 million refinancing for the project from Hudson Bay Capital, per an announcement from Walker & Dunlop which arranged the financing.

  • April 15, 2025

    Top Grossing Cos. Drift Further From Remote-First Work

    The largest companies in the U.S. by revenue are moving away from allowing employees to work primarily at home, including among technology businesses, which were formerly much more permissive of telework, according to a recent report.

  • April 15, 2025

    Mich. Tribunal Rejects Hotel's Challenge To $10M Valuation

    A hotel owned by a Hilton franchisee was valued at $10 million by the Michigan Tax Tribunal, agreeing with a local assessor and reducing a previous valuation by $2.2 million but rejecting a further reduction sought by the owner.

  • April 15, 2025

    NY Panel Finds 'Lockbox' Suit Differs From Hotel Foreclosure

    A split New York state appeals court has found that U.S. Bank can pursue its litigation seeking to seize a "lockbox" of rent payments for a Manhattan hotel, with one justice arguing in a dissent that the instant lawsuit improperly duplicates a related but separate foreclosure action.

  • April 15, 2025

    DC Maintains, Expands Tax Exemptions For NBA, NHL Arena

    The District of Columbia maintained and expanded tax breaks for the property and airspace of Capital One Arena, home to the NBA's Washington Wizards and NHL's Washington Capitals, as part of legislation that became law, according to a notice published in the district's register.

  • April 15, 2025

    Moye White Says It Was Evicted To Make Way For Tech Co.

    Defunct law firm Moye White LLP is fighting back in Colorado state court against its Denver landlord's nearly $4 million lawsuit, alleging in counterclaims that the landlord unlawfully evicted the firm and its subtenants from a downtown office building in order to make room for a technology business.

  • April 15, 2025

    Giordano Halleran Nabs Real Estate Pro For NJ Expansion

    Giordano Halleran & Ciesla PC announced that the firm has added a commercial real estate transaction pro as shareholder, who is spearheading the firm's opening of an office in northern New Jersey.

  • April 14, 2025

    Expedia Defends Cuban Island Bookings In Helms-Burton Trial

    The former manager of Expedia's Cuba group took the stand Monday to defend the travel company's actions offering reservations for resorts on an island off the coast of Cuba that a Cuban-American man says was stolen from his family by Fidel Castro's government, telling jurors the company worked to comply with constantly changing regulations related to travel to Cuba.

  • April 14, 2025

    6th Circ. Upends Oil Co.'s Injunction Against Ohio Landowner

    The Sixth Circuit on Monday reversed a district court's preliminary injunction that gave EOG Resources Inc. access to the surface of an Ohio deer hunting site for drilling operations, saying the injunction didn't prevent injury to EOG but actually caused the owner of the property irreparable harm.

Expert Analysis

  • Key Drivers Behind Widespread Adoption Of NAV Financing

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    While net asset value-based lending has existed for years, NAV lending has only started to move into the mainstream recently — likely due to difficult market conditions faced by sponsors including persistent inflation, high interest rates and a lack of exit opportunities, say Matthew Kerfoot and Jinyoung Joo at Proskauer.

  • Conn. Ruling Highlights Keys To Certificate-Of-Need Appeals

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    The Connecticut Supreme Court's recent decision in High Watch Recovery Center v. Department of Public Health, rejecting rigid application of statutes concerning certificate-of-need procedure, provides important guidance on building an administrative record to support a finding that a case is contested, say attorneys at Robinson & Cole.

  • Pickleball Makes Waves In Fla. Real Estate, With Risks In Play

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    Pickleball's burgeoning popularity in Florida is catalyzing a transformation in the state's commercial real estate market, but investors must take steps to navigate legal challenges related to noise, insurance and community dynamics, says Emmanuelle Litvinov at DarrowEverett.

  • 4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • What Calif. Pot Permit Ruling Means For Enviro Compliance

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    While a California appeals court's recent decision in Lucas v. City of Pomona affirms the city's use of a statutory exemption for its commercial cannabis overlay permit program, the ruling does not mean that all applicants seeking similar approvals are exempted from state environmental compliance obligations, say Whitney Hodges and Barbara Machado at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Rare Reg A+ Fines Reflect New Era Of SEC Enforcement

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent announcement of civil penalties against 10 microcap companies for violations of Regulation A+ shows that as the SEC continues to expand its enforcement efforts, its focus remains on protecting investors of all sizes — including those investing in the historically less-scrutinized Reg A+ issuers, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Factors To Consider When Structuring Data Center Contracts

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    Data center leases and service agreements grant very similar rights and impose similar obligations, but they also hold notable differences and a range of factors that are important to consider when selecting which form of agreement to use, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • Rethinking Mich. Slip-And-Fall Defense After Top Court Ruling

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    The Michigan Supreme Court recently overturned three decades of premises liability jurisprudence by ruling that the open and obvious danger defense is no longer part of a traditional duty analysis, posing the question of whether landowners will ever again win on a motion for summary dismissal, say John Stiglich and Meriam Choulagh at Wilson Elser.

  • Subchapter V Eligibility Ruling Raises Uncertainty For Tenants

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    A Virginia bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Macedon Consulting — that all remaining rent under a lease should be factored into a lessee's Subchapter V eligibility — raises the question, but does not address, how a court should calculate the amount of debt owed under a lease, creating significant risk for potential tenant debtors, says Sam Ashuraey at Ashuraey Law.

  • Parsing Tax Implications Of NYC Office Leasing Transactions

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    Though New York City's tax laws generally do not require negotiated contractual risk allocation in the case of sublease and early lease termination transactions, it is still helpful for counsel to both landlords and tenants to understand the laws' nuances, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • NY's Take On Premises Insurance Policies: What's In A Name?

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    A New York appellate court's recent decision in Wesco Insurance v. Fulmont Mutual Insurance — requiring insurance coverage for a property owner not named on the policy — strengthens a state case law trend creating a practical exception in premises liability cases to normally strict requirements for coverage, says Craig Rokuson at Traub Lieberman.

  • Bankruptcy Ruling Shows Section 363's Magic Has Its Limits

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    The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's recent ruling in Groves demonstrates that Section 363 — which allows a debtor-in-possession to sell their property in order to generate cash — fails as a tool when it’s used to turn a nondebtor entities' property into property of a debtor's bankruptcy estate, says Brian Shaw at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Shifts In The CRE Landscape Demand Creative Loan Solutions

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    An increase in commercial real estate loan workouts makes it critical for borrowers, lenders and other CRE participants to examine all the available options and remedies, including mortgage and mezzanine foreclosures, bankruptcy filings and property short sales, say attorneys at Goulston & Storrs.