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The firm's real estate practice covers virtually all aspects of real estate transactions, including purchases, sales, leases, borrowing and lending, title and survey, land development, easements, land use, workouts, foreclosures, opinion letters, equity participations, and a variety of other real estate topics. Our real estate lawyers often work with lawyers in other areas of the firm - such as Commercial Law, Health Care, and Family Wealth Planning - on the real estate aspects of clients' needs in these areas providing simple, successful team solutions for the firm's clients. We represent a range of both individuals and companies who are sellers, buyers, investors, landlords, tenants, borrowers, lenders, owners, developers, contractors, and architects.
Representative client industries include: shopping and retail centers, apartment projects, mixed-use developments, condominiums, hotels, industrial and manufacturing facilities, medical facilities, nursing homes, office buildings, residential developments, resort properties, restaurants, and unimproved land.
FOCUS AREAS
Leasing and OperationsOften, the success or failure of a project is determined by the results of leasing efforts. We have
experience in negotiating and reviewing leases on behalf of landlords, tenants, and lenders. With this
experience as a background, we assist clients in developing and negotiating many different types of
leases such as office building leases, shopping center leases, and long-term ground leases, and in
addressing leasing issues. Operational issues can also significantly impact a project. Our real estate
lawyers have experience in assisting clients with management agreements, service agreements, and
landlord/tenant disputes.
Purchases and Sales Our real estate lawyers have assisted clients in all aspects of the purchase and sale of real estate,
including purchase agreements, title and survey review, financing, due diligence, brokerage
agreements, and closings.
ConstructionWe often assist clients with construction contracts, construction management contracts, and architectural
agreements. In association with the firm's litigation lawyers, our real estate lawyers address and
resolve construction disputes.
DevelopmentOur real estate lawyers, often in association with our environmental lawyers, have a history of
successfully resolving disputes with city, county, and other governmental entities over development
issues. Our past experience includes resolving violations of wetlands protection regulations, coastal
area property regulations, utility district regulations, and subdivision regulations. We also assist clients
in developing subdivision restrictive covenants and condominium documents.
Borrowing and LendingWith our experience representing both lenders and borrowers, we have the flexibility and creativity to
help our clients develop the necessary financing arrangements for almost any project. We have
negotiated and closed construction and permanent loans made by institutional, conduit, securitized, and equity lenders. Our real estate lawyers are able to coordinate multiple lenders, borrowers, title
companies, and other parties to complete transactions quickly, efficiently, and successfully. We also
have experience assisting lenders with loan workouts and foreclosures.
Special ProjectsSometimes our clients need our real estate lawyers to handle projects that are not easily labeled. We
have the experience and creativity to take these projects on and handle them successfully. For
example, we assisted the purchaser of a large ranch in settling various boundary disputes,
determining sources and amounts of available water, evaluating possible environmental
contamination, and investigating various ad valorem tax exemption options.
REPRESENTATIVE TRANSACTIONS
Purchase and Sale Representation
Represented the seller of used manufactured housing in creating a seller-financed sale and
financing document package and a workout and foreclosure document package.
Represented the seller of a mid-rise, three building office complex, including the termination of
leasing brokerage contracts, the buyout of tenant leases, the relocation of tenants, the buyout of
tenants' extension options, and agreements concerning the payment and financing of future tenant
finish-out obligations.
Represented the seller of multiple nursing homes across Texas, including working with the firm's
Health Law lawyers on permitting and licensing issues in connection with the transfer of the nursing
homes.
Represented the purchaser of land and improvements that were a portion of a retail shopping
mall, where the remainder of the mall was land and improvements owned by an anchor tenant,
including cross use, maintenance, reciprocal easement, management, and leasing brokerage
agreements.
Lender Representation
Represented the lender of a $23 million office building construction loan with a profit participation,
a shared parking garage agreement with an adjacent office building, and cross-access agreements.
Represented the lender in the repossession and resale (to three separate buyers in a simultaneous
closing) of an entire resort community as an on-going business with three golf courses, three country
clubs, townhomes, condominiums, an airport, a marina, commercial lots, and residential lots.
Owner Representation
Represented the owner of a residential development in negotiating settlements with various
governmental entities over violations of wetlands protection regulations, coastal area property
regulations, utility district regulations, and subdivision regulations.
Represented the owner of a 950-acre ranch in settling various boundary disputes, determining
sources and amounts of available water, evaluating possible environmental contamination, and
investigating various ad valorem tax exemption options.
Construction
Represented the general contractor in negotiating a cost-plus contract for a phased commercial
development with continued representation throughout the construction project, including
negotiating contract amendments, change orders, contractor/subcontractor disputes, and lien
releases.
Leasing
Represented the landlord in extending and amending two overlapping leases with a single tenant
covering four mid-rise office buildings, including preparing a comprehensive lease amendment tying
the leases together, cleaning up conflicts between the leases, bringing the leases into compliance with
current law, and requiring the tenant to clean up and remediate contamination of the leased premises
on a phased schedule.
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