How To Get A Real Estate License

Transcription

1 REAL ESTATE

2 Neal Gerber Eisenberg is a Chicago-based law firm whose attorneys share a culture of teamwork and devotion to personalized client service to advance our clients business interests. Our attorneys provide legal business solutions to public and private entities of all types including Fortune 100 companies, financial institutions, nonprofits and high net worth individuals in connection with domestic and global business transactions and litigation. Our full service firm is large enough to handle nearly any legal matter throughout the world, yet small enough that clients personally know the attorneys accountable to their matters.

3 REAL ESTATE Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP s Real Estate practice group helps commercial real estate owners, investors and lenders nationwide untangle the dense legal issues enveloping complex real estate transactions. We have experience in nearly every state in the country. Our attorneys understand how these issues intersect and leverage their knowledge and experience to deliver the seamless support necessary to execute our clients growth strategies and manage their real estate risks. Our attorneys have achieved smooth and efficient real estate transactions for our clients, including negotiating acquisitions and dispositions, forming joint ventures and investment funds and confronting complex environmental, ownership structure and tax matters. Our entrepreneurial mind-set and broad-based skills have helped us build long-standing relationships with some of the nation s largest owners of commercial real estate. Our diverse client base includes REITs, local and national corporations, partnerships, entrepreneurs, financial institutions, builders, management companies, developers and individuals with significant real estate holdings. Our attorneys understand how these issues intersect and leverage their knowledge and experience to deliver the seamless support necessary to execute our clients growth strategies and manage their real estate risks. We have earned a national reputation for providing superior legal analysis and meticulous attention to transactional details in all of our client engagements. In 2014, Chambers USA ranked our real estate practice as among the best. Chambers USA states that the group is competent and qualified to handle all kinds of real estate matters and have demonstrated a true concern for the client s needs and goals, a rarity in the legal arena these days. U.S. News-Best Lawyers Best Law Firms also ranked the practice with a tier-one ranking in the Chicago metropolitan area and a tier-three ranking nationally. The firm placed 7th in Midwest Real Estate News special 2013 Best of the Best edition for law firms with the most real estate transaction volume. Our services include: Acquisitions and dispositions Commercial leasing Construction and development Environmental Finance Foreclosures and workouts Joint venture and fund formation Real estate investment trusts Real estate tax appeals and portfolio management ACQUISITIONS & DISPOSITIONS We handle all aspects of acquisitions, dispositions and development transactions for our national clients. The Real Estate practice group structures complex transactions in a tax-advantageous manner, oversees the due diligence process and negotiates and closes single site and portfolio transactions in the most efficient manner possible. Our experience includes managing transactions involving a multitude of commercial properties, including multi-family housing, office buildings, shopping centers, industrial properties, military properties and hotels/resorts. In addition, our attorneys offer a range of other services in related real estate areas, such as commercial leasing, real estate finance and real estate tax appeals to provide one source for all of our clients real estate needs.

4 COMMERCIAL LEASING As real estate companies work to develop more efficient, cost-effective operations, many have come to recognize the need to select legal counsel who is experienced with commercial leasing matters. To gain a competitive edge, companies seek counsel with the resources, efficient processes and experienced professionals to strike the right balance between advancing its business strategy and proactively managing its risks. By combining our business acumen and our extensive knowledge of leasing, we offer our clients a practical, balanced approach to allocating risk and negotiating leases. In conjunction with our real estate team, our commercial leasing attorneys can meet the most complex leasing challenges. Our team of commercial leasing attorneys has drafted and negotiated millions of square feet of office, retail and industrial space. We represent a national client base of owners, renters, private investors and publicly traded real estate companies in every phase of the leasing process, which allows our clients to control operating costs as their portfolio expands. REAL ESTATE FINANCE Our real estate attorneys team with our finance practice to facilitate the prompt closing of real estate financing transactions. We represent borrowers in the acquisition, financing (construction and permanent) and refinancing of commercial properties across the country. Our familiarity with title, survey, environmental hazards, insurance, condemnation, foreclosure and other real estate issues gives us the ability to handle nearly all real estate finance transactions from complex, multi-layered, securitized real estate mortgage transactions to standard mortgage loans made by private institutions and quasi-governmental agencies in which experience, bench strength and organizational skills are critically important. CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT Our firm represents developers and property owners in negotiating the multitude of contracts required to develop real estate and in managing these contractual relationships with architects, engineers, construction managers and general contractors nationwide. We also offer support during and after the close-out phase by negotiating final payments, approvals and post-construction liabilities. Our development experience also includes condominium ownership and conversion. Our attorneys have held substantial roles in establishing condominium projects involving mixed commercial and residential projects. Our legal guidance on such projects starts at inception and extends to the creation of final governing documents and ongoing interaction with unit owners. In the early stages, we examine building sites and review business and marketing plans to determine the optimal ownership structure. During the acquisition and development phase, we address all matters relevant to the construction and conversion of properties. FORECLOSURES & WORKOUTS When financial turmoil jeopardizes a real estate project, we represent developers, construction firms and creditors in establishing workout agreements, pursuing foreclosures, restructuring loan documents and negotiating settlements. We also represent borrowers, lenders and purchasers and sellers of distressed debt. After a careful assessment, we consider every option including deeds-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, uncontested and adversarial foreclosure, reorganization or liquidation to find the optimal solution. ENVIRONMENTAL: REAL ESTATE Environmental risks and liabilities can undermine any corporate or real estate transaction. Through environmental site assessments, compliance audits and other types of due diligence review, we identify environmental risks and offer solutions. We provide valuable insight to our clients by determining the appropriate level of due diligence in any transaction, engaging environmental consultants when needed, drafting and negotiating contract language to allocate responsibility, and overseeing pre-closing or post-closing corrective action and compliance projects.

5 We also help devise strategies and policies to ensure future compliance with environmental laws and regulations. REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS Our firm is home to one of the nation s leading real estate investment trust (REIT) practices. We accomplish successful transactions of all types for both public and private REITs. Our REIT clients hail from multiple sectors. The practice combines resources from all of the firm s practice groups, including Corporate & Securities, Real Estate, Tax, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, Labor & Employment, Environmental and Intellectual Property. Services we offer our REIT clients include: REIT Formation: We help form public and private REITs, including crafting UPREIT partnership or operating agreements to facilitate the tax-efficient acquisition of properties, both at a REIT s formation and as it acquires properties. Mergers, Acquisitions and Dispositions: The firm represents REITs in merger, acquisition and disposition transactions, including large corporate acquisitions and mergers, portfolio acquisitions, as well as the acquisition and disposition of individual properties and portfolios. Securities: We assist REIT clients in public and private securities offerings, including initial public offerings, secondary offerings, offerings of preferred and common units of limited partnership, debt offerings, securitizations and securities registrations in connection with merger and acquisition transactions. Joint Ventures: The firm represents its REIT clients in the formation of joint ventures and strategic alliances, including DownREIT vehicles, with institutional investors, developers, property sellers and others and assists with tax planning and implementing appropriate governance provisions and exit strategies. Tax: Our attorneys help REIT clients in all aspects of federal, state and local tax planning, including representation in connection with REIT and UPREIT formation, merger, acquisition and disposition transactions, like-kind exchanges and joint venture transactions, as well as managing REIT qualification tests and implementing REIT-specific tax strategies. Financing: We represent REIT clients in financing transactions, in addition to equity financings, including pooled and standalone securitized financings, traditional mortgage financings, construction financings, mezzanine financings and unsecured term and revolving loan financings. REAL ESTATE TAX APPEALS & PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT The attorneys in Neal Gerber Eisenberg s Real Estate Tax practice group ensure that our clients property tax liability is the lawful minimum. Our attorneys have devoted their entire legal careers to the field of state and local property tax, are nationally experienced and annually recover millions of dollars in tax savings and refunds for our clients. For clients with larger property portfolios, we offer a centralized property tax management service that provides the client with a cost-efficient, fixed fee-based, one stop full service tax management program. For example, we manage more than 20,000 tax parcels throughout the United States, including approximately 6,000 parcels for Waste Management, Inc.; approximately 2,900 parcels for Northern Trust Company; more than 1,000 parcels for Hyatt Hotels Corporation; and approximately 500 parcels for McDonald s Corporation. LATEST RANKINGS

6 REPRESENTATIVE TRANSACTIONS Represented a Chicago-based fund in the creation of a venture to purchase and finance a multi-building office park in Bloomington, Minnesota. Represented a publicly traded real estate investment trust in connection with the purchase of a portfolio of multi-family residential projects in Virginia and Maryland from another REIT. Represented a publicly traded real estate investment trust in connection with the purchase of a development site and transferable development rights in the suburban Seattle area. Represented a publicly traded real estate investment trust in connection with the formation of a joint venture for the acquisition of a development site and the construction of a mixed-use development in Jersey City, New Jersey. Represented a publicly traded real estate investment trust in connection with the purchase of fractured condominium projects in the Miami and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. Represented a real estate investment fund in connection with the acquisition, including the assumption of existing loans, of singletenant, triple-net-retail sites locations throughout the U.S. Represented a real estate investment fund in connection with the sale of a retail shopping center in Chicago. Represented a real estate investment fund in connection with the acquisition of a development site in San Diego for the construction of a U.S. government facility. Represented a real estate investment fund in connection with the formation of a joint venture for purposes of acquiring and financing development sites for self-storage centers throughout the U.S. Represented a real estate investment fund in connection with the financing through government-sponsored entities of various multifamily residential projects in Michigan, Alabama, Ohio and Kentucky. Represented a real estate development and construction company in connection with the formation with the U.S. Department of Defense of joint ventures for the privatization, including site acquisition, financing and construction, of military housing for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Represented an asset management company in connection with various transactions on behalf of its clients, including sales of regional shopping malls in California, the sale of a senior living project company and the sale of industrial properties. Represented a real estate management and investment company in connection with the purchase and leaseback of medical buildings throughout Wisconsin. Represented hotel owner/operator in nationwide acquisitions and dispositions of owned hotel properties and in management agreements for managed hotels. Represented real estate developer in joint venture arrangements in connection with community development projects in Illinois. Represented retail property owner in securitized mortgage loan and mezzanine loan transactions. Represented financial institution in foreclosures and workouts of real estate loans in Illinois. Represented multi-family property owner in acquisitions of distressed debt secured by real estate. Represented multi-family operator in connection with receivership and property management services for properties in foreclosure throughout the country. Represented lender in connection with multi-party, deed-in-lieu transaction involving an unfinished residential condominium and townhome development project and vacant land in Chicago. Represented a group of investors in connection with the acquisition and financing of office property involving forward and reverse tax-free exchanges, tenants-in-common agreements, mezzanine financing and tenant bankruptcy and construction issues. Represented a large publicly traded shopping center REIT in connection with several acquisitions of regional shopping malls and lifestyle centers in various regions of the country.

7 Dynamic and built around highly qualified lawyers who provide sophisticated, - Chambers USA solutions-oriented advice. Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP Two North LaSalle Street Chicago, IL