Commercial Real Estate Recovery

Throughout the turbulence in the commercial real estate and financial markets, our Distressed Real Estate Initiative led the industry in helping clients plan, adapt, and prosper. Now, as markets begin to recover, we are building on that experience. Our Commercial Real Estate Recovery Group combines the firm’s distressed real estate capabilities with a strategic focus on emerging lending and investment opportunities.

We combine a distinctive set of skills with the experience necessary to help clients navigate concurrent "legacy" and "recovery" markets. As these two markets intersect, a comprehensive understanding of both will be required to solve a problem or unlock an opportunity.

We offer a wide range of services to investors, developers, lenders, servicers, and owners. Our attorneys advise on loan restructurings, distressed asset transactions, loan sales, preferred-equity investments, and new acquisitions, as well as CMBS and balance sheet financing transactions. We continue to work with clients on a variety of projects, including master-planned and mixed-use developments, condominiums, retail and office centers, hotels, casinos, industrial properties, and retirement communities.

Our clients include existing lenders and owners in loan restructurings and rescue capital transactions and private equity firms in the purchase of distressed debt, strategic investing, and portfolio evaluation. We advise commercial and investment banks, life insurance companies, finance and specialty lending firms, and private equity firms in the origination of new balance sheet, government-sponsored entity, and CMBS loans. We also maintain relationships with significant players in the industry that can help clients identify opportunities and facilitate deals.

Our experience and services

Acquisition and sale of distressed real estate projects
Analysis and restructuring of residential, commercial, and mixed-use condominium projects
Assistance to tenants and other parties acquiring leases and properties from debtors
Balance sheet, CMBS, and GSE lending transactions and loan program documents
Commercial bank representations involving asset dispositions and restructuring options
Commercial loan master and special servicer representations, including pooling and servicing agreements and REMIC-related issues
Corporate real estate disposition and sale-leaseback transactions
Corporate restructurings, reorganizations, and liquidations, both in and out of bankruptcy
Distressed debt sales and acquisitions
FDIC transactions
Landlord representation in connection with retail tenant bankruptcies
Loan workout and enforcement actions, including receiverships, mortgage foreclosures, and guarantor suits
Master loan purchase and sale agreements
Mezzanine loan transactions
Preferred equity investments
Private mortgage lender bankruptcy matters on behalf of borrowers
Property and loan portfolio transactions
Real Estate Owned (REO) transactions
Receiverships
Rescue capital transactions
Restructuring and redevelopment of distressed projects
Senior/subordinate lender and intercreditor matters
Subscription loan facilities
Syndicated loan transactions
Warehouse lines of credit

Our attorneys have extensive experience in real estate, finance, litigation, taxation, and bankruptcy matters. With offices in some of the hardest-hit markets in the country, we understand the regional issues, local law, political climate, and distinct market characteristics in the places where deals are happening. We work alongside clients to find creative workout solutions, structure favorable transactions, and identify profitable opportunities.