Commercial
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July 09, 2025
Zombie Buildings, Conversions And Booming Office CMBS
While office distress hovers at all-time highs, securitized commercial mortgages for trophy office properties are surging, and a spate of New York City office-to-residential conversions are breathing new life into empty buildings.
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July 09, 2025
Albireo Energy Faces Suit Over Mold In Colo. School
A Colorado school district hit Albireo Energy with a negligence suit in state court Wednesday that blames the building controls company for nearly $1 million in damage to a middle school from a botched ventilation system upgrade.
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July 09, 2025
Ohio Officials Sued Over $600M In Funds For Browns Stadium
The transfer of $600 million in unclaimed property funds to the Cleveland Browns to help finance a proposed new suburban stadium for the NFL team is an "unconstitutional and unlawful misappropriation of private property,'' a group of unclaimed-property owners alleged in a proposed class action in Ohio state court against several state officials.
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July 09, 2025
Mayer Brown Adds Amherst Group GC To Real Estate Group
Mayer Brown announced Wednesday that it added a real estate and private equity expert to the firm's Los Angeles office, who joins the firm as partner following stints at The Amherst Group and Nuveen Real Estate.
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July 09, 2025
Akerman Adds Land Use Atty From Cozen O'Connor In NY
Akerman LLP said it has bolstered its real estate practice by adding the co-chair of Cozen O'Connor's land use and zoning practice as a partner in its New York office.
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July 09, 2025
Nashville Owners Must Face The Music As Tax Burden Surges
Property owners in Nashville are facing greater tax burdens in light of a recent jump in property valuations. Burr & Forman partner John F. Rogers Jr., a veteran real estate attorney in the city, spoke recently with Law360 Real Estate Authority about the market's evolution and how he is advising clients on approaching these latest financial developments.
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July 09, 2025
Ballpark Builder Wants Engineer Forced To Ink Settlement
The original builder of a hotly litigated Hartford minor league baseball stadium has asked a Connecticut state court judge to force an engineering consultant's compliance with a confidential settlement agreement it has allegedly failed to sign despite sitting at the table with a number of other entities and lodging no objection to the terms.
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July 09, 2025
Trump Order On Solar, Wind Credits Puts Industry On Heels
President Donald Trump threw a curveball to the energy industry by ordering the U.S. Department of the Treasury to take a hard line on which projects qualify for solar and wind tax credits under the new budget law, leaving practitioners uncertain about the scope of the restrictions.
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July 09, 2025
NJ Court Backs Real Estate Partnership In Land Dispute
A New Jersey appeals court on Wednesday backed a lower court's ruling that a Garden State real estate partnership was the owner of a narrow strip of commercial property, concluding that decades of recorded deeds and consistent use established their rightful ownership.
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July 09, 2025
11th Circ. Rules Against Hotelier In Arbitration Battle
The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a bankruptcy court's annulment of an automatic stay to allow enforcement of an arbitral award issued in a dispute over a failed $250 million hotel conglomerate, rejecting arguments that the order was barred under a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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July 09, 2025
Seyfarth Lands DLA Piper Corporate Ace In Atlanta
Seyfarth Shaw LLP has added a former DLA Piper attorney to its Atlanta office, strengthening its institutional investors services and its corporate practice with a lawyer who has served on temporary assignment to a sovereign wealth fund based in the United Arab Emirates, the firm announced Wednesday.
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July 09, 2025
Real Estate Lawyers On The Move
Buchalter, Shumaker and Warshaw Burstein are among the law firms that have made recent real estate or construction hires.
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July 09, 2025
USDA To Crack Down On Foreign Ownership Of Farmland
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it will work to block purchases of U.S. farmland by "nationals from countries of concern or other foreign adversaries," particularly near sites such as military bases, and "aggressively" overhaul how the department reviews agricultural investments linked to countries including China, Russia and Iran.
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July 09, 2025
Jones Foster Brings On Fla. Real Estate Veteran In Jupiter
The sole shareholder and president of Gary Dytrych & Ryan PA in North Palm Beach has taken his decades of experience in real estate law to Jones Foster PA's Jupiter, Florida, office.
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July 09, 2025
Antitrust Enforcers Beat Google, Try Meta And Keep Going
When U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema held on April 17 that Google was liable for illegally monopolizing two out of three advertising placement technology markets targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice, her ruling contributed to potentially one of the most consequential convergences of antitrust enforcement in recent memory.
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July 09, 2025
NY Judge Combines Ready Capital Investors' Stock-Drop Suits
A New York federal judge has consolidated multiple stock-drop class actions against real estate finance company Ready Capital Corp., appointed a lead plaintiff and picked Levi & Korsinsky LLP as lead counsel.
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July 09, 2025
Mass. Cos. Must Keep Bottled Water Flowing In PFAS Case
A Massachusetts federal judge has ordered defendant companies to keep providing bottled water to residents of Westminster, Massachusetts, maintaining the status quo while the court determines whether those companies have made the residents' tap water sufficiently safe from so-called forever chemicals.
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July 08, 2025
Fla. Distorted Detention Center Construction, Group Says
An environmental nonprofit claimed in Florida federal court filings Tuesday it has evidence additional land in the Everglades is being used to construct a federal immigration detention center, alleging a misrepresentation from Florida officials that the camp is built on the footprint of an existing airport structure.
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July 08, 2025
Kansas Extends STAR Bonds To Continue Chiefs, Royals Talks
Kansas lawmakers have approved a one-year extension of the state's Sales Tax and Revenue bonds while the Missouri-based Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals continue talks with officials about migrating to Kansas.
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July 08, 2025
Kohl's Says Self-Storage Renovation Led To Pa. Mall Exit
In seeking to ditch a lawsuit, Kohl's on Tuesday told a Pennsylvania federal judge that a mall owner breached a lease of two decades with an unwanted renovation project that added a nearby self-storage business and cut off the retailer's access to the mall's interior.
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July 08, 2025
Tax Court Says IRS Offer In $57M Easement Case Isn't Binding
A settlement offer the Internal Revenue Service said it mistakenly made to a partnership after rejecting its $57 million conservation easement deduction is not binding, the U.S. Tax Court said Tuesday, declining the partnership's request to enforce the deal.
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July 08, 2025
4 Firms Guide BlackRock's ElmTree Acquisition Deal
BlackRock Inc. will acquire net lease real estate investment firm ElmTree Funds, which oversees $7.3 billion worth of assets as of March 31, in a deal guided by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, Sidley Austin LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, BlackRock announced.
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July 08, 2025
Prospect Medical Doctor Groups Hit Ch. 11 After Astrana Sale
About two dozen physician practices linked to bankrupt healthcare company Prospect Medical have filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas, days after Prospect sold some of the entities' assets to Astrana Health Inc. for $708 million.
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July 08, 2025
Fla. Probes Internet Figures, REIT And Suspect Ponzi Scheme
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Tuesday announced his office has subpoenaed two internet personalities and their real estate investment trust based on allegations that they pocketed money intended for property purchases in what authorities say appears to be a Ponzi scheme.
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July 08, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Bleakley Platt and Waxman Law are among the law firms that helped with the largest New York City real estate deals that became public last week, with a nine-figure Queens trade leading the way.
Expert Analysis
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Key Drivers Behind Widespread Adoption Of NAV Financing
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.
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Conn. Ruling Highlights Keys To Certificate-Of-Need Appeals
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.
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Pickleball Makes Waves In Fla. Real Estate, With Risks In Play
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.
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4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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.
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What Calif. Pot Permit Ruling Means For Enviro Compliance
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.
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Rare Reg A+ Fines Reflect New Era Of SEC Enforcement
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.
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Factors To Consider When Structuring Data Center Contracts
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.
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Rethinking Mich. Slip-And-Fall Defense After Top Court Ruling
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.
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Subchapter V Eligibility Ruling Raises Uncertainty For Tenants
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.
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Parsing Tax Implications Of NYC Office Leasing Transactions
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.
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NY's Take On Premises Insurance Policies: What's In A Name?
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.
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Bankruptcy Ruling Shows Section 363's Magic Has Its Limits
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.
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Shifts In The CRE Landscape Demand Creative Loan Solutions
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.