Commercial

  • June 25, 2024

    Wash. HOA Drops Water Damage Coverage Claims

    A homeowners association agreed to drop its Washington federal case seeking up to $8.7 million in coverage for "hidden" water damage to its condos.

  • June 25, 2024

    Denver Hits Back At Landlord Suit To Void Energy Standards

    The city of Denver says residential and commercial real estate trade groups have failed to show why they can't comply with recent city and state energy-efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, looking to ditch their lawsuit in federal court.

  • June 25, 2024

    Bristol-Myers Fights NJ City's $4.6M Fee On Campus Upgrade

    Bristol-Myers Squibb asked the New Jersey Tax Court to reverse the state's upholding of a $4.6 million nonresidential development fee on renovations to buildings on a 91-acre campus, arguing the improvements were excluded from the levy.

  • June 25, 2024

    Vegas Property Owner Says REIT Lacks Mortgage License

    A Las Vegas property owner has alleged in Nevada federal court that a $14.6 million loan agreement it made with a real estate investment trust is void because the REIT did not have a state mortgage lending license when the agreement was made.

  • June 25, 2024

    Pot Cos. Push Back On Calif. City's Bid To Toss $5.4M Fee Suit

    Six cannabis companies are fighting the California city of Cudahy's bid to dismiss a suit alleging that the city reneged on a promise to waive $5.4 million in fees accrued during the COVID-19 shutdowns, saying the motion largely disputes allegations that the court has to accept as true under a motion to dismiss.

  • June 25, 2024

    Gibson Dunn, Troutman Rep $2.1B Multifamily Deal

    KKR & Co. Inc., advised by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, paid $2.1 billion to buy a portfolio of 18 apartment properties from Quarterra Multifamily, guided by Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, the private equity giant announced Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Charlotte City Council OKs $650M For Stadium Overhaul

    The Charlotte City Council voted to contribute some $650 million in city money to a renovation for the Carolina Panthers' stadium under a plan made public just three weeks ago.

  • June 25, 2024

    Legal Office Leasing Stayed Strong In Q1, Cushman Says

    Cushman & Wakefield said in a report Tuesday that the legal sector continued to take on real estate at a strong clip in the first quarter of 2024 after reaching records among office leases in both 2022 and 2023.

  • June 25, 2024

    Lewis Baach Says Chrysler Building Landlord Bilked The Firm

    International boutique Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC has sued the landlord for its former office space in the Chrysler Building in New York state court, saying RFR Holding LLC is refusing to return its $275,000 security deposit.

  • June 25, 2024

    Tax Pros Worry Credit Sales Could Raise Substance Issues

    Tax professionals are concerned that deals involving a new way to sell clean energy tax credits for cash could face IRS scrutiny after the agency scored a high-profile win over a telecommunications company by deploying an aggressive interpretation of what's known as the economic substance doctrine.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ore. Tax Court Affirms $13M Valuation For Lowe's Retail Outlet

    The Oregon Tax Court affirmed the $13.4 million tax valuation of a Lowe's home improvement warehouse, rejecting the company's argument that the property should be valued as if it did not have a lease in place.

  • June 25, 2024

    Meadow Partners Raises $530M For Latest Real Estate Fund

    Real estate investment manager Meadow Partners announced Tuesday it raised $530 million for the sixth installment of its flagship real estate fund, with capital commitments from a mix of new investors and longtime partners.

  • June 25, 2024

    How Real Estate Attys Should Prep For Possible Chevron Shift

    The U.S. Supreme Court is likely only days away from deciding on the future of Chevron deference, a potential change that Holland & Knight LLP partner Lynn Calkins and her team expect to have widespread real estate ramifications touching everything from federal policy to local zoning.

  • June 24, 2024

    EPA Says Army Corps Doesn't Belong In Pebble Mine Dispute

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is urging an Alaska federal judge to refuse a mining company's bid to amend a lawsuit in order to reverse an Army Corps of Engineers decision denying the controversial Pebble Mine project a permit.

  • June 24, 2024

    SEC Official Urges Banks To Report Commercial RE Risks

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is closely monitoring the way banks with significant commercial real estate portfolios are communicating with investors about their exposure to the struggling market, the agency's director of its Division of Corporation Finance said in remarks posted online Monday.

  • June 24, 2024

    Lloyd's Seeks To Avoid Coverage For Beach Umbrella Death

    Certain underwriters at Lloyd's, London told a South Carolina federal court Monday they should have no coverage obligations to a vacation rental owner over a wrongful death suit alleging that a woman was impaled by a "wind-driven" beach umbrella.

  • June 24, 2024

    Nev. Restaurant Co.'s COVID Suit Is Kept Alive

    A group of insurers can't avoid a restaurant holding company's bid for coverage of COVID-19-related losses, a Nevada state court ruled, finding that the state supreme court's ruling on the subject didn't control the action because of an infectious disease endorsement in the company's policies.

  • June 24, 2024

    Ill. Landowners Challenge FERC Moves On $7B Power Line

    Illinois residents, farmers and landowners launched a fresh challenge to the $7 billion Grain Belt Express high-voltage power line, telling the D.C. Circuit that when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved an amended negotiated rate authority, it ignored clean energy giant Invenergy's unsanctioned purchase of the project in 2020.

  • June 24, 2024

    La. To Provide Sales Tax Rebates For Data Center Purchases

    Louisiana will provide state and local sales and use tax rebates for taxes paid on the lease or purchase of eligible data center equipment and the development, acquisition or repair of qualified data centers under a bill signed by the governor.

  • June 24, 2024

    Ex-Chicago Alderman Gets Two Years For Boosting Law Firm

    An Illinois federal judge on Monday sentenced former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke to two years in prison and fined him $2 million for using his official position to steer tax business to his personal law firm, closing what prosecutors called "another sordid chapter" in the city's history of public corruption.

  • June 24, 2024

    IRS Finalizes Limits To Partnership Conservation Easements

    The Internal Revenue Service finalized rules Monday that curb the conservation easement tax deduction claimed by certain partnerships, with some changes to last year's proposed version, such as limiting the opportunity for entities to adjust their tax returns to avoid the new restrictions.

  • June 24, 2024

    Real Estate Co. Fights Back Against $315M Loan Default Suit

    An RXR entity mostly denied loan default claims lodged in New York federal court by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., which sued to foreclose on a midtown Manhattan building after the maturity date on a $315 million loan passed with the debt unpaid.

  • June 24, 2024

    NYC Real Estate Week In Review

    DGW Kramer and Chaves Perlowitz were among the law firms that guided the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, a busy period that saw eight transactions north of $20 million become public.

  • June 24, 2024

    Red Roof Ignored Years Of Trafficking, Victim Tells Ga. Jurors

    The corporate owners of two metro Atlanta Red Roof Inn locations knew about and ignored trafficking at the hotels, a woman who said she had been trafficked at the two hotels and others in the surrounding area for six years told Georgia federal jurors Monday.

  • June 24, 2024

    Morris Manning Elevates Tech Team Leader To Co-Chair

    Morris Manning & Martin LLP has appointed its corporate technology practice founder and leader as the firm's co-chairman, turning to a longtime Atlanta-based partner who has led the practice in closing more than 950 venture capital, growth equity and merger and acquisition deals in the past three years, the firm announced Monday.

Expert Analysis

  • Identifying Trends And Tips In Litigation Financing Disclosure

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    Growing interest and controversy in litigation financing raise several salient concerns, but exploring recent compelled disclosure trends from courts around the country can help practitioners further their clients' interests, say Sean Callagy and Samuel Sokolsky at Arnold & Porter.

  • 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.

  • The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'

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    Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.

  • 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

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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.

  • Caregiver Flexibility Is Crucial For Atty Engagement, Retention

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    As the battle for top talent continues post-pandemic, many firms are attempting to attract employees with progressive hybrid working environments — and supporting caregivers before, during and after an extended leave is a critically important way to retain top talent, says Manar Morales at The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance.