Commercial
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May 23, 2024
Ill. Justices OK $28M Tax Value Appeal Without Payment
A power company's property in Illinois was not required to pay disputed property taxes before appealing a valuation, the Illinois Supreme Court affirmed Thursday, upholding a reduction in the assessment of about $28 million.
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May 23, 2024
JV Inks $48.5M Ft. Lauderdale Shopping Center Buy
BH Group, PEBB Enterprises and Related Group have snapped up a mixed-use waterfront shopping center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida's Harbordale neighborhood for $48.5 million through a joint venture, with plans to further develop the property.
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May 23, 2024
MoFo Guides $100M Refi At Manhattan Office Property
Morgan Stanley Bank NA and German American Capital Corp. refinanced a $100 million mortgage of the Feil Organization's Look Building, a New York City office building, in a deal guided by Morrison & Foerster LLP.
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May 23, 2024
Oakland Coliseum Sold To Black-Led Biz Group For $105M
The City of Oakland has agreed to sell its share of the Oakland Coliseum to a group of Black community, business and investment leaders for a minimum of $105 million in a deal that the city said will pave the way for affordable housing units, outdoor space and future developments.
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May 22, 2024
CBRE Calls Exec's Noncompete Right Fit In A Small World
A Texas appellate court wondered Wednesday whether a temporary injunction that seemingly bars a former CBRE executive from working in his trade anywhere in the world goes too far, and questioned the validity of the underlying noncompete agreement at the center of the legal battle.
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May 22, 2024
Ill. Justices Weigh Zurich's Right To Recover $3M Flood Loss
The Illinois Supreme Court weighed Wednesday whether Zurich American Insurance Co. can recoup $3 million from a subcontractor for water damage repair costs the insurer paid to a general contractor despite Zurich filing suit on behalf of a different insured.
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May 22, 2024
FDIC Eyes 'Weak' Office, Mall Assets In Risk Assessment
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deemed office and retail mall asset classes 2023's "weak" points among the otherwise resilient commercial real estate property types, in a Wednesday report summarizing risks facing FDIC-insured institutions.
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May 22, 2024
Real Estate Firm Buys Manhattan Retail Property For $180M
TZ Capital scooped up a luxury retail property on Madison Ave. for $180 million — nearly $100 million less than what the building last traded for, per a source familiar with the deal Wednesday — in a move that comes as midtown Manhattan's retail market sees growing deal and leasing activity.
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May 22, 2024
Chancery Keeps RedBird-Brookfield Dispute Stay In Place
A Delaware vice chancellor declined Wednesday to rule from the bench on a preliminary injunction sought by Redbird Capital Partners in a dispute over a Brookfield Infrastructure Partners claim for a $150 million escrow included in its $5.7 billion purchase of RedBird data center projects last year.
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May 22, 2024
Texas Billionaires Building $7B City After Finding Aquifer
The wealthy Walker family will put down $1.6 billion in cash over the next 30 years to build their own self-sufficient city after discovering access to an underground aquifer can provide more than enough water for the project, sitting 20 miles north of Laredo, Texas.
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May 22, 2024
Croke Fairchild Hires 2 Real Estate Attys For Chicago Office
Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC hired Penelope Campbell and Ari Krigel as partners for its real estate practice in Chicago, the firm announced.
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May 22, 2024
Sullivan & Cromwell Atty Urges Cos. To Tend To Climate Data
Public companies should not expect stakeholder concerns over climate risk to go away, even though litigation has cast a fog of uncertainty over certain disclosure rules, a Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer said Wednesday at a panel on the topic.
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May 22, 2024
Realty Firm Seeks Early Win In Law Firm's Suit Over Lease
Real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. has urged a Texas state court to grant it an early win against law firm Polunsky Beitel & Green LLP in a suit alleging that Polunsky Beitel is wrongfully going to lose its sublease for a Houston commercial office building that will now be converted into a residential building.
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May 22, 2024
Wells Fargo Wants Receivership For Hotels After $52M Default
Wells Fargo has sued American Hotel Income Properties REIT Inc. in New York federal court, claiming that the real estate investment trust's hotels should be placed into a court-ordered receivership after the REIT's affiliates defaulted on a $52.4 million loan.
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May 22, 2024
DC Empty Building Not Eligible For Tax Exemption, Court Says
The owner of a vacant building in Washington, D.C., can't claim an exemption from the district's vacant building property tax rate because the owner claimed the exemption outside the allowed two-year period, the district's highest court ruled.
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May 22, 2024
NJ Atty Faces Fla. Suspension Over Sale Of $1.6M Painting
An attorney suspended for one year in New Jersey last year for smuggling a $1.6 million painting out of his house to avoid an asset sale has agreed to a guilty plea accepting another yearlong suspension in Florida related to the scheme.
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May 22, 2024
Prologis Legal Chief To Step Down At The End Of 2024
Prologis Inc.'s chief legal officer will retire and transition to a senior adviser role starting in January, the logistics-focused real estate investment trust said Wednesday, and another member of its legal team has been tapped to fill the position.
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May 22, 2024
SC Expands Abandoned Building Credit, Adds Railroad Credit
South Carolina expanded its tax credit for the revitalization of abandoned buildings and provided an income tax credit for railroad reconstruction under a bill signed by the governor.
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May 22, 2024
Soured Partnership Tanks Dallas Tower Weakened By COVID
In the fourth story in a series on distressed office properties in various U.S. markets, Law360 Real Estate Authority examines how a solid office building in an otherwise strong market — Dallas' Uptown — started showing cracks from COVID-19 and controversy.
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May 22, 2024
Goodwin Real Estate Atty Eyes Gov't Role In Adaptive Reuse
Investors considering converting office buildings to a residential use are increasingly seeking more assistance from and collaboration with governments, one of Goodwin's real estate leaders told Law360 in a recent interview.
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May 21, 2024
Quarry Not Liable For Dirt Bike Accident, NJ Panel Says
The owner of a New Jersey quarry long used by all-terrain vehicle enthusiasts cannot be held liable for injuries a dirt biker sustained after he struck a steel cable on the property, a state appeals court has ruled, saying the landowner installed the cable for legitimate, not malicious, purposes.
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May 21, 2024
Bankrupt SVB Fights To Keep $1.9B Suit Against FDIC Alive
The bankrupt former parent company of Silicon Valley Bank urged a California federal judge on Tuesday not to toss its suit against the Financial Deposit Insurance Corp. that seeks to get the deposit insurer to return $1.93 billion, saying the FDIC has not fulfilled its obligation to turn over the company's account funds.
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May 21, 2024
22 States Tell 11th Circ. Corp. Transparency Act Goes Too Far
The federal Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutionally displaces state authority and its enforcement would economically harm states and their residents, attorneys general from 22 states told the Eleventh Circuit, urging it to uphold a ruling that struck down the law.
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May 21, 2024
Variety Of Cases Propelled Rise In New Jersey Ch. 11 Filings
The cases that have made the New Jersey bankruptcy court the second busiest in the nation have run the gamut from nationwide retail chains, major real estate players and Johnson & Johnson's mass tort talc spinoff to genetic labs and cryptocurrency platforms.
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May 21, 2024
Tremont Chicago Hotel Lender Calls For End To Ch. 11 Case
Citing a bankrupt owner's lack of equity and longstanding defaults, the senior secured creditor to Chicago's defunct former Tremont Hotel has asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to dismiss the case or lift its Chapter 11 automatic stay.
Expert Analysis
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When Investment Banks Can Sell Real Estate In Calif.
When investment banks sell businesses that own property in California, they may run into trouble if they are not licensed real estate brokers, unless the property is merely incidental to the deal at hand, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Hedging Variable Interest Rates In A Volatile Market
Variable rate loans, which were an advantageous borrowing method prior to the recent Federal Reserve rate hikes and subsequent volatility, are now the difference between borrowers remaining current on their obligations and defaulting due to the sharply increasing debt service requirements of their loans, say attorneys at Cassin & Cassin.
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Parsing FTC's Intercontinental-Black Knight Merger Challenge
The Federal Trade Commission's recent Article III case challenging a merger between Intercontinental Exchange and Black Knight suggests the agency is using a structuralist approach to evaluate the merger's potential anti-competitive harm, says David Evans at Kelley Drye.
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Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice
Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.
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Effectual Relief Questions Linger After Section 363 Ruling
In the months since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in MOAC Mall Holdings, courts and practitioners must grapple with the issue of what effectual relief courts may grant upon an appeal of an unstayed sale order, says Monique Jewett-Brewster at Hopkins Carley.
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Courts Can Overturn Deficient State Regulations, Too
While suits challenging federal regulations have become commonplace, such cases against state agencies are virtually nonexistent, but many states have provisions that allow litigants to bring suit for regulations with inadequate cost-benefit analyses, says Reeve Bull at the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management.
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Tales From The Trenches Of Remote Depositions
As practitioners continue to conduct depositions remotely in the post-pandemic world, these virtual environments are rife with opportunities for improper behavior such as witness coaching, scripted testimony and a general lack of civility — but there are methods to prevent and combat these behaviors, say Jennifer Gibbs and Bennett Moss at Zelle.
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3 Alternatives To CRE Collateralized Loan Obligations
With current commercial real estate market conditions pushing issuers away from collateralized loan obligations, several Freddie Mac offerings should be considered as alternative exit strategies for mortgage loans secured by multifamily properties, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Ga. Banking Brief: All The Notable Compliance Updates In Q2
Legislation signed into law in the second quarter of the year in Georgia tackled a broad range of issues that will affect financial institutions, from money laundering and consumer protection to commercial financing disclosures and a lengthy cleanup of the banking and finance code, says Elizabeth Garner at Parker Hudson.
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Sackett Ruling, 'Waters' Rule Fix Won't Dry Up Wetlands Suits
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency narrowing the scope of Clean Water Act protections, the Biden administration is amending its rule defining "waters of the United States" — but the revised rule will inevitably face further court challenges, continuing the WOTUS legal saga indefinitely, say attorneys at Milbank.
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Fla. Banking Brief: All The Notable Compliance Updates In Q2
Florida financial institutions must now navigate minimum interest rates for attorney trust accounts, restrictions on property sales to prohibited foreigners, and a ban on weighing environmental, social and governance factors to determine a customer's creditworthiness — changes that will add to banks' compliance pressures, says Patricia Hernandez at Avila Rodriguez.
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Level Up Lawyers' Business Development With Gamification
With employee engagement at a 10-year low in the U.S., there are several gamification techniques marketing and business development teams at law firms can use to make generating new clients and matters more appealing to lawyers, says Heather McCullough at Society 54.
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NY, NJ Regs Give Clarity To Cannabis Investors, Ancillaries
Proposed laws and regulations in New York and New Jersey would clarify some previously murky legal waters, thus expanding the ability of investors, lenders and ancillary service providers to work with marijuana business in these states, say David Waxman and Heidi Urness at McGlinchey Stafford.