Commercial
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May 28, 2025
Insurance Atty Talks FEMA Cuts As Storm, Fire Seasons Near
As hurricane and wildfire seasons approach, Anthony Lopez, founder of the law firm Your Insurance Attorney, told Law360 Real Estate Authority that with natural disasters intensifying, the Trump administration's cuts to FEMA are likely to put more pressure on states and property owners in an already challenging insurance environment.
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May 27, 2025
Renaissance Fair Co. Says Landlord Planned 'Knock-Off' Event
The operator of a New England Renaissance fair has accused its landlord of stalling on a long-term lease extension in order to plan a "knock-off version" of the event.
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May 27, 2025
Unlicensed Adviser Charged With $4M Securities Fraud In NC
Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have charged an unlicensed California investment adviser with fraud and money laundering after he allegedly lured more than 30 victims into investing more than $4 million in bogus commercial real estate opportunities.
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May 27, 2025
NJ Developer Alleges Defamation In Waterfront Dispute
A Garden State developer claims that a real estate and property management company defamed it in a letter to municipal officials in which it said an appellate panel had ruled that the developer conspired with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to deprive the real estate company and the public of due process regarding a waterfront development.
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May 27, 2025
Browns Update Bid To Build Stadium Outside Of Cleveland
The Cleveland Browns have reasserted their claim in Ohio federal court that the city of Cleveland cannot legally stop the NFL franchise from building a new stadium in the suburbs and that the city law designed to keep an owner from moving the team without government approval does not apply to them.
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May 27, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Mayer Brown and Nixon Peabody are among the law firms that landed work on the largest New York City real estate deals to hit public records last week, with matters in Manhattan and Bronx atop the list.
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May 27, 2025
Ariz. Asks Justices To Skip Tax Fight Over Plant On Tribe Land
Arizona's tax agency urged the U.S. Supreme Court to pass on a power company's claims that property taxes were illegally levied on a power plant it owns on tribal land, saying the justices have consistently upheld taxes on tribal reservations that solely fall on non-Native Americans.
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May 27, 2025
Global Building Slowing Amid Trade Wars, Cushman Reports
Construction activity around the world has slowed down due to uncertainty caused by the Trump administration enacting tariff policies that set off trade wars and hiked costs for construction materials, according to a report from real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.
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May 27, 2025
Colliers' Q1 Snapshot Shows Steady US Office Vacancies
Colliers said in a Tuesday report that the top 15 U.S. office markets saw vacancy rates stay consistent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, with Manhattan having the lowest vacancy rate.
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May 27, 2025
Industrial Real Estate Co. Terreno Sells LA-Area Site For $97M
Industrial real estate firm Terreno Realty Corp. said Tuesday that it sold a Los Angeles-area property last week for $97 million.
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May 27, 2025
Paul Hastings Lands 5-Atty LA Real Estate Team From Latham
Paul Hastings LLP's real estate practice is adding an experienced five-partner land use team from Latham & Watkins LLP in Los Angeles, the firm announced Tuesday.
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May 23, 2025
Calif. Developer Duped Churchgoers In $46M Scam, Feds Say
A Sonoma, California, real estate developer faces federal wire fraud and money laundering charges in connection with claims he duped hundreds of would-be investors — some of whom are described in court filings as elderly members of his church congregation — into giving him over $46 million as purported investments in certain real estate limited partnerships that their funds were never actually invested in.
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May 23, 2025
X Corp. Hit With $8.2M Judgment Over Colo. Lease Breach
A Colorado state judge on Friday found that X Corp. violated a lease and ordered the company to pay more than $8.2 million in unpaid rent and other costs, citing testimony from a former employee that the social media company stopped making rent payments on various leases as a "renegotiating tactic."
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May 23, 2025
Judge Skeptical Of Harm In Recall Of Tribe's Gambling Eligibility
A D.C. federal judge on Friday signaled concerns with the Interior Department's decision to revoke a California tribe's gambling eligibility for a casino-resort project in the Bay Area, but said that the tribe faces an uphill battle in establishing the irreparable harm needed to secure a preliminary injunction.
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May 23, 2025
Fed Board Recommends Dumping 11 Buildings To Save $5.4B
A federal board set up to help the U.S. General Services Administration find properties that are no longer needed has suggested the agency divest four federal buildings in Washington, D.C., and others in six cities, along with consolidating a lease, to save $5.4 billion in total.
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May 23, 2025
Jurisdiction Issue Revives Challenges To Conn. Foreclosures
A Connecticut trial court must address three trusts' challenges to its jurisdiction over the tax foreclosures of their properties, a state appeals court ruled, saying the lower court failed to tackle the issue in ruling against the trusts.
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May 23, 2025
NC Biz Court Serves Up Wins In Real Estate Commission Fight
North Carolina's business court gave a food service company and a real estate broker partial wins in their ongoing commission dispute, ruling that the broker is entitled to commissions on transactions it has not been paid for but cannot require the food firm to use it for future deals.
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May 23, 2025
Guggenheim-Backed Housing Proposal Upheld In SC
A South Carolina federal judge upheld a 9,000-unit housing plan brought in part by heirs of the Guggenheim family on the Cainhoy Peninsula near Charleston, finding federal authorities properly considered environmental effects of the development.
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May 23, 2025
Taxation With Representation: Troutman, A&O Shearman
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone acquires TXNM Energy, OpenAI buys io Products, Lumen Technologies sells its Mass Markets fiber-to-the-home business in 11 states to AT&T, and AMD sells its data center infrastructure manufacturing business to Sanmina.
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May 23, 2025
Ohio Board Denies Tax Break For City's Rented Office Building
An office building owned by an Ohio city's economic development entity isn't exempt from property taxes because the property is controlled by a nonprofit that leases space to for-profit businesses, the state Board of Tax Appeals ruled.
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May 23, 2025
NJ Assembly OKs Requiring State Buyback Of Unused Credits
New Jersey's tax agency would be required to purchase certain unused tax credits for real estate development projects under a bill passed by the state Assembly.
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May 22, 2025
Student Housing Firm Lands $500M Wells Fargo Refi
Student housing company Global Student Accommodation, or GSA, said on May 22 it had secured $500 million in refinancing from Wells Fargo Bank for a group of 23 properties in 14 states.
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May 22, 2025
Rehab Greenhouse Violated Zoning Rules, Conn. Justices Say
A drug rehab center's attempt to operate a 2,100-square-foot plastic greenhouse as a therapy facility on a northwestern Connecticut farm was an impermissible expansion of a previous nonconforming land use, the state's highest court ruled Thursday, overturning the center's earlier appellate court victory in a zoning dispute.
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May 22, 2025
State Greenlights Fried Frank-Guided NYC Resi Conversion
The Empire State Development Corp.'s board of directors voted Thursday to approve RXR and Apollo Global Management's massive office-to-residential conversion in New York's Times Square, a project advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.
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May 22, 2025
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Fried Frank and Kramer Levin are among the law firms that scored work on the largest New York City real estate deals to hit public records last week, a slow period that saw only five matters above the $20 million mark become public.
Expert Analysis
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A Smoother Process For CRE Receiverships In Conn.
A newly effective Connecticut law concerning distressed commercial real estate provides a number of opportunities and strategic considerations for creditors, and should be watched even by counsel in other states as adoption of the law could become more widespread, say John Loughnane and Steven Coury at White and Williams.
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What Came Of Texas Legislature's Long-Promised Tax Relief
Following promises of historic tax relief made possible by a record budget surplus, the Texas legislative session as a whole was one in which taxpayers that are large businesses could have done somewhat better, but the new legislation is clearly still a positive, say attorneys at Baker Botts.
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CRE Guidance Helps Lenders Work With Struggling Borrowers
In recognition of growing troubles with commercial real estate loans, four federal regulators' recently updated loan accommodations guidance provides a helpful framework for approaching loan workouts without the punitive results of adverse classifications, say Jaclyn Grodin and Muryum Khalid at Goulston & Storrs.
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NYC Cannabis Landlord Accountability Law Has Limitations
A recently passed bill in New York City, aiming to crack down on the illegal cannabis market by levying fines against landlords who knowingly lease to unlicensed sellers, contains loopholes that may potentially limit the bill’s impact and lead to unintended consequences, say attorneys at Falcon Rappaport.
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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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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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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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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.