Real Estate
In a market experiencing unprecedented change, parties involved in high-stakes real estate deals need a steady, trusted hand to guide them. The Paul, Weiss Real Estate Practice leverages a history of executing every kind of real estate property transaction and unparalleled business and legal acumen to help the most complex projects succeed amid volatile economic conditions.
Many big firms represent only one or a few kinds of real estate clients. But Paul, Weiss real estate lawyers are known for navigating the multiple interests involved in complex deals that feature large numbers and types of parties - from major developers, government agencies, entrepreneurs and investors to the largest real estate fund sponsors and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).
We represent clients that include civic and commercial developers shaping the New York cityscape as well as corporations engaged in high-stakes restructurings and precedent-setting arbitrations around the globe. Our clients also include government entities and non-profit institutions with significant real estate holdings. Representing such a diverse clientele with such diverse interests has given us a rich knowledge of the marketplace and the ability to anticipate the myriad contingencies that arise in every kind of real estate transaction.
The Paul, Weiss Real Estate Practice is known for navigating the multiple interests involved in complex deals that feature large numbers and types of parties—from major developers, government agencies, entrepreneurs and investors to the largest real estate fund sponsors and real estate investment trusts (REITs). Our lawyers have guided some of the most important and high-profile developments in New York City and across the country to completion. We are adept at helping our clients navigate diverse stakeholders, as well as the many legal, financing and regulatory issues involved in significant commercial real estate matters.
Our real estate lawyers have extensive experience in the following areas:
- financings
- sales and acquisitions (single-asset and portfolio)
- joint ventures (single-asset and programmatic)
- development
- leasing
- public/private partnerships
- sale-leasebacks
- real estate investment funds
- workouts and restructurings
- condominiums
- hospitality
- international real estate
We also work closely with our firm's bankruptcy lawyers to handle an array of restructuring investments for owners and lenders, with attendant litigation and bankruptcy aspects, and distressed opportunity investing for private equity and hedge fund and entrepreneurial investors. Much of our restructuring work occurs for clients in the hospitality and gaming industries, on both the national and international level.
“We turn to Paul, Weiss for all our most sophisticated and complex work.”
- Chambers USA
Recent
Experience
Recognition
Chambers USA: Leading Firm
- Three partners named on Lawdragon's inaugural list of "500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers 2024"
- One partner named "MVP" by Law360 four times in the past nine years
- Partners consistently recognized by industry publications, including The National Law Journal, IFLR1000, Best Lawyers, The New York Law Journal and Crain’s New York Business
Recent Engagements
- CIM Group, a sponsor of real estate funds that specializes in urban investments, in a variety of acquisitions, joint ventures, and developments, including 85 Jay Street in Brooklyn, The Vale at the Parks and Trellis House in Washington, D.C., Southern Towers and Skyline Towers in Southern Virginia, Sunset La Cienega in Los Angeles, The Tribune Building and The Paragon in Chicago, Miami World Center in Florida, Uptown Station in California, and Panorama (formerly the Watchtower), The Dominick Hotel, 432 Park Avenue, 440 Broadway, 303 East 51st Street, 140 West Street and 109 Montgomery in New York, and 1000 Washington in Boston, among others.
- Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the nation’s largest public transit system, in numerous critical development and transportation infrastructure projects, including (a) ground leases with Related Companies LP for the Hudson Yards project, the largest private development in U.S. history, (b) agreement with various private owners–including LVMH (global luxury goods company), Extell Development (one of New York City's most active and prominent developers), Related Companies, and a joint venture between New York City developers–for the construction of improvements to subway stations in order to comply with legal requirements or in exchange for zoning bonuses and (c) the development and ground lease of bus terminal in Jamaica, Queens.
- Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a $1.3 billion acquisition of assets from Cyxtera (a data center provider) in a chapter 11 case and related real estate from several third parties in separate transactions, modifications of dozens of leases, a consolidation of over 50 data centers into a single portfolio, and multiple financings of the portfolio.
- General Electric in its spin-offs of the GE Health Care and the GE Vernova (Energy) businesses. In connection with the spin-off of GE’s healthcare business, we negotiated a Real Estate Matters Agreement between GE and HealthCare that governed the transfer of all of GE’s owned and leased properties that would be transferred between the two entities upon the spin-off. In connection with the spin-off of GE’s energy business, we negotiated the allocation of the company’s real estate among the businesses, including interim arrangements for co-located sites and the transfer and leaseback of assets among the businesses. We also handled a complex subdivision and condominiumization of an important research facility in upstate New York that will be shared by the separate GE Aerospace and GE Vernova businesses.
- Loews Hotels Holdings Corporation and its subsidiaries in connection with (a) a joint venture to develop three hotels in Orlando, (b) a $370 million refinancing of a mortgage loan secured by the Surfside and Dockside Resort Hotels in Orlando, including a construction financing consisting of two cross-collateralized loans totaling $610 million with a syndicate led by Wells Fargo to finance the project and (c) multiple ongoing matters.
- A joint venture between Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management in the acquisition from J. C. Penney Company, Inc. in a chapter 11 case, and the financing, of fee and leasehold interests in over 600 stores and a dozen distribution centers across the United States.
- iStar Inc. in the sale of its triple net lease portfolio of office, industrial and entertainment assets to The Carlyle Group and certain of its affiliates for approximately $3 billion.
- Invited (f/k/a ClubCorp Holdings) in a strategic arrangement with VICI Properties to grow BigShots Golf, a golf themed entertainment venue. VICI provided a construction loan facility for the construction and development of up to five new BigShots Golf venues throughout the United States.
- The Collegiate Churches of New York, the oldest operating church in the United States, in connection with its investment in a major commercial real estate development project in New York City.
- Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Real Estate in the $6.25 billion acquisition of The Venetian and Palazzo Casino Resorts and Sands Expo and Convention Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, from Las Vegas Sands Corporation. In connection with the acquisition, VICI Properties, a publicly traded REIT, acquired the Venetian/Sands real estate and lease it to an affiliate of the Apollo funds pursuant to a long-term, triple net lease agreement valued at $4 billion.
- Healthpeak Properties (an S&P 500 healthcare REIT) in the origination of well over a billion dollars of mortgage and mezzanine loans, in workouts of multiple mezzanine loans, in the sale of a mortgage loan to a real estate fund, and in the borrowing of hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgage loans from private and agency lenders.
- Northwell Health (formerly North Shore – LIJ Health System) in various acquisitions, leases and other real estate transactions in New York City and on Long Island.
