Mr. Selver is Co-Chair of Kramer Levin’s Land Use department. He has been engaged in the private practice of law in New York City since 1972. His practice encompasses all aspects of land use and development law, with a special emphasis on environmental, zoning and historic preservation. Mr. Selver has extensive experience counseling clients in the public and environmental review of complex and large scale projects. Over the past five years, he has coordinated the successful public approval and environmental review process for, among other projects, major waterfront rezonings in Queens and Brooklyn, the trans-Hudson rail tunnel and new train terminal for the (now cancelled) Access to the Region’s Core, and for the first transfers of “floating” Broadway theater development rights. He has also served as counsel for Landmarks Preservation Commission approvals of alterations and enlargements to buildings in, among other areas, the Greenwich Village, Ladies Mile and Upper East Side Historic Districts.
Among Mr. Selver’s current projects are the ongoing development of the southern six blocks of Riverside South, including the recently approved 3 million square foot Riverside Center; the redevelopment of Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport; the reconfiguration and repositioning of the retail space at the World Financial Center; a proceeding for the demolition of a designated landmark on the basis of “insufficient return”; and the development of One57, a 1,000 foot-tall hotel and residence opposite Carnegie Hall, and the International Gem Tower, including supervising the assemblage of the development rights used in and securing key zoning interpretations for each.. He has supervised land use and environmental due diligence in connection with numerous purchases and financings of real estate; he has served as special counsel in litigation defending challenges to land use-related permits and approvals; and he has advised public as well as private sector clients.
Mr. Selver was named by Best Lawyers 2012 as the “New York area’s Land Use and Zoning Lawyer of the Year” and has been listed as a Best Lawyer from 2005 to 2013. Chambers USA has designated him as a leader in his field from 2005 to 2012. Legal 500 US 2012 named him a leading lawyer in Real estate and construction – land use/zoning. Mr. Selver was recognized by Super Lawyers as one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in New York” in 2009 and 2010 and he has been listed as a Super Lawyer from 2006 to 2012. He has been chosen as a leading lawyer in America by Lawdragon 3000, named a “NYC Elite Land Use Attorney” by The Real Deal and featured in Real Estate Weekly’s All Stars special supplement. He is listed in Who’s Who in America.
Mr. Selver is the co-author of the New York Practice Guide: Real Property, Volume II: Land Use Regulation (Matthew Bender & Co., 1986). He has also contributed articles to The New York Times, the National Law Journal, the New York Law Journal, Manhattan Lawyer and Car and Driver magazine. He has been a Lecturer in Law at Columbia University Law School and was formerly an Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University. He is a member of the Board of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council and is on the Advisory Committees of the NYU Schack School of Real Estate and of Cityland, a publication of the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School.