In Brief

Clients turn to the Real Estate Department at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in order to fully maximize the opportunities available when dealing with real estate. Our lawyers have extensive experience in analyzing and applying all the relevant law — Real Estate, Corporate, Environmental, Land Use and Tax — to deliver creative, cost-effective and practical legal and business solutions. Whether leasing a new headquarters site, developing, repositioning, buying or selling a property, devising a tax strategy, or financing real estate, clients rely on Kramer Levin for its results-oriented counsel. We have the size, knowledge, experience and business judgment to assist in the full range of real property matters, including:

• Office, residential, industrial, hotel and retail property development, acquisitions and sales
• Financing and refinancings
• Workouts and restructuring transactions for lenders, borrowers and equity participants
• Retail, office and industrial leasing
• Joint ventures
• Structured finance sale/leasebacks
• The creation of new and conversion of existing commercial, residential and mixed use properties to condominium and cooperative uses
• Land Use/Environmental

Our lawyers regularly provide counsel to a number of real estate developers and owners, investment bankers, merchant and commercial bankers, hoteliers and others.

Principal Areas of Focus

Development

We work regularly with developers with respect to a wide range of properties and transactions, both within and outside the city of New York.  Most recently, we have assisted in the successful conversion of office and industrial buildings in the New York financial district and garment center to residential occupancy, the construction of new buildings at Battery Park City and the development and redevelopment of major hotels, as well as mixed-use and residential towers.  In an outer borough, we are counseling on major mixed-use projects, which include both complex condominium and leasehold regimes to accommodate retail, parking and residential occupancies, and provide unique, pioneering concepts that could well change the vistas and terms of apartment living in the City.  Our development capabilities are enhanced significantly by the expertise of our Land Use (zoning) and Environmental groups. Also, we are involved on a regular basis in wide-ranging projects outside of New York, including hotels, retail centers, residential, industrial and warehouse facilities, and corporate campuses. We have both assisted in and facilitated the development or redevelopment of numerous mixed-use projects, regional shopping centers, urban developments and entertainment centers.

Leasing

Commercial leasing stands out as a vital aspect of the New York real estate market. Leases define the utility and value of real property. To realize value, both owners and tenants must not only consummate leases but ensure their durability over a period of years.

The firm’s leasing practice is well established and broad based. We represent a number of institutional and entrepreneurial owners of major office buildings in Manhattan as well as a multitude of commercial tenants. The landlords we represent range from public entities to closely held ventures. Our relationships with our landlord clients are longstanding; our negotiating and drafting of leases on their behalf has accommodated both strong and weak markets. We also have distinguished ourselves by participating in several of the largest leases to be consummated in Manhattan each year over the last decade.

At the same time that we are working hard to consummate leases for our landlord clients, we are representing a number of businesses in their leasing efforts.  And that work goes well beyond the borders of New York City and is national in scope.  We have, for example, represented a number of financial service companies, retailers, advertisers, software businesses, communications firms and other significant enterprises in obtaining office, technical support and retail space in New York and across the nation. We are also pleased to have been selected by a number of law firms to assist them in consummating their own leases.

Sales and Acquisitions

Kramer Levin assists clients in sales and acquisitions throughout the country, but naturally has a significant concentration involving properties in the New York area. A recent example of a multi-state transaction includes our representation of a client in sale/leaseback transactions involving the structured financing of dozens of properties across the country. Another example entailed exchanging a property that was about to be foreclosed for a number of net leased properties that, because of their special characteristics, afforded rapid depreciation benefits to our client.

In the current highly competitive real estate marketplace, we are able to think, react and mobilize quickly to accommodate the needs and pressures – real or perceived – that continue to increase as the pace of our practice accelerates.

Lending

Our lending clients turn to the firm for assistance in developing and implementing loan programs and products that obtain the highest return consistent with their appetite for risk. Because our lawyers have experience with the practical realities of foreclosing on collateral, we have been able to create and consummate office building, retail, hotel, residential and industrial secured loans that grant our clients greater flexibility than is traditionally prescribed by their underwriting procedures. We also have assisted a financing subsidiary of one of our banking clients to branch out into jurisdictions outside the State of New York and, in consultation with local counsel, we have developed commercial loan documentation for use in these other jurisdictions. Our lending experience affords our group valuable insights when we represent borrowers. Our borrower and developer clients call upon us to provide assistance in a variety of loan transactions, including acquisition and mezzanine financings, construction loans, permanent loans and refinancings, and private placements.

Condominiums and Cooperatives

Our lawyers have a long tradition of bringing creative solutions to the structuring and offering of cooperatives and condominiums. As an example, we were the first to develop the concept of the lollipop condominium and the first to successfully conclude a leasehold condominium offering plan in New York State.  We also represented the developer of Time Warner Center and authored the condominium documentation for what is widely considered to be the nation’s most sophisticated and unique mixed use condominium structure.

In New York and elsewhere, the popularity of condominium ownership increases daily, and we pride ourselves on being in the forefront of creative thinking in that area, including structuring a variety of innovative hotel condominium regimes.  And the related field of “time share” and fractional ownership is something with which we are familiar and comfortable with.

We are currently working on a number of residential and mixed-use condominium projects and have developed particular expertise in formulating a condominium structure for a major hotel and residential tower that enabled owners of condominium units to operate as a commercial hotel in a portion of the building in order to comply with zoning and other requirements and obtain significant real estate tax abatements, while the remaining portion of the building is occupied by super-luxury residential apartments. We are regularly involved in sophisticated mixed-use developments.

Workouts, Restructurings and “Trouble”

Clients regularly rely upon our real estate team for its experience and ability in originating new solutions to a wide range of workout situations. In addition to banks and insurance companies, we have assisted a number of owners and developers in restructuring their investments in troubled real estate.  Our long-standing experience in this arena is assisted regularly, as and when required, by our Litigation and Corporate Restructuring groups.

Applied Expertise

Real Estate counsel Larry M. Loeb co-authored West McKinney's Forms for Real Property Practice, and the Commentaries for McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated- Real Property Law and Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law. Real Estate partner Jay A. Neveloff is a member of the Real Estate Advisory Committee of the Practicing Law Institute.