Affiliations

• Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) (Chairman)
• LAEDC Land Use Strategic Advisory Committee (Former Chair)
• City of Hope Los Angeles Real Estate/Construction Council (Director)
• Southern California Development Forum (Advisory Board Director)
• American Counsel Association (Director)
• LAEDC American Bar Association, American Counsel Association, LA County Bar Association, Southern California Development Forum, International Council of Shopping Centers (Member)

Representative Engagements

Acquisition, Development, Construction and Leasing Transactions

• Supervising counsel: created and implemented systematized retail rollout strategy for acquisitions of shop sites for major international retailer’s expansion into West Coast (2005-2007), successfully closing more than 150 transactions in 18 months of properties worth approximately $1.2 Billion.
• Recently obtained approval for the development of a food processing and distribution center at the Meridian Business Park located in the former March Air Force Base pursuant to a mitigated negative declaration under CEQA in about 6 months.
• Supervising counsel in several industrial land acquisitions and developments for distribution centers and regional manufacturing and food processing facilities, including major national candy company, international copier company and major international food companies.
• Supervising counsel managing acquisitions and redevelopment of urban infill properties, many with significant environmental contamination, for major national retailer’s expansion into California in 2002 – 2003.
• Successfully opposed proposed overscale 24-hour private hospital in Beverly Hills, California, coordinating legal and public relations strategy of opponents and neighborhood group, to defeat project even though it had passed its first vote.
• Lead real estate counsel for a Southern California port authority’s $400 million purchase of environmentally contaminated industrial property for expansion of port terminals.
• Structured, negotiated, and documented many purchases and sales of real properties, including, for example, Anaheim shopping center property, Indio fast food restaurant, Northern California apartment complex, Beverly Hills office building and Orange County residential tract.
• Served as outside general counsel for all retail and office leasing and property management issues for various investor-owned properties including premier shopping centers and medical office buildings.
• Obtained favorable settlement concerning limitations on parking for owner of local medical office building complex in land use dispute with prominent neighboring research hospital.

Recent Financing and Workout Transactions

• Currently handling several different foreclosures, workouts and other loan enforcement actions for various lender banks and special servicers.
• Supervised regional counsel team that negotiated and closed all permanent loans made in California by major national life insurance company (some portfolio loans, some securitized), ranging in size from $4.5 million to $30 million.
• Obtained favorable settlement in judicial foreclosure of defaulted multimillion dollar HUD loan in 2002.
• Created California versions of loan documents for West Coast life insurance company and handled all of its complex predevelopment and development loans, secured by properties including raw land, leaseholds, Indian land, residential developments and hotels.
• Negotiated, documented and handled purchase and financing of $46 million apartment property in Nevada owned by publicly traded REIT for California real estate investment company.
• Negotiated, documented and closed $42 million loan by Japanese lender to developer secured by land being developed into residential real estate development in North San Diego County; later handled workout for loan.
• Structured California mezzanine loan documents for international hotel chain’s financing for its franchisees’ hotel purchases.
• Negotiated, handled diligence for and closed $38-million conduit loan for Japanese borrower from Wall Street investment bank secured by Lake Tahoe hotel property.
• Structured and negotiated a complex $100 million workout financing by regional investment bank and insurance company for development of museum and shopping complex on brownfields near downtown Los Angeles, on behalf of borrower developer and related special purpose entities.
• Negotiated, documented and closed the purchase, development and sale-leaseback financing for a multinational corporation’s major West Coast facility.
• Negotiated and closed multiple transactions and workouts involving letters of credit, among other things, that secured tenant leases and bond financing.
• Local counsel for purchase and synthetic lease financing of major American food manufacturing corporation’s purchase of high-tech warehouse and distribution center for its West Coast operations.

Presentations

• “Distressed REO and Distressed Note Purchases: What’s Happening Now” for the Greater Southern California Chapter of CCIM (April 7, 2010)
• “How to Do Business in LA County” for the Netherlands America Foundation Business Club
  (March 31, 2010)
• Speaker, “Acquisition Ceremony for LA Marriott by Shenzhen New World Investment Group and Shenzhen New World Investment (USA) Inc.” (March 25, 2010)
• “Loan Workouts and Restructuring” roundtable discussion for ULI-LA Urban Marketplace
  (March 18, 2010)
• “When Will Commercial Real Estate Lending Come Back, and What Will It Look Like?” at PLI’s Commercial Real Estate Financing 2010: How to Handle Defaults, Distress, Maturities, and Stacks of Debt program (March 11, 2010)
• “Judicial Responses to SPE Structures” at PLI’s Commercial Real Estate Financing 2010: How to Handle Defaults, Distress, Maturities, and Stacks of Debt program (March 11, 2010)
• Moderator, “Practical, Legal and Tax Perspectives on Distressed REO and Distressed Note Deals” at the Green Pearl 2010 Distressed Real Estate Summit in Los Angeles (February 4, 2010)
• “Real Estate Issues in LA County that Affect International Businesses” for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation and Los Angeles-Long Beach World Trade Center Association Consular Corps program (January 28, 2010)
• Panelist, “Lender Landmines”, Trigild Lenders’ Conference in San Diego, California
  (October 22, 2009)
• “Commercial Real Estate Loan Workouts and Foreclosures”, client presentation (2009 and 2010)
• “Pre-default Commercial Real Estate Loan Modifications”, client presentation (2009)