Real Estate Multi-Family

Seyfarth Shaw’s Real Estate attorneys have a strong focus in multifamily residential development and are experienced at helping clients move multifamily projects from a developer’s vision into a fully operational community.  We work with developers, institutional investors, syndicators, managers, financing agencies (public and private) and individual investors throughout the project lifecycle, from initial conception through the creation of final governing documents, as well as ongoing interaction with unit owners.

We also represent clients who raise debt and equity to acquire, rehab, reposition and refinance all types of existing apartment and condominium communities throughout the United States.  We provide legal guidance with regard to master planned communities, condominiums, apartment complexes, mixed-use and resort projects.

Our attorneys understand the complexity of multifamily projects, and recognize the importance of effective, regular communication with clients and between the many parties involved in projects with this scale.  We regularly represent parties involved in projects ranging from ten units to more than fifteen thousand units.

Seyfarth Shaw Service Capabilities

With our national breadth and depth of legal experience, our Real Estate attorneys have the resources and knowledge to help our clients in every area of multifamily housing projects. We provide legal guidance with regard to:

• Architectural and builder contracts;
• Assistance with conversion of properties through sale and lease;
• Brokerage agreements;
• Builder participation programs;
• Community governance documents;
• Condominium development and conversion issues;
• Conflict resolution and litigation;
• Dispositions;
• Equity pricing structures;
• Examination of building sites;
• Joint ventures;
• Land sales registration documents;
• Local government regulations and compliance;
• Master developer agreements;
• Property management;
• Purchase and sale agreements;
• Resolution of design and construction issues;
• Reviewing business and marketing plans;
• Tax advice;
• Timeshares; and
• Utility easements.

Our clients use all types of debt and equity financing schemes including:

• Assumption of loans;
• Bond financing through various housing authorities;
• Conventional financing;
• Foreign investor equity.
• Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae;
• Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs;
• Mezzanine debt;
• Pension funds;
• Preferred equity;
• Private lenders;
• Senior debt; and
• Tax credits.

Our Real Estate Practice

The attorneys of Seyfarth Shaw’s Real Estate Practice have long been recognized by their peers and industry counterparts for their legal excellence and commitment to client service.  As individuals, and as a group, we have unparalleled, real-world experience — not only in the practice of real estate law, but also in the practical, day-to-day concerns of our clients.

Many of our attorneys have been trained as architects and engineers, and understand the details of construction and design issues.  Others have worked as in-house counsel to private investment firms and publicly held financial institutions with significant real estate lending units.  Still others have direct experience with zoning, regulatory and environmental agencies.  As a group, our attorneys have the broad experience and legal expertise to help our clients achieve real results.

We are committed to the concept of cost-effective staffing, assigning attorneys to cases on the basis of experience, regional and local knowledge and areas of legal concentration.  In doing so, we believe that we are able to help clients reach their objectives faster, with fewer risks, and at lower expense.

Significant Representations:

Seyfarth Shaw has represented, and continues to represent, hundreds of the country’s largest and best-known developers of multifamily condominium, apartment, master-planned and resort projects. Significant recent transactions include:

• We are general counsel to a not-for-profit owner-operator of a 650-unit low/moderate income senior citizen housing complex affiliated with the Catholic Church.  We have been their counsel in obtaining long-term tax-exempt financing to take out construction loans for renovation and in HUD financing for the demolition and redevelopment of approximately 150 units.  In addition, we have handled such diverse matters a construction litigation and tenant selection and removal issues.
• We are general counsel to a newly formed not-for-profit corporation affiliated with the Catholic Church which has purchased a 40-acre site on which it plans to develop an approximately 700-unit senior citizen housing complex to be financed with tax-exempt bonds.  We have handled incorporation, 501(c)(3) application, land acquisition and pre-development matters and are moving into the financing and construction phase.
• We have been counsel to commercial banks in construction loans for large multifamily complexes as well as the issuance of letters of credit to secure tax-exempt bonds issued to finance new construction and substantial rehabilitation of low/moderate income multifamily projects.  These projects have typically also involved one or more of tax increment financing, historic façade easements, low-income housing tax credits and city-sponsored grants.
• We have represented one of the nation’s largest multifamily residential developers in virtually every aspect in the development of several luxury high-rise condominium and apartment properties in downtown Chicago.  We have provided advice in the negotiation and drafting of limited liability company and corporate documents for organization of ownership entities and sub-entities; site acquisition and acquisition financing, including site assemblage, title clearance, and review of environmental issues; negotiation of construction and mezzanine financing documents, extensions and amendments to financings and refinancing; preparation and filing of extensive condominium documents including declaration of condominium, property report, HUD filings; preparation of units sales contract forms and negotiations of individual contracts, and assistance with unit sale closing; and drafting and negotiation of design and construction contracts and subcontracts.
• We represented a major east-coast developer in connection with the $240 million acquisition of several apartment complexes in Maryland and Georgia, and reviewed environmental investigations and negotiated environmental indemnities and covenants with the seller of a former industrial property being developed for residential condominiums in the Hudson River area of New Jersey.
• We represented a client in a $250 million recapitalization of a $1 billion apartment portfolio consisting of more than 50 separate projects.
• We represent a number of apartment developers in the southeast United States, including projects such as a 350-unit development, a two-complex sale involving approximately 650 units, and a number of lending transactions in Georgia alone.
• We developed and documented the multi-tiered governance structure for a 1,330-acre resort, single family and mixed-use development.  Project features included a golf course, marina, neo-traditional “town center,” and over 2,000 residential units of multiple product types.
• We provided a broad spectrum of legal services for a large, custom home marina community, including initial land acquisition, community governance structure, marina slip program, builder program, builder contracts, design guidelines, master brokerage agreement, retail purchase and sale agreements, and interstate land sales compliance.
• On behalf of the developer of a 3,000-unit master planned community, we designed and negotiated the builder program, builder contracts, brokerage agreements, and retail purchase and sale agreements.
• For a mixed-use, in town loft condominium, we developed condominium governance documents and provided related development consultation services.
• We developed and documented innovative restrictive covenants to preserve the affordable housing component for second-and third-generation home owners in a town home development in a historic neighborhood.
• We created a unique condominium governance scheme that facilitated the subdivision of an older corporate office part where existing regulations prevented the traditional subdivision process.
• We represent one of the nation’s largest converters of apartments to condominiums, including the conversion of 901 residential units in a mixed-use building.  The office and retail components of the building were not part of the condominium.  We are also representing the same developer in what will become Chicago’s fifth-tallest building, which will consist of two separate condominiums:  the first will be a residential condominium for owner-occupants and the second will be a hotel condominium.