Corporate real estate decisions can have a tremendous impact on the growth, financial performance and long-term sustainability of a business. Risk management associated with property acquisition and sales, land use, and financing and capital costs is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

We work with:

  • Developers: commercial and industrial
  • Sellers and buyers of real estate and real estate interests
  • Brokers and property managers
  • Construction companies, including general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, construction managers, design build firms, and owners with construction needs
  • Landlords and tenants
  • Condominium developers, condominium associations and condo buyers and sellers
  • Lenders and borrowers in real estate financing transactions
  • Architects, engineers and other real estate service providers

Services we provide include:

  • Acquisition and sales, including 1031 tax-deferred exchanges
  • Financing, including interim, construction, and permanent conventional loans, leveraged leases, sale leasebacks, taxable and tax-exempt bond financing, both publicly marketed and private placements, tax increment financing, and financing through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA)
  • Land use matters of all kinds, including zoning, planning, special use permits, variances and related local and state regulation
  • Leasing and landlord tenant matters
  • Condominium development, association matters, and representation in sales and purchases of units
  • Real estate development, including industrial, commercial, mixed use, and residential
  • Remedies, including land contract and mortgage forfeiture and foreclosure and related litigation
  • Ownership entities, including real estate syndications, limited liability companies, limited and general partnerships, and related tax structuring
  • Construction contracts, including work for owners, contractors, architects, engineers, subcontractors, bonding companies, and suppliers, in all forms of construction delivery mechanisms such as design-build, multi-prime, construction management, lending, and traditional design-bid-build
  • Distressed property transactions
  • Foreclosures
  • Environmental risk minimization and compliance with environmental laws
  • Property tax matters of all kind, including assessment, appeals, abatements, and exemptions
  • Condemnation and eminent domain proceedings
  • Real estate tax incentives, including property tax abatement, new markets tax credits, historic tax credits, renaissance zones, low income housing tax credits
  • Opinion practice, including serving as local real estate counsel on many multi-state real estate transactions
  • Vacation of public streets and alleys
  • Workouts and restructuring

We use a practical approach oriented toward results. Examples of our experience include:

  • We represented a multi-state distributor on the site acquisition, construction and negotiation of tax incentives for a $20-million facility. This project involved coordination of real estate acquisition documents with incentive development agreements at the local and state level, plus public infrastructure easements and railroad access agreements.
  • We represented a manufacturer in the relocation of its corporate headquarters, in a multi-million dollar project that required coordination of acquisition of public land, negotiation of tax incentives at the local and state level, negotiation of airport easement and use agreements, and related real estate road, utility and related service features.
  • We served as local counsel for a national regional mall developer in the site acquisition, land use planning and related zoning and permitting aspects for a one million square foot regional mall, including the coordination of local and state environmental agencies, site acquisition, zoning amendments, a successful referendum vote, and related public infrastructure agreements

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