Leonard is recognized by clients and his peers alike as a dean of the Real Estate Bar in his area of specialization. He is a recognized expert in the field of condominium and cooperative law and practice. Some of the noteworthy projects he was involved in include Battery Park City, the Albany Hilton Hotel, 633 Third Avenue, Parkchester the De Salles assisted living facility and the Agri-Business Center in Kansas City. He also handled the Ruppert Towers, reputed to be one of the largest condominium conversions in the history of New York, as well as more than two dozen conversions of Mitchell Lama and other PHFL projects to private ownership. As a lawyer’s lawyer, he has served as an adjunct professor of law at Cardozo Law School, teaching Coop and Condominium Law. In recognition of his expertise in this area of the law, he has also been commissioned by the New York Law Journal Press to write a legal treatise on Coop/Condominium Law and Practice. He has also been involved in hundreds of condominium projects ranging from residential, hotel, office, and mixed-use condominiums to all manner of ground-up coop/condominium developments. Among other things, he accomplished the first dockominium in New York and even cooped campsites. This includes large scale developments of the sort where creatively combining various forms of common ownership is a necessary prerequisite to phasing the development as well as other esoteric forms of ownership. Tax planning is an essential part of the art as is an ability to reduce complex problems to simple and elegant solutions.
Leonard concentrates his extensive practice on real estate, finance and development matters. His combination of legal and business creativity finds expression in real estate finance, where he is regularly consulted on just what is and isn’t financeable. Whether it is public/private mega-developments, esoteric mezzanine loan and preferred equity arrangements, establishing new innovative condominium loan structure like the major rehabilitation loan made to Parkchester, or a new type of legal structure to permit the financing of a conversion of a limited profit housing company into a for profit condominium for the benefit of the residents, he is on the cutting edge of these areas of real estate finance and development. The ability to work with government and create financing programs that meld governmental incentive programs with the needs of institutional lenders and private equity, and adapting financing strategies to different product categories are a part of Leonard’s dynamic vision. Well respected within the industry, he is able to attract the best and the brightest to work with him in order to realize that vision. It is his dedication to achievement, purity of purpose without the impediments of ego, that have permitted him to translate his stature within the banking community and legal profession into being a successful entrepreneur and leader at the helm of banking and other financial institutions. He also has significant health care experience, including representing hospitals, nursing home operators and financiers.
He has had a great deal of hand-on experience in all aspects of the development process, ranging from large-scale mega-developments to office, hotel, industrial, retail, residential and mixed-use developments. Leonard’s responsibilities have included the entire critical path of the development process from the inception, including assemblage, clearing of the property of tenants and physical structures, negotiating mapping agreements and subdivision plans, obtaining variances, special permits and zoning changes, arranging and structuring equity and financing, to the conclusion including the leaseup and sale of the project.
In the past, Leonard represented the Battery Park City Authority and accomplished the mapping agreement and split zoning lot declarations that have successfully governed Battery Park City to date. He was the architect of the original form of financeable ground lease that was used in connection with the first series of non-subsidized residential project constructed at Battery Park City. Leonard has also been involved in a number of negotiations of rent resets under ground leases including Tudor City, Roosevelt Island and other significant properties throughout the City. This included a litigation response where necessary, although all of these matters were ultimately successfully resolved.
In his early years of legal practice, he was involved in representing hospitals, including Parkway Hospital, a premier proprietary hospital that is one of the last remaining examples of its genre in New York. He also did some of the original work in the area of fee for services agreements, including with regard to the radiology groups at Brooklyn Hospital and others. In recent times, he has represented a number of nursing home operators in acquiring and financing portfolios of nursing homes.
Most recently, in 2006, he also spearheaded the acquisition of Beverly Enterprises, Inc., a $2.3 billion transaction, a NYSE listed company with at portfolio of more than 350 skilled nursing and related health care facilities. This included a $1.3 billion securitized first mortgage financing.
In December 2004, he was involved in the acquisition of Mariner Health Care, Inc. The project included the takeover of Mariner, a publicly-traded company with a portfolio of more than 280 skilled nursing facilities and long-term acute care hospitals. He has handled a number of acquisitions of hospitals and other health care facilities including the IHS transaction.
Besides his legal expertise, Leonard Grunstein was a founder of Metropolitan National Bank and a past Chairman of the Board. MetBank is the second bank Leonard founded. The first was New York Federal Savings Bank.
Leonard was most recently the Chairman of Israel Discount Bank of New York. He was appointed to that position by the Bronfman/Schron Group, which acquired control of the public company parent as a part of a privatization process in which he played a significant role. He brought a wealth of banking, regulatory and legal experience to this position.
Leonard is also the Chairman of MetCap Holding, LLC, the parent of MetCap Securities, a boutique investment bank that pioneered a number of innovative investment strategies including in healthcare.
These financial institutions share a common theme of creativity, sophistication, and discernment. Another common theme is an ability to operate well within a highly regulated environment and with creditability due in no small measure to Leonard’s absolute integrity.
Leonard served as an assistant Corporation Counsel of the City of New York and counsel to the Mayor’s Midtown Office of Development. This afforded him the opportunity to work on cutting edge public/private development projects and to gain an appreciation of how governmental and public objectives can be reconciled with the needs of the private sector. He has worked on such projects as Battery Park City; the Times Square Redevelopment; Grand Central Station, Grand Hyatt Hotel; UDC/St. George Hotel/Subway Improvement Project; The Agri Business Center in Kansas City and the Albany Hilton Hotel Complex.
Leonard was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 18, 1952. He is married and has three children, all of whom are married and has seven grandchildren. He attended Queens College of the City University of New York and graduated with a B.A., magna cum laude in 1972, Phi Beta Kappa. He attended Brooklyn Law School, J.D. and graduated in 1975. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1976 and in 1978 to the U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. He is a member of the New York State and American Bar Associations.
Publications
The New York Law Journal published an article by Charles Paikert featuring the Ruppert Yorkville Towers and the 850 closings performed by a team of real estate attorneys led by Leonard Grunstein.