Real Estate Commercial Ownership, Leasing & Management
We have a significant and active commercial real estate practice at Troutman Sanders. Over 50 of our real estate lawyers specialize in office or industrial real estate matters. We use both senior lawyers and newer, well-trained associates in this practice, to properly match the skill level needed to consummate a transaction with the appropriate lawyer in the firm, so that work can be completed correctly, promptly, and in a cost effective manner.
We engage in a high volume of work on the office side, representing both the owner/developer/investor side, and the tenant/user side. In any given year, we typically will be involved in 3 to 5 of the largest office deals, on the asset conveyance and the leasing side, in the Atlanta area. On the acquisition and disposition side, we work on both the buy and the sell side of the transaction, in both single asset sales and in large, portfolio deals.
Leasing work comprises a large part of our office and industrial practice. We have engaged in leasing at all stages of development, but we have been especially active in the areas of leases for buildings under or in the initial stages of construction; leases in buildings under condominium regimes; anchor level (100,000 square feet or more) leases; and sale/lease-backs where the seller retains a significant lease presence in the asset being sold.
Our team, made up of over 50 lawyers in all of the markets in which we have offices, includes pure real estate lawyers (conveyance, title and financing work); tax lawyers; corporate lawyers (for entity structure advice); and litigators; all of whom specialize in office and industrial real estate. We have active real estate practices in our offices in Atlanta, GA; San Diego and Orange County, CA; Richmond, Virginia Beach, and Tysons Corner, VA; Raleigh, NC; New York, NY; and Chicago, IL.
We represent a broad array of real estate clients, from publicly traded companies, to individual entrepreneurial investors, to large end-users of real estate. Among the real estate clients we represent for office and industrial real estate work are Cousins Properties; Wells Real Estate; Colonial Properties; America's Capital Partners; Piedmont Realty Trust; The James Campbell Company; Regent Partners; Childress Kleine; Brandywine Realty Trust; Greenstone Properties; Parkway Properties; MD Hodges; and DRA Advisors. We also typically work on lease headquarters deals for many of our firm’s corporate clients.
While our practice is primarily based in the Southeastern United States by virtue of where our clients (and their projects) are located, we are engaged in this work across the United States. We typically engage in leasing or asset purchase and sale transactions in 30 to 35 different states a year.
Office and Industrial Leasing – We represent several clients which engage us to handle their portfolio leasing work. This work includes handling all of the leases and lease related documentation in any project, including SNDA's; lease amendments (renewals, contractions and expansions); lease terminations; landlord subordinations; licenses and other temporary use agreements; telecommunications agreements; property management and leasing agreements; and commission agreements. We handle this work with a careful eye toward maintaining asset value and how capital markets might assess a lease, for asset valuation purposes.
Land Use, Zoning and Entitlements – We handle all aspects of development and acquisition, and that includes modifying (or ascertaining) land use rights and limitations, to maximize the value of the subject real estate project, and the flexibility of use for the owner and end-user.
Litigation – We have several litigators who specialize in real estate related matters and disputes in all levels of courts, in jury and bench trials, and on an appellate level, for matters such as landlord-tenant disputes; contract breach disputes; suites for possession and ejectment; brokerage (commission disputes); and land and easement use disputes.