We have counseled on some of the most remarkable and challenging real estate deals for longtime clients like Westbrook Partners, Walton Street Capital, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, Tokyu Land Corporation, Colony Capital, Amaury Groupe, LaSalle Investment Management and Fortress Investment Group.
Our team has closed more than $10.4 billion in deals in the past year alone. Our practice has a strong focus on sophisticated real estate private equity transactions and covers everything from asset acquisitions/dispositions, joint ventures and financings, to development, distressed debt investments and commercial leasing. With teams in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Milan, Düsseldorf and Tokyo, we combine worldwide coverage with on-the-ground support and market knowledge. As one client told Chambers USA 2020: “They are hard-working, honest and efficient. They provide great service and have a do-what-it-takes attitude.”
Leading international investment funds, fund sponsors, advisors, developers, public and private pension funds, REITs and institutional lenders rely on us to help implement global investment strategies. We recently counseled a Japanese real estate company on its significant investment in a joint venture in Manhattan, a U.S.-based investment firm in establishing an Italian real estate fund and its purchase of 13 assets, and German and U.S. investors in the purchase of real estate and distressed assets in Mexico and Peru.
We have counseled on major industrial portfolio transactions, including a large European pension plan in the investment of $350+ million into an open-ended industrial and logistics fund investing in U.S. properties, the disposition of a significant retail portfolio in Japan and the $1.7 billion sale of 21 assets in the U.S. to Blackstone Group, which included office, retail, multifamily and industrial properties.
We have deep knowledge of the hospitality sector and have closed numerous equity and debt transactions involving landmark hotels, such as the sale, financing and conversion of the Ihilani Hotel at Ko Olina to a Four Seasons-branded property, the financing and sale of the Westin San Francisco Market Street and the $537 million acquisition of Gruppo Boscolo, the Italian luxury hotel group. We handle the hospitality and residential development and financing platforms for one of the leading international private equity funds and have experience with all major luxury hotel brands.
We have experience with complex, multi-use development transactions involving the structuring of projects with separate parcels, each with distinct use, equity capitalization and financing. We represented an international opportunity fund in a joint venture for the mixed-use development at 706 Mission in San Francisco, Westbrook Partners on the St. John’s Center redevelopment project in Manhattan and Intu Lakeside on the development of a Nickelodeon-themed indoor entertainment park inside the shopping center.
Reflecting our focus on serving the technology sector, we have deep experience in tech company-focused real estate transactions. We have closed several high-profile deals for office parks and developments in tech communities, such as the acquisition of Google’s Midwest headquarters and a joint venture acquisition and development of Stadium Tech Center in Santa Clara. We assisted with the acquisition and triple net lease of a state-of-the-art data center in Virginia, and we assist clients with ground-lease transactions for new developments and existing buildings, build-to-suit leases, sale-leasebacks and creative tenant-equity leases.
Alecta
$1.7 billion sale of 21 assets in the U.S. to Blackstone Group, which included office, retail, multifamily and industrial properties
American Realty Advisors
Acquisition of Chicago’s 1K Fulton building, which serves as Google’s Midwest headquarters
Colony Capital
Headquarters lease in a Class A office tower on Madison Avenue in Manhattan
Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers
$250 million sale of the Ihilani JW Marriott Hotel at Ko’Olina
Fortress Investment Group (Japan)
Acquisitions, joint ventures and financings in a variety of asset classes, including office, retail, residential, health care and hospitality
GLL Real Estate Partners
$387 million acquisition of Safeco Plaza, a 50-story skyscraper known as “The Box the Space Needle Came In”
Hackman Capital Syndications
Acquisition of development rights from Hudson Pacific Properties for the city-owned parcel The Culver Steps, in the heart of Culver City, Los Angeles. Also advised on the related construction financing to build out a mixed-use development
Intu
£177.9 million sale of its 63.5 percent stake in Intu Bromley, a shopping center located in London’s largest borough, to Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation
Notting Hill Housing Group
Joint venture with developer Sellar Properties for the acquisition and major development into a £500 million town center of a seven-acre site in Canada Water in east London
PGIM Real Estate Finance
$271 million cross-border senior loan secured by a portfolio of 32 industrial properties located in Mexico
Tokyu Land
Significant equity investment in the 425 Park Avenue development project, the first full-block office development on Manhattan’s Park Avenue in three decades. The joint venture of Tokyu, developer L&L Holding Company and GreenOak Real Estate secured $556 million in construction financing from Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers to fund development of the 897-foot office tower
USAA Real Estate Company
Joint venture for the $1.1 billion acquisition of five regional malls from Westfield, located in Connecticut, Illinois, California and Washington
Värde Partners
$537 million acquisition of Gruppo Boscolo, the Italian luxury hotel group
Westbrook Partners
$1+ billion mixed-use redevelopment project for St. John’s Terminal in Manhattan, which has included the $220 million buyout of Fortress, a $500 million refinancing, the $700 million sale of the south unit to Oxford Properties and the proposed development of the remaining north unit
October.01.2020
March.12.2019 - March.15.2019
They're extremely client-focused and the team’s real strength is its ability to address and effectively resolve any matter.Chambers USA, 2020
Highly innovative and sophisticated advice.Legal 500 Europe, 2020
Deep team with plenty of resources and horsepower and a good combination of experience and energyChambers USA, 2019
Very reachable team that is always able to mobilize quickly and has an excellent understanding of market standardsLegal 500, 2018
They are great at balancing the legal and business risks to steer us through the legal land mines - they don't note every single risk but pay attention to the likelihood of it happening, so that we can make a good business decision.Chambers USA, 2017
They differentiate by never saying 'no' and by meeting tough timelines.Chambers USA, 2016
Their service is excellent.Chambers Asia, 2016
‘Client-oriented’ seven-partner team has ‘great technical experience’ and ‘a deep knowledge of commercial real estate.Legal 500, 2015