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Sharon Nelson Craig is a real estate attorney at Lerch, Early & Brewer in Bethesda, Maryland who has more than 20 years of experience representing sellers, buyers, developers, landlords, tenants, borrowers and lenders in commercial real estate transactions throughout the Washington metropolitan area.
Sharon's clients include office, residential, industrial and shopping center developers and property owners; retailers; state retirement and pension systems; asset managers; homebuilders; state transportation authorities; business entrepreneurs; faith-based institutions; nonprofit organizations; universities; governmental guaranteed lenders and other public and privately held institutions. She assists them with the sale, acquisition, financing, development, leasing, management, operation and disposition of commercial real estate.
Sharon's clients applaud her for her diligence and perseverance, and note that she functions extremely well under pressure, keeping her cool with her sense of humor intact.
General Commercial Real Estate Transactions Practice
Sharon's practice over the past 20+ years has included every aspect of commercial real estate transactions. She has prepared and negotiated purchase and sale contracts; major national and small tenant retail leases; office and warehouse leases; financing documents; property management agreements; brokerage agreements; easement agreements; and local jurisdiction documents such as site plan agreements, conveyance agreements and public improvement easements, transit-oriented development agreements and reciprocal easement agreements. Because of her degree of experience, clients frequently have engaged Sharon to help them develop internal processes and procedures for their real estate development departments, such as preparing form letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, office and retail leases, and transaction tracking systems.
Special Focus in Mixed Use Development
Sharon has a unique focus in two practice areas: retail leasing and development, and condominium formation and development. In her retail leasing and development practice, she regularly represents owners and tenants of shopping centers and retail or mixed-use projects. In her condominium formation and development practice, Sharon assists developers in creating and managing residential and commercial condominiums. In mixed-use development projects, Sharon uniquely combines both her retail and condominium practices to provide the utmost in client service, including providing practical solutions to the unique issues that arise in mixed-use projects.
Sharon received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland and her Juris Doctor from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. Prior to joining Lerch Early, she was a partner in the Montgomery County office of a national law firm and served as executive vice president and general counsel of a privately-held real estate development company. She is admitted to practice in Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Sharon is an annual lecturer at the University of Maryland and The Catholic University Columbus School of Law on topics such as "Retail Leasing and Development" and "Legal Writing for Real Estate Transactions." She also speaks regularly about mixed use developments to organizations like the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). She received the Distinguished Women in Law Award from the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys of Maryland, is on the board of directors of the Maryland chapter of African American Real Estate Professionals and is a past president of the Baltimore chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW). Sharon also is proud to be on the board of directors of EduStar Performing Arts Society, Inc., which introduces economically and socially disadvantaged children to the joys of music, drama, theater and dance.
Sharon enjoys running (when the knees cooperate), listening to R&B, jazz and pop music, reading, writing and vacationing (especially Martha's Vineyard in August). Having grown up on her family's farm in Virginia, Sharon also loves spending time there with her family planting and picking vegetables and fishing in Grandpa Jack's pond.
Professional Memberships
- Maryland State Bar Association
- Bar Association of the District of Columbia
- National Bar Association
- African American Real Estate Professionals, Inc., Maryland Chapter (Board of Directors)
- EduStar Performing Arts Society, Inc. (Board of Directors)
- Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW), Baltimore Chapter (past President)
- International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Honors and Awards
- Distinguished Women in Law Award, Alliance of Black Women Attorneys of Maryland
Representative Matters
- The Fillmore: Represent a developer in drafting, negotiating and implementing agreements between the developer and a local jurisdiction for the development, construction and operation of The Fillmore, a music venue in Silver Spring, Maryland, as well as the reciprocal easement agreements covering The Fillmore and adjacent property owned by the developer. Also represent the client on the development and/or sale of other real properties owned by the client, such as a hotel property, a vacant office property that may be developed with mixed uses, and the re-tenanting of an older shopping center project.
- Represent the developer of a residential condominium project in Maryland, including preparing the necessary documents in order to register the condominium with the Maryland Secretary of State, and due to the economic impact on condominiums, amending such registered documents to address changes in the project and applicable law.
- Represent a publicly traded biotech corporation in connection with the right of entry and related transactional documents needed from a local jurisdiction for the development of the company's world headquarters and laboratory in Maryland, and in connection with a $70 million loan secured by the corporation's Maryland and North Carolina properties.
- Represent a private university in connection with its student housing program and other real estate matters, including the negotiation of development agreements, financing documents, contractor and consultant agreements, and other transactional documents.
- Represent a developer in its negotiations with a local jurisdiction and transit authority of a joint reciprocal easement agreement for a multi-phased transit-oriented development project, including the creation of a management association to operate the common areas of the project.
- Represented the lessee of an improved parcel owned by a municipality, including the exercise of a purchase option, and immediate sale of the parcel to an unrelated third party.
- Represent client in the sale of its interest in a limited liability company that owns a biotech project in Baltimore, Maryland.
