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Real Estate
rise to every real estate challenge
closing with the best mix of essential elements
Developers, commercial property owners, and investors turn to Lerch Early’s “dirt lawyers” when they need to buy, sell, lease, or develop commercial real estate in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. We help clients get to closing with the best mix of price, terms, and timelines essential to their core real estate and business strategies.
Our experienced attorneys negotiate all aspects of complex commercial real estate transactions from the ground up, such as forming a holding company before acquiring a property, to minimizing the tax consequences of an eventual sale of the property. These include drafting and negotiating entity formation documents, purchase and sales agreements, development agreements, financing documents, construction contracts, reciprocal easement agreements and leases. National and regional developers, family-owned real estate development companies, institutions with substantial real estate assets, and entrepreneurial businesses rely on our real estate attorneys to help them make the best real estate deals. Our real estate clients include The JBG Companies, The Tower Companies, Lee Development Group, Maisel Development, Howard University, and other institutional and entrepreneurial companies throughout the region.
Our clients sometimes joke that we should convey with their property— as we “run with the land.” Often after a sale, the new purchaser retains us because of our in-depth knowledge of the property or project. Many clients have worked with us for decades as we not only know the law, but we know their businesses. Throughout the transaction, our focus is on how to complete a deal within the context of the client’s overall business plan.
Ann Marie Mehlert
Chair
- Created a land development agreement allowing a developer and a quasi-governmental entity to pursue the regulatory approvals, and a condominium structure and air rights lease for the operation of the first new building in a major mixed-use development.
- Prepared underlying cross-easement agreements relating to the ownership, use, maintenance, and operation of the various mixed-use components of a major redevelopment.
- Established the entity for a family-owned business with substantial real estate investments across the country and was involved in acquiring more than a dozen properties as part of the family owned real estate portfolio.
- Assisted developer in negotiating an acquisition from WMATA for the redevelopment of property in Prince George’s County, Maryland as a mixed-use project.
- Represent a 150 year old private university in the monetization of its real estate assets, including, without limitation, negotiating a 99-year $22 million capitalized ground lease transaction with a local developer creating luxury rentals.
- Negotiate and document all leases and financing for a family-owned company that has owned and operated a strip mall center in North Bethesda for more than 25 years. Restructured the ownership entity and refinanced the permanent loan on the property.
- Represent a family-owned company that has developed, owned, and operated numerous office and light industrial properties throughout Northern Virginia.
- Represented an owner in a sale of 72-unit multifamily apartment building in Washington, DC for $13.25 million.
- Negotiated leases with Fortune 500 companies on behalf of multiple shopping center owners.
- Negotiated and closed unimproved land purchase in Maryland for real estate investor.
- Negotiating and documenting real estate purchases and leases for restaurant group owner for nine properties throughout the District of Columbia and Maryland.
- Negotiating leases for owner for group of newly-acquired office buildings with a high vacancy rate in Maryland with goal of fully leasing within a three-year timetable.
- Representing developer in acquisitions throughout DC, including negotiating TOPA (Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act) rights.
- Prepared reciprocal easement agreement regarding parking for developer with neighboring property owners.
- Representing owner of four shopping centers in Virginia in all aspects of operating the centers, including leases, contracts, adjacent property concerns, and property management issues.
- Represented homebuilder in purchase of land and creation of HOAs and condominiums in Montgomery and Frederick Counties.
- Coordinated due diligence for real estate investment trust in connection with purchase of large town center shopping center, including review of leases, impact on protected tenant areas, and review of title commitment.
- Represented restaurant franchisee in financing tenant improvements related to reimaging obligations imposed by the franchisor every 7 years.
- Negotiated and closed self-storage facility purchase in Baltimore for real estate developer.
- Negotiated, purchased, and sold numerous warehouse properties in Maryland for real estate investor.
- Represented owners of medical office building in connection with the leasing and sale of the property.
Howard University
Challenge
Lerch Early serves as primary outside real estate counsel to Howard University. For the past several years, the now 150 year old University has been leveraging certain of its Washington, DC real estate assets to improve the campus environment and the experience of its most valuable assets – the students, faculty and staff of the University.
Strategy
In 2016-2017, Lerch Early attorneys worked with the University’s internal legal and finance teams and its outside real estate advisor, Alvarez and Marsal, to structure a unique arrangement among Howard Dormitory Holdings 1, LLC, a wholly-owned and title-holding company of Howard University, and Howard University (collectively, the “University Parties”) and Corvias Campus Living, LLC (“Corvias”). Lerch Early represented the University Parties in drafting and negotiating the concessionaire, project management and residential life agreements, entity formation agreements, construction contracts, financing documents, and other operative agreements in connection with the transaction, as well as assisting the University Parties in addressing and resolving numerous legal and business issues associated with the transaction.
Results
The innovative 40-year partnership among the University Parties and Corvias raised $144 million, a portion of which will fund the renovation and modernization of the Howard Towers, will provide for the ongoing management of the Howard Towers and two additional residence halls, and will create, for the long-term, a sizable reserve fund for future capital expenses.
Adventist HealthCare
Challenge
The senior living subsidiary of Adventist HealthCare a number of its subsidiaries decided to sell six skilled nursing facilities. The sale to Genesis HealthCare involved multiple owners and jurisdictions.
Strategy
Adventist HealthCare owned five of the facilities and one was jointly owned by Frederick Memorial Hospital. Four of the facilities were located in Montgomery County, and the remaining two were located in Prince George's County and Frederick County. The multi-million dollar transaction, which took the better part of a year to complete, involved the sale and lease of real estate, the sale of the ongoing business operations of the nursing facilities, defeasance of bond financing, and various ancillary issues. Lerch Early attorneys worked closely with in-house counsel and a number of other representatives of Adventist HealthCare to negotiate the sales contracts, satisfy due diligence requirements, and successfully complete the transfer.
Result
Adventist HealthCare now is able to focus care for the community’s senior population through its various programs, partnerships and entities.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Challenge
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faced an unexpected property tax assessment when the Maryland Tax Court ruled that a Montgomery County apartment complex where it housed religious workers no longer qualified for the property tax exemption it had held for nearly 30 years.
Strategy
The Tax Court adopted the state’s narrow (and arguably discriminatory) definitional approach that excluded the purposes for which the client church’s properties were being used to deny the exemption. We demonstrated to the Montgomery County Circuit Court and then to the Maryland Court of Appeals that the apartment complex qualifies as a “convent,” because the church uses the properties exclusively to house a community of people who live together, follow strict religious vows, and devote themselves full-time to religious work, thus meeting the statutory definition and avoiding discrimination in favor of particular denominations allowing only “nuns” to live in properties called “convents” as a doctrinal matter.
Result
The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld and reinstated our client’s tax exemption. This allowed the church to continue housing visiting religious workers who leave their homes and families to devote themselves to a two-year commitment to ministry in the temple.