Commercial

  • April 16, 2025

    Exxon Urges Justices To Resolve Seized Cuba Property Claim

    Exxon Mobil Corp. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize a ruling frustrating its attempts to collect damages from Cuban property confiscated decades ago, arguing the Trump and Biden administrations' opposing stances on such lawsuits present a chance for the court to settle the political debate.

  • April 16, 2025

    Exelon Buys DC Office Building From Brookfield For $175M

    Utilities giant Exelon Corp. has bought a Washington, D.C. office building that serves as a headquarters for one of its electricity subsidiaries from Brookfield Properties for $175 million, according to deed records.

  • April 16, 2025

    Meridian Capital Promotes Legal Head To General Counsel

    Meridian Capital Group announced Tuesday that its head of legal has been promoted to general counsel in a move that comes about a year after the firm came under new leadership.

  • April 16, 2025

    Pryor Cashman Adds New Real Estate Partner For NYC Office

    Pryor Cashman LLP announced Wednesday that it had hired Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP attorney Paul J. Proulx for the firm's real estate and land use/zoning teams in its New York City office.

  • April 15, 2025

    Massive Calif. Fire Assessment Pass-Through Sparks Suit

    Public interest nonprofit Consumer Watchdog sued California's insurance chief in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday to stop him from allowing insurance companies to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in assessment costs as surcharges onto policyholders, claiming the decision was made without any public input, in violation of the state's Administrative Procedure Act. 

  • April 15, 2025

    Funding Cuts Cause Q1 Hurdles For Life Sciences Real Estate

    The U.S. life sciences real estate market was hit with challenges in the first quarter of 2025 due to funding cuts for the National Institutes of Health that were announced earlier this year, according to a report from real estate company Savills.

  • April 15, 2025

    Chinese Real Estate Developer Hit With Involuntary Ch. 11

    Three creditors of Chinese real estate developer Xinyuan Real Estate Co. Ltd. filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the company late Monday, saying it is in default on $170 million in note debt.

  • April 15, 2025

    Brooklyn Office Space Seeing Leasing Surge, CBRE Reports

    New York City's borough of Brooklyn went through "a surge of leasing" for office space after a total of 509,000 square feet was leased in Q1 2025, according to a CBRE report published Tuesday.

  • April 15, 2025

    Brookfield Lands $1.3B From Citibank For Hudson Yards Office

    Brookfield Properties secured $1.25 billion in financing from Citibank on its 16-story Five Manhattan West building in a transaction advised by Dechert LLP and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

  • April 15, 2025

    NY Developers Land $237M Refi For Major Mixed-Use Project

    The developers behind a 70-acre mixed-use development in Sleepy Hollow, New York, secured a $237 million refinancing for the project from Hudson Bay Capital, per an announcement from Walker & Dunlop which arranged the financing.

  • April 15, 2025

    Top Grossing Cos. Drift Further From Remote-First Work

    The largest companies in the U.S. by revenue are moving away from allowing employees to work primarily at home, including among technology businesses, which were formerly much more permissive of telework, according to a recent report.

  • April 15, 2025

    Mich. Tribunal Rejects Hotel's Challenge To $10M Valuation

    A hotel owned by a Hilton franchisee was valued at $10 million by the Michigan Tax Tribunal, agreeing with a local assessor and reducing a previous valuation by $2.2 million but rejecting a further reduction sought by the owner.

  • April 15, 2025

    NY Panel Finds 'Lockbox' Suit Differs From Hotel Foreclosure

    A split New York state appeals court has found that U.S. Bank can pursue its litigation seeking to seize a "lockbox" of rent payments for a Manhattan hotel, with one justice arguing in a dissent that the instant lawsuit improperly duplicates a related but separate foreclosure action.

  • April 15, 2025

    DC Maintains, Expands Tax Exemptions For NBA, NHL Arena

    The District of Columbia maintained and expanded tax breaks for the property and airspace of Capital One Arena, home to the NBA's Washington Wizards and NHL's Washington Capitals, as part of legislation that became law, according to a notice published in the district's register.

  • April 15, 2025

    Moye White Says It Was Evicted To Make Way For Tech Co.

    Defunct law firm Moye White LLP is fighting back in Colorado state court against its Denver landlord's nearly $4 million lawsuit, alleging in counterclaims that the landlord unlawfully evicted the firm and its subtenants from a downtown office building in order to make room for a technology business.

  • April 15, 2025

    Giordano Halleran Nabs Real Estate Pro For NJ Expansion

    Giordano Halleran & Ciesla PC announced that the firm has added a commercial real estate transaction pro as shareholder, who is spearheading the firm's opening of an office in northern New Jersey.

  • April 14, 2025

    Expedia Defends Cuban Island Bookings In Helms-Burton Trial

    The former manager of Expedia's Cuba group took the stand Monday to defend the travel company's actions offering reservations for resorts on an island off the coast of Cuba that a Cuban-American man says was stolen from his family by Fidel Castro's government, telling jurors the company worked to comply with constantly changing regulations related to travel to Cuba.

  • April 14, 2025

    6th Circ. Upends Oil Co.'s Injunction Against Ohio Landowner

    The Sixth Circuit on Monday reversed a district court's preliminary injunction that gave EOG Resources Inc. access to the surface of an Ohio deer hunting site for drilling operations, saying the injunction didn't prevent injury to EOG but actually caused the owner of the property irreparable harm.

  • April 14, 2025

    4th Circ. Partly Backs $3.8M Award In 'Dickensian' Lease Row

    The Fourth Circuit on Monday partly affirmed and partly vacated a $3.8 million costs and fees award stemming from a soured lease agreement for a commercial building in Baltimore, potentially concluding more than 14 years of what the panel described as "Dickensian litigation."

  • April 14, 2025

    Allianz Unit Challenges Augusta Golf Club's $2.4M Award

    Allianz SE subsidiary Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. on Friday asked a federal judge to strike down a $2.4 million storm damage appraisal in favor of an Augusta, Georgia, golf club that the insurer said goes far beyond what it agreed to cover.

  • April 14, 2025

    Northwind Lends $90M To Fund 32-Story NYC Office Deal

    Northwind Group, a Manhattan-based real estate private equity firm, has provided a $90 million senior first-mortgage loan for a joint venture's acquisition and pre-development of a 32-story, Class A New York City office building that is planned to be converted into apartments, according to a statement.

  • April 14, 2025

    Developer Buys 1.2M Square Feet Of Texas Industrial Space

    Hillwood Investment Properties announced that the industrial real estate company has recently acquired four buildings spanning about 1.2 million square feet across the greater Dallas-Forth Worth metropolitan area.

  • April 14, 2025

    NJ Casino To Wrap Up Hotel Refresh With $50M In Upgrades

    Ocean Casino Resort on Monday said it is planning more than $50 million in improvements to its Atlantic City, New Jersey, property this year that will add 500 new hotel rooms.

  • April 14, 2025

    Real Estate-Focused SPAC Prepares For $200M IPO

    Special purpose acquisition company Timber Road Acquisition Corp. filed documents on Monday that outlined its plans for a $200 million initial public offering in search of merger targets in real estate and consumer industries, with Reed Smith LLP representing the company and Loeb & Loeb LLP as counsel for an underwriter.

  • April 14, 2025

    Pierson Ferdinand Adds Real Estate Litigator To Philly Office

    Pierson Ferdinand LLP continued to grow its Philadelphia roster with the recent addition of a real estate attorney, the firm's second lateral hire in the city in less than a week.

Expert Analysis

  • How Real Estate Cos. Can Protect Their IP In The Metaverse

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    The rise of virtual and augmented reality creates new intellectual property challenges and opportunities for real estate owners, but certain steps, including conducting a diligence investigation to develop an understanding of current obligations, can help companies mitigate IP issues in the metaverse, says George Pavlik at Levenfeld Pearlstein.

  • Ga. Law Creates Challenges For Foreign Ownership Of Land

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    Under Georgia's new law limiting certain foreign possessory interests in agricultural land and land near military properties, affected foreign persons and entities will need to do significantly more work in order to ensure that their ownership remains legal, say Nellie Sullivan and Lindsey Grubbs at Holland & Knight.

  • Questions Remain After Mass. Adverse Possession Case

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    A recent Massachusetts Land Court decision, concerning an adverse possession claim on a family company-owned property, leaves open questions about potential applicability to closely held corporations and other ownership types going forward, says Brad Hickey at DarrowEverett.

  • 4 Takeaways From Biden's Crypto Mining Divestment Order

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    A May 13 executive order prohibiting the acquisition of real estate by a foreign investor on national security grounds — an enforcement first — shows the importance of understanding how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States might profile cross-border transactions, even those that are non-notified, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • Insurer Quota-Sharing Lessons From $112M Bad Faith Verdict

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    In Indiana GRQ v. American Guarantee and Liability Insurance, an Indiana federal jury recently issued a landmark $112 million bad faith verdict, illustrating why insurers must understand the interplay between bad faith law and quota-sharing before entering into these relatively new arrangements, say Jason Reichlyn and Christopher Sakauye at Dykema. 

  • A Look At New IRS Rules For Domestically Controlled REITs

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    The Internal Revenue Services' finalized Treasury Regulations addressing whether real estate investment trusts qualify as domestically controlled adopt the basic structure of previous proposals, but certain new and modified rules may mitigate the regulations' impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

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    Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 2nd Circ. Eminent Domain Ruling Empowers Municipalities

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Brinkmann v. Town of Southold, finding that a pretextual taking does not violate the Fifth Amendment's takings clause, gives municipalities a powerful tool with which to block unwanted development projects, even in bad faith, say James O'Connor and Benjamin Sugarman at Phillips Lytle.

  • SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.

  • How Cos. Can Comply With New PFAS Superfund Rule

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rule designating two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as "hazardous substances" under the Superfund law will likely trigger additional enforcement and litigation at sites across the country — so companies should evaluate any associated reporting obligations and liability risks, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • How EB-5 Regional Centers Can Prepare For USCIS Audits

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    In response to the recently announced U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidelines that require EB-5 regional center audits every five years to verify their compliance with immigration and securities laws, regional centers should take steps to facilitate a seamless audit process, say Jennifer Hermansky and Miriam Thompson at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Understanding The IRC's Excessive Refund Claim Penalty

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    Taxpayers considering protective refund claims pending resolution of major questions in tax cases like Moore v. U.S., which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, should understand how doing so may also leave them vulnerable to an excessive refund claim penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6676, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Bankruptcy Ruling Shifts Lease Rejection Claim Calculation

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    A New York federal court’s recent ruling in In re: Cortlandt provides guidance on how to calculate a landlord's damages claim when a bankruptcy debtor rejects a lease, changing from an approach that considers the remaining rent due under the lease to one that considers the remaining time, say Bethany Simmons and Noah Weingarten at Loeb & Loeb.