Residential
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June 14, 2024
Property Plays: Net Lease REIT, Vornado, Citadel
Property Plays is a weekly roundup of the latest loans, leases, sales and projects around the country. Send your tips — all confidential — to realestate@law360.com.
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June 14, 2024
Zillow Settles Antitrust Case Against ShowingTime Rival
Zillow has reached a settlement ending its case in Arizona federal court accusing a pair of multiple listing services of blocking members from using its ShowingTime tool in order to protect a rival tool that allows real estate agents and others to manage property showings.
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June 14, 2024
Colo. Town Says It Took Resort Co.'s Land To Protect Sheep
A Colorado town has told a state appeals court it was justified in condemning and taking over local land that was owned by The Vail Corp. because the town needed to preserve wildlife space for a bighorn sheep herd.
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June 14, 2024
Miami Tower Takes $668M In Fla.'s Biggest Construction Loan
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP and Saul Ewing LLP advised developer Property Markets Group on taking out a $668 million construction loan — the largest in state history — for its Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Residences Miami.
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June 14, 2024
Political Speech Groups Challenge NJ Judicial Privacy Case
Two voting-integrity groups moved Friday to dismiss federal claims brought against them under New Jersey's Daniel's Law on the grounds that their business of publishing voter registration information is political speech protected by the First Amendment and federal voting rights laws.
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June 14, 2024
Polsinelli Adds Ex-Withers Real Estate Atty In NY
Polsinelli PC has hired a commercial real estate attorney from Withers as a shareholder in New York.
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June 13, 2024
CRE Expert Joins Emmet Marvin's Real Estate Finance Group
Emmet Marvin & Martin LLP announced that the firm has added a partner to its real estate finance group, bringing with her the commercial real estate expertise she gained from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP.
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June 13, 2024
NexPoint Asks Investors To Shake Up REIT After Ponzi Case
In a letter to shareholders Thursday, an investor accused four incumbent trustees of repeatedly acting against their fiduciary duties in overseeing United Development Funding, a Texas-based firm controlled by four executives now serving time for running a Ponzi scheme.
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June 13, 2024
Mich. Bill Seeks Income Tax Credit For Home Down Payments
Michigan would create an income tax credit for homebuyers who purchase a single-family residence that would equal a portion of the down payment amount as part of a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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June 13, 2024
Fla. Developer Inks $50M Capital Stack for Affordable Complex
Developer and construction company Pinnacle announced that it has secured $49.9 million in financing from various sources, which will allow the company to begin construction on a 120-unit expansion of an affordable housing community in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
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June 13, 2024
Blackstone's $10B AIR Buy Gets Nod From Top 2 Proxy Firms
Denver-based Apartment Income REIT Corp.'s shareholders have recommendations from the two leading proxy advisory firms to approve an agreement to sell off the real estate investment trust to private equity giant Blackstone for $10 billion, the company announced Thursday.
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June 13, 2024
Thompson Thrift Closes $250M Multifamily Development Fund
Thompson Thrift announced Thursday that the national real estate firm raised more than $250 million for its latest multifamily development fund, which will enable work on seven housing communities in suburban markets across the nation.
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June 13, 2024
Ohio Senate OKs Requiring Tax Payments For Property Splits
Ohio would require delinquent property taxes to be paid before a real parcel was subdivided or transferred and would prohibit tax-delinquent property owners from buying tax-foreclosed property under a bill passed by the state Senate.
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June 13, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Willkie, Latham and Milbank were among the law firms that handled the largest New York City real estate deals that hit public records last week, a period that saw three deals north of $100 million hit records.
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June 12, 2024
NY Court Axes Landlords' Challenge To Rent Law Tweak
A New York federal judge dismissed landlords' suit challenging a December law that raised the stakes for property owners that fail to cooperate with municipalities attempting to enact rent stabilization, finding again that their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims fall short.
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June 12, 2024
Oversupply Drags On Sun Belt Multifamily Sector
More than a fifth of multifamily collateralized loan obligations were categorized as concerning in April, with markets in the West and Southwest seeing the most concern, according to a recent report from KBRA Analytics.
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June 12, 2024
The Loan Discrimination Suits Notching Through Fed. Courts
Lawsuits over loan discrimination and the fallout faced by minority borrowers are being litigated in federal courts across the country, with banks, developers and the federal government facing claims.
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June 12, 2024
Calif. Pension System Invests $100M In Nuveen Housing Fund
The California Public Employees' Retirement System has provided $100 million for global investment manager Nuveen's affordable housing fund, Nuveen announced Wednesday.
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June 12, 2024
Mass. Tax Board Says No To Decrease In Parcel Values
The owner of a pair of Massachusetts land parcels failed to show they were overvalued by local assessors, a state tax board ruled in a decision released Wednesday, saying the owner sought relief beyond the board's authority on several issues.
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June 12, 2024
NJ Judicial Privacy Law Hit With Constitutional Challenge
Companies accused of violating Daniel's Law hit back in New Jersey federal court this week, calling the judicial data privacy protection measure unconstitutionally vague, harsh and riddled with loopholes, and arguing it is being "cynically" misused by the plaintiff, a data privacy company.
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June 12, 2024
Saul Ewing, Atty Allowed 'Unconscionable' Lease, Suit Says
A former Saul Ewing LLP client who is considered a vulnerable adult is suing the firm and one of its partners, claiming the lawyer failed to negotiate the "unconscionable terms" of a lease that required the client to take out a $400,000 loan and allowed his stepbrother tenant to pay rent one-seventieth the property's market value.
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June 12, 2024
Ore. Tax Court Affirms No Retroactive Fix To Home Value
The tax valuation of an Oregon residence erroneously assessed at a larger square footage cannot be retroactively reduced, the Oregon Tax Court said, upholding the state tax department's rejection of the request.
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June 12, 2024
First 'Survivor' Winner Wants $3M Tax Case Tossed
The winner of the first season of the TV series "Survivor" asked a Rhode Island federal court to toss the government's case against him seeking nearly $3.3 million in unpaid taxes, saying the liabilities stem from his flawed criminal conviction for tax evasion nearly 20 years ago.
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June 11, 2024
2nd Circ. Cites Macquarie In Booting Suit Over Go-Private Deal
The Second Circuit refused to revive a proposed class action accusing a real estate services provider of artificially depressing share prices, applying apparently for the first time the U.S. Supreme Court's Macquarie decision on alleged failures to disclose certain information.
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June 11, 2024
Listing Co. Urges Court To Ignore DOJ's Broker Deal Issues
A multiple listing service that has struck a $3 million settlement over broker commission rules told a Massachusetts federal court the changes proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice go far beyond what's required and would create an antitrust problem in the real estate industry.
NYC Broker Bill Roils Agents, Who Say Landlords Won't Help
Scores of brokers rallied Wednesday on the steps of New York City Hall to oppose a bill before the New York City Council that would put the onus on landlords, rather than tenants, to pay broker fees.
LIHTC Developer Asks 11th Circ. To Undo Investor Takeover
A developer told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday it is a victim of a scheme by investors using a lower court ruling to complete a takeover of two Tampa, Florida, senior housing complexes developed with federal low-income housing tax credits.
Miami Developer Maintains Pioneering Touch In Latest Moves
Miami-area developer Masoud Shojaee spoke with Law360 Real Estate Authority about his project strategy and how it has led to longevity for his firm Shoma Group and given him confidence in helping to address a housing crisis and various challenges in the market.
Expert Analysis
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How A Bumblebee Got Under Calif. Wildlife Regulator's Bonnet
A California bumblebee's listing as an endangered species could lead to a regulatory quagmire as California Department of Fish and Wildlife permits now routinely include survey requirements for the bee, but the regulator has yet to determine what the species needs for conservation, says David Smith at Manatt.
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The Clock Is Ticking For Fla. Construction Defect Claims
Ahead of the fast-approaching July 1 deadline for filing construction defect claims in Florida, Sean Ravenel at Foran Glennon discusses how the state's new statute of repose has changed the timeline, and highlights several related issues that property owners should be aware of.
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Wiretap Use In Cartel Probes Likely To Remain An Exception
Although the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has recently signaled interest in wiretaps, the use of this technology to capture evidence of antitrust conspiracies and pursue monopolization as a criminal matter has been rare historically, and is likely to remain so, say Carsten Reichel and Will Conway at DLA Piper.
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Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Debate Over CFPB Definition Of Credit Is Just Beginning
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recently worked to expand the meaning of credit, so anyone operating on the edges of the credit markets, or even those who assumed they were safely outside the scope of this regulatory perimeter, should pay close attention as legal challenges to broad interpretations of the definition unfold, says John Coleman at Orrick.
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A Closer Look At Feds' Proposed Banker Compensation Rule
A recently proposed rule to limit financial institutions' ability to award incentive-based compensation for risk-taking may progress through the rulemaking process slowly due to the sheer number of regulators collaborating on the rule and the number of issues under consideration, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief
As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.
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In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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What's New In Kentucky's Financial Services Overhaul
Kentucky's H.B. 726 will go into effect in July and brings with it some significant restructuring to the Kentucky Financial Services Code, including changes to mortgage loan license fees and repeals of provisions relating to installment term loans and savings associations, say attorneys at Frost Brown.
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A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches
Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.