Real Estate & Property Law

Lights Out

Posted on February 23, 2009
Thanks for reading and stopping by. With the launch of my new Compliance Building blog, I have stopped blogging here.Image by Hashc0de under Creative Commons.

Compliance Building

Posted on February 14, 2009
With my move from Goodwin Procter to be Chief Compliance Officer at a real estate company, I have been using a blog to keep my notes. I have just open up this blog to the public. You can see what I have been up to at Compliance Building. Disclaimers

Clash of the Utopias - The Story of Stuyvesant Town

Posted on February 06, 2009
New York magazine has a lengthy story on the largest real estate deal deal in US history: The $5.4 Billion sale of MetLife's interest in the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village residential complex. The complex is enormous: 80 acres of land on Manhattan's East Side, 25,000 residents, 110 buildings, over 11,000 units, 2,260 enclosed parking spaces, and 110,000 square feet of retail space...

REITs May Pay Dividends in Stock to Save Cash

Posted on January 29, 2009
In a Bloomberg story By Hui-yong Yu, REITs in U.S. Consider Paying Dividends in Stock to Save Cash, many publicly traded REITs may take advantage of a IRS ruling allowing them to pay dividends instead of cash. On December 10, 2008 the Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2008-68 announcing that the IRS will treat a cash option stock dividend as satisfying a public REIT?s distribution requirements for 2008 and 2009 so long as shareholders can elect to take at least 10% of the dividend in cash...

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Tenant-in-Common Interests are Securities

Posted on January 28, 2009
On January 14, the SEC issued a no-action letter to OMNI Brokerage, Inc., Argus Realty Investors, L.P., and PASSCO Companies, LLC regarding their tenant in common interest program. The SEC said no to the "no action.""Based on the facts presented, the Division disagrees with your view that the proposed offer and sale of undivided tenant in common interests pursuant to the Master Lease Transactions and Property Management Transactions (each as defined in your letter) do not involve securities within the meaning of Section 2(a)(1) of the Securities Act of 1933...

Health Care REIT, Inc. Added to S&P 500

Posted on January 26, 2009
Standard & Poor's announced that Health Care REIT Inc. (NYSE:HCN) will replace Sovereign Bancorp Inc.(NYSE:SOV) in the S&P 500. Standard & Poor?s Announces Changes to U.S. Indices [.pdf] Sovereign is being acquired by Banco Santander SA, leaving a vacancy in the index...

Government Seizes 650 Park Avenue

Posted on December 18, 2008
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Stealing the Empire State Building

Posted on December 03, 2008
The New York Daily News tried to show that it is easy to "steal" property by filing fake deeds. The story is rather foolish, but if you want to read it: It took 90 minutes for Daily News to 'steal' the Empire State Building. The reporters think that by filing a forged deed, they somehow could control the building and get a mortgage...

Tenant Allowance and Build-Out Obligations When a Tenant Files for Bankruptcy

Posted on December 02, 2008
Sutherland published a timely legal alert on what a landlord can do with a tenant allowance and tenant build-out obligations when a tenant goes bankrupt: Obtaining Relief From Tenant Allowance and Build-Out Obligations When a Tenant Files for Bankruptcy...

Not Not Creating a Title Insurance Behemoth

Posted on November 26, 2008
The off and on combination of Land America Financial Group with Fidelity National Title Title is back again. LandAmerica press release: LandAmerica Signs Stock Purchase Agreement for Underwriters.The two signed a merger, then Fidelity terminated, now they restructured the transaction again...

Not Creating a Title Insurance Behemoth

Posted on November 24, 2008
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE: FNF - News) canceled its plans to acquire LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: LFG - News) . The combination would have created a behemoth that controlled almost half of the title insurance market.Under the agreement, Fidelity National had discretion to terminate the merger on or before Nov...

A Look at Commercial Real Estate Debt

Posted on November 14, 2008
The Real Estate and Real Estate Capital Markets Group at Goodwin Procter put together A Look at Commercial Real Estate Debt: Where We Are Now and Where We May Be Going. Disclaimers

Creating a Title Insurance Behomoth

Posted on November 07, 2008
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE: FNF - News) and LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: LFG - News) today announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which FNF will acquire LFG. [Press Release] That means Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company and Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation will combine with Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Union Title and Alamo Title...

FinCEN Withdraws Proposed Rulemaking for Unregistered Investment Companies

Posted on October 31, 2008
On September 26, 2002, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing to require unregistered investment companies to establish and implement anti-money laundering programs. (Anti-Money Laundering Programs for Unregistered Investment Companies, 67 FR 60617 (Sep...

Emerging Trends in Real Estate

Posted on October 27, 2008
The Urban land Institute's  Emerging Trends in Real Estate for 2009 came out with a picture of doom and gloom, predicting that in 2009, commercial real estate will suffer its worst year since the industry's crash of 1991-92, with a noticeable rebound unlikely until 2011 at the earliest...

A New Chapter for Me

Posted on October 09, 2008
Yesterday was my last day at The Firm. It was hard to walk out the door after 13 great years. Andy Sucoff extended me an offer to join the real estate group during the summer of 1995.  It has been great working with one of the best group of real estate lawyers in the country...

Largest Real Estate Investment Managers

Posted on September 30, 2008
Pensions and Investments Online put together a list of the Largest Real Estate Investment Managers. The list is ranked by total worldwide real estate assets, in millions, as of June 30, 2008. Disclaimers

Economic Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008

Posted on September 29, 2008
The White House and Congressional Leaders finalized the Bailout Bill: Current draft of the Economic Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008. (from the Wall Street Journal) It will be interesting to see how it progresses through the House and Senate. I expect to see a lot of salesmanship as politicians try to weave into their current political campaigns...

When Life Hands You Lehman, Make Lehman-Aid

Posted on September 15, 2008
Over the weekend, Lehman Brothers lost its interested buyers and got ready to file for bankruptcy. According to the New York Times, interested buyers wanted the federal backstop that was put into place for JP Morgan Chase purchase of Bear Stearns: 2 Wall St...

Opportunity Funds Overfloweth

Posted on September 12, 2008
National Real Estate Investor published a story by Joe Gose on the flow of capital into distressed property funds: Opportunity Funds OVERFLOWETH. "Opportunity funds concentrating on distress intend to take advantage of the seized-up debt markets in a few different ways...

Blockshopper

Posted on September 08, 2008
Blockshopper.com is trying to make news out of residential transactions. The site has launched in Chicago, St. Louis, South Florida and Las Vegas, trolling the listing services and registries of deed to find what notable people are doing with their real estate...

Floor Area Ratio and Residential Property

Posted on August 11, 2008
Floor Area Ratio has longed been used as a way regulate building density under zoning laws.  The owner of the property can choose to build a short building on most of the property or a taller building on less of the property. Although Floor Area Ratio has been used to regulate commercial properties, there was some uncertainty as to whether you could use it for single family residential property in Massachusetts...

Massachusetts City and Town ByLaws

Posted on August 08, 2008
Here is collection of bylaws and ordinances available online for Massachusetts: Abington Acton Adams Agawam Amesbury (Zoning) Amherst Andover Arlington Ashburnham Ashby Ashby (Zoning) Ashland Attleboro (Zoning) Auburn Barnstable Barnstable (Zoning) Barre Becket Becket (Zoning) Bedford Bedford (Zoning) Belchertown Bellingham Bellingham (Zoning) Belmont Belmont (Zoning) Billerica Billerica (Zoning) Blackstone (Zoning) Bolton Boston Boston (Zoning) Bourne Bourne (Zoning) Boxborough Boxborough (Zoning) Boxford Boxford (Zoning) Brewster Brewster (Zoning) Bridgewater (Zoning) Brookline Burlington Burlington (Zoning) Cambridge Canton Canton (Zoning) Carlisle Carver Carver (Zoning) Charlton Charlton (Zoning) Chatham Chelmsford Chelsea Chelsea (Zoning) Chester (Zoning) Chicopee Chilmark Clinton Cohasset Concord Concord (Zoning) Cummington Cummington (Zoning) Danvers Dartmouth Dartmouth (Wetland) Dartmouth (Zoning) Dedham Deerfield Dennis Dighton Douglas Dover Dudley Dunstable Dunstable (Zoning) Duxbury Eastham (Zoning) Easton (Zoning) Essex Everett Fairhaven (Zoning) Fall River Falmouth Fitchburg Foxborough (Zoning) Framingham Framingham (Zoning) Franklin Gardner (Zoning) Gill Gill (Zoning) Georgetown Gloucester Gloucester (Zoning) Goshen (Zoning) Grafton (Zoning) Great Barrington Great Barrington (Zoning) Greenfield (Zoning) Groton Hamilton (Zoning) Hampden Hampden (Zoning) Hanover Hanover (Zoning) Hanson Hanson (Zoning) Harvard Hatfield Haverhill Hingham Holden Holland Holliston Holyoke Hopedale Hopkinton Hudson Hull (Zoning) Ipswich (Zoning) Kingston Kingston (Zoning) Lancaster (Zoning) Lanesborough (Zoning) Lee (Zoning) Lenox Leominster Lexington Lincoln Littleton Longmeadow Lowell (Zoning) Ludlow Ludlow (Zoning) Lynnfield (Zoning) Malden Manchester-by-the Sea Manchester-by-the-Sea (Zoning) Marblehead Marion Marlborough (Zoning) Marshfield Mashpee Mashpee (Zoning) Mattapoisett Maynard Maynard (Zoning) Medfield Medford Medway Medway (Zoning) Melrose Mendon Middleton Milford (Zoning) Millbury Millbury (Zoning) Millis Millis (Zoning) Millville Milton (Zoning) Monson (Zoning) Montague (Zoning) Nahant Nantucket Natick Natick (Zoning) Needham New Bedford New Bedford (Zoning) New Marlborough Newbury Newbury (Zoning) Newburyport Newton Norfolk North Andover North Andover (Zoning) North Attleborough North Reading (Zoning) Northampton Northborough Northborough (Zoning) Northbridge Northbridge (Zoning) Northfield Norwell (Zoning) Norwood Norwood (Zoning) Oak Bluffs (Zoning) Orange Orleans Otis Palmer Palmer (Zoning) Paxton Peabody Peabody (Zoning) Pelham Pepperell (Zoning) Petersham Phillipston Phillipston (Zoning) Pittsfield Plymouth Plympton Plympton (Zoning) Princeton Princeton (Zoning) Provincetown Quincy Randolph Raynham (Zoning) Reading Rehoboth Revere Richmond Rochester (Zoning) Rockland Rockport Rockport (Zoning) Rowley Rowley (Zoning) Royalston Salem Salisbury Salisbury (Zoning) Sandwich Saugus Scituate Seekonk Sharon Sharon (Zoning) Sheffield Sheffield (Zoning) Shelburne Shelburne (Zoning) Sherborn (Zoning) Shirley (Zoning) Shrewsbury Shutesbury (Zoning) Somerville Southampton Southborough Southborough (Zoning) Southbridge Southwick Spencer Spencer (Zoning) Springfield Sterling Sterling (Zoning) Stockbridge Stockbridge (Zoning) Stoneham Stow Stow (Zoning) Sturbridge Sudbury Sunderland (Zoning) Sutton Sutton (Zoning) Swampscott Taunton (Zoning) Templeton Tewksbury (Zoning) Tisbury Tisbury (Zoning) Tolland Topsfield Topsfield (Zoning) Townsend Truro Truro (Zoning) Tyringham Upton (Zoning) Uxbridge Walpole (Zoning) Waltham Wareham Watertown (Zoning) Wayland Wellesley Wellesley (Zoning) Wellfleet Wendell (Zoning) West Boylston West Newbury West Springfield West Springfield (Zoning) West Tisbury (Zoning) Westborough (Zoning) Westfield Westfield (Zoning) Westford Westminster Weston Westwood Westwood (Zoning) Weymouth Wilbraham Wilbraham (Zoning) Williamsburg Williamsburg (Zoning) Williamstown Wilmington Wilmington (Zoning) Winchendon Winchester Winthrop Woburn Worcester Worthington Wrentham (Zoning) Yarmouth Yarmouth (Zoning) From Massachusetts Law Updates, produced by the Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries: Massachusetts Town and City Bylaws...

New Law Liberalizes REIT Provisions

Posted on August 04, 2008
Last week, President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 [html] [pdf] into law. You have heard about all of the programs designed to stimulate the housing market and to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Summary of the ?Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008" [...

Office Building Classifications

Posted on July 31, 2008
I was poking around for a definition of Class A buildings and had a hard time finding a solid definition. In BOMA's Building Class Definitions, buildings are grouped into Class A, Class B and Class C. But BOMA does not recommend the publishing of a classification rating for individual properties...

Retail in Russia

Posted on July 30, 2008
In last week's Wall Street Journal, there was an article on Developers Diversified Realty Corp.'s plan to expand into Russia: Mall Developer Targets Russia. I found the statistic on retail space to be really interesting. In Russia, the volume of shopping space per 1,000 inhabitants makes up about 420 square feet, according to Maxim Karbasnikoff, European Director, Russia, at brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle...

Update for Recording Fees for Multiple Transactions in a Single Document

Posted on July 24, 2008
The Massachusetts Real Estate Bar Association sent me a notice that: On July 13, 2008, Governor Patrick signed the FY 2009 budget which included outside sections amending Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 262, § 38 and Chapter 44B, § 8 to require additional recording fees for multifunctional documents...

Twitter and Real Estate

Posted on July 11, 2008
Dick Howe at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds in Lowell has jumped into Twitter. You can see his page and follow him at http://twitter.com/lowelldeeds. You can also follow me at http://twitter.com/dougcornelius.Twitter is great way to stay connected people all around the world...

Real Estate Opportunity Fund Performance

Posted on July 07, 2008
Stephane Fitch of Forbes.com put together a sensationalist piece on real estate opportunity funds: The Other Real Estate Disaster. Fitch puts together some interesting numbers on the extent of holdings by private real estate funds: They account for one-sixth of $2 trillion in total net assets in private equity, says the London firm Private Equity Intelligence, which tracks the industry...

Choice of Entity For Real Estate Ownership in Massachusetts

Posted on June 30, 2008
William V. Hovey published his regular column in Massachusetts Lawyer's Weekly: Choosing the Best Real Estate Holding Entity.He discussed the entities in this order:IndividualTenants in CommonJoint TenantsTenants by the EntiretyTrust - Standard with named beneficiariesNominee TrustMassachusetts Business TrustCorporation (C corp)Corporation (S corp)General partnershipLimited partnershipJoint ventureLimited liability partnershipLimited liability companyThis is a good outline of the issues...

You Can Construct a Sewer Line In Your Private Right of Way

Posted on June 20, 2008
Constructing a sewer line under a preexisting easement which allows for ingress and egress is permissible under Massachusetts General Laws c. 187, § 5.Massachusetts General Laws c. 187, § 5 provides that the owner of property abutting a private way who has existing rights of ingress and egress upon such way ?shall have the right by implication to place, install or construct in, on, along, under and upon said private way or other private way pipes, conduits, manholes and other appurtenances necessary for the transmission of ...

Mass. Lawyer's Weekly Is Now Blogging

Posted on June 19, 2008
The Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly has launched a blog: The Docket."Breaking stories and noteworthy information from the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly newsroom. If it impacts Massachusetts lawyers, we?ll be blogging about it here."Disclaimers

REIT.com

Posted on June 05, 2008
NAREIT has collected a bunch of information and sites under one umbrella site: REIT.com. (Watch out for the music on the opening page!)According to SmartBrief:"REIT.com replaces the existing NAREIT Web site, as well as the current Real Estate Portfolio and InvestInREITs...

Mapping Foreclosures in Massachusetts

Posted on June 03, 2008
The Boston Federal Reserve Bank has put together a great interactive map showing two decades of foreclosure activity in Massachusetts: Foreclosure Rates in Massachusetts Cities and Towns 1990-2007.There is a lot of red, showing lots of foreclosures in 2007But there was a lot more red in 1992This graphic was developed in conjunction with a paper by Kristopher Gerardi, Adam Shapiro, and Paul S...

Vintage Wine Trust is Liquidating

Posted on June 02, 2008
Back in August, I noticed Vintage Wine Trust as a REIT focused on the wine grape industry. According to a story by Chris Rauber of the San Francisco Business Times, Vintage Wine Trust Selling Off Its Holdings and Shutting Down.[T]he REIT's "big problem was we didn't buy enough properties," noting it was trickier than expected to find profitable properties that fit the company's REIT framework...

Model Real Estate Development Operating Agreement from the American Bar Association

Posted on May 28, 2008
The February 2008 edition of The Business Lawyer contains a report on Model Real Estate Development Operating Agreement with Commentary [pdf. ABA membership logon required].The model agreement was put together by a Joint Task Force of Committee on LLCs, Partnerships and Unincorporated Entities and the Committee on Taxation, ABA Section of Business Law...

Rev. Proc. 2008-28 and Foreclosure Relief for Securitizations

Posted on May 24, 2008
The Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2008-28 [.PDF ] which provides for the modification of certain mortgage loans will not jeopardize the favorable tax treatment of the capital structure for certain securitization capital structures...

A Tale of Two Property Markets

Posted on May 06, 2008
While commercial property owners are worried about property market, much of the commercial property market remains stable or strong. In contrast, the residential market is still spiraling down and take lots of people and companies with it.First up, the summary of REIT earning reports show that most of the public real estate companies are still hitting their earnings targets: REITs Cautious Despite Strong Quarter...

Cities are Enacting Green Building Requirements

Posted on April 28, 2008
On Earth Day, the City of Los Angeles enacted a green building ordinance. According to the Sheppard Mullin Real Estate and Construction Law Blog:The program sets mandatory standards of sustainability for large projects. In essence, the program provides that no building permit shall be issued for projects at or above 50,000 gross square feet of floor area unless ?[t]he project applicant?demonstrates that the Project meets the intent [emphasis added] of the criteria for certification at the LEED certified level...

REITs still have a Buy Rating

Posted on April 25, 2008
In another sign that the commercial real estate sector is not in the same trouble as the residential sector, many REITs still have good ratings from S&P.According to Business week in the first quarter of 2008, the group posted a 0.8% total return, at a time when the S&P 500 index fell 9...

Commercial Properties Are Not Selling

Posted on April 24, 2008
Yesterday, I posted that commercial property prices are still increasing. Of course that does not mean there are many properties selling at these prices. As the Boston Business Journal reported, commercial real estate sales have ground to a halt in downtown Boston:The city saw $57...

Triple-A Failure

Posted on April 23, 2008
There is a great article by Roger Lowenstein appearing in the Sunday New York Times Magazine: Triple-A Failure. It runs through the process for converting mortgage loans into mortgage securities.In one example, the author is taken through the rating and structure process for a pool of 2,393 mortgages with a face value of $430 million...

Commercial Property Prices are Still Increasing

Posted on April 23, 2008
Even though residential property prices are dropping like rocks around most of the country, commercial properties are still holding their value.The press release on the S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Index shows that prices are up from a year ago...

Banks Are Keeping More Loans on Their Books

Posted on April 18, 2008
Mark Gongloff reports in WSJ.com that U.S. commercial banks are keeping more of the loans they make on their balance sheets.Total assets at U.S. commercial banks swelled to $11.12 trillion in early April, up from $9.94 trillion a year ago, according to Federal Reserve data that are updated every Friday...

W Midtown Atlanta

Posted on April 18, 2008
In August of 2006, I represented an investor working with the Noble Investment Group with their acquisition of the Sheraton Colony Square in Atlanta. The plan was to renovate the hotel and convert it to the W Hotel Midtown Atlanta.Noble has a link to a virtual tour of the hotel on the home page of the Noble website...

Proposed New Tax Requirement on Real Estate Sales

Posted on April 18, 2008
The current draft of the Fiscal Year 2009 Massachusetts House Budget proposes a new obligation on real estate sales. Section 11 of H4000 Outside Sections (7L Sections) would impose a new requirement on non-resident taxpayers being obligated to make an estimated tax payment at the time of the sale of real estate in Massachusetts...

Martin Kimmel

Posted on April 17, 2008
I was sad to hear that Matin Kimmel passed away. He was the "Kim" of Kimco Realty and Milton Copper was the "co".According to the New York Times, Martin S. Kimmel, 92, Co-Founder of Retail Real Estate Firm, Dies:Starting with a ?mundane pedestrian strip? on Coral Way in Miami with a Zayre discount store and two other stores, Mr...

Wachovia and Lender Woes

Posted on April 14, 2008
As WSJ.com is reporting, Wachovia Swings to Loss, Plans to Raise Capital.I noticed that Wachovia was retreating from some its lending relationships. The retreat made little sense because they were good borrowers with very solid sponsors. I assumed that Wachovia was trying to preserve capital...

The Case for Exotic Notes in Commercial Real Estate Transactions

Posted on April 14, 2008
Fran Mastroianni of Goodwin Procter LLP, published a story in Real Estate Investment & Finance: The Case for Exotic Notes in Commercial Real Estate Transactions."PIK (payment-in-kind) Notes and Toggle Notes, which began as alternative debt instruments with safety valve features attractive to the real estate industry, became a life jacket keeping overly aggressive financially engineered deals afloat...

Massachusetts Tree Law

Posted on April 04, 2008
I had previously posted about the Massachusetts Rule on Tree Liability. Last month, the Massachusetts Appeals Court generated some new law on trees in the case of Glavin v. Eckman 71 Mass. App. Ct. 313 (2008).To improve their own view of the ocean, Eckman cut down ten mature oak trees on the property of their neighbor, Glavin, without the permission of Glavin...

Avvo Lawyer Ratings Come To Massachusetts

Posted on April 02, 2008
The controversial Avvo.com has come to Boston (and the rest of Massachusetts). I have heard about the reviews and the law suits filed. It looks like the early rating system had some problems with gathering information and weighting the information that Avvo was able to find...

REsource magazine

Posted on April 01, 2008
The latest issue of Goodwin Procter's REsource magazine has been released. Here are the articles in this issue:Green Building: Now on Firm Footingby Rachael Simonoff Wexler and Shahrzad MostofiGreen building is no longer the passion of a few; it is the new standard for commercial and residential developments alike...

Back to Work

Posted on April 01, 2008
After spending the month of March home with my daughter on paternity leave, I am back in the office. A lot of changes have happened in the real estate industry, but it looks like the players in the debt markets are still trying to figure out what assets they have before they start making money available for real estate...

The American Rule for Payment of Attorney's Fees

Posted on March 06, 2008
Coming out of the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville is a decision on whether the phrase "cost and expenses" in enforcing a declaration of easements and restrictions includes the recovery of attorneys' fees. The court says NO.Cracker Barrel sued their neighbor alleging that the neighbor's plan to expand their building violated the declaration of reciprocal rights and easement and restrictive covenant...

Kimco Realty Corporation and Milton Cooper

Posted on February 27, 2008
There is nice piece in next month's Forbes on Kimco Realty Corporation and Milton Cooper: Beyond the Big Box."REITs have to follow certain rules in order to avoid most corporate income taxes. Chiefly, they must pay out 90% of their income to shareholders in dividends...

Massachusetts Blawgs

Posted on February 22, 2008
I decided to poke around and try to list as many Massachusetts based legal blogs as I could find. Here is the list. Sorry if I missed any. Send me the links and I will update this list.Boston Criminal Lawyer BlogCovers topics such as felonies, violent crime, assault and battery, drug offenses, and wrongful convictions...

IHOP Is Not Fast Food

Posted on February 20, 2008
In the case of McDonald v Rappaport et al, Judge Tauro of the United States District Court of Massachusetts, found that the International House of Pancakes is not a fast food restaurant. Judge Tauro also highlights a few drafting points for restrictive covenants...

Chicago Transfer Tax

Posted on February 19, 2008
The City of Chicago is trying to expand the scope of its real estate transfer tax to to be paid even when the buyer forfeits the down payment: City transfer tax may expand to cover incomplete real estate deals. I assume the idea is that the seller got some cash out of the deal and the city wants its piece of it...

The CMBS Market has Re-Opened

Posted on February 16, 2008
According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. sold the first commercial mortgage backed security of the year: Morgan Stanley Sells First Commercial Mortgage Security of 2008.It was a $1.2 billion dollar package of which $630 million was in the senior position...

Recording Fees for Multiple Transactions in a Single Document

Posted on February 11, 2008
The Massachusetts Appeals Court issued its decision in Patriot Resorts Corp v. Register of Deeds for Berkshire North (No. 06-P-725) [Social Law Library Membership Required].At issue was the proper interpretation of MGL c. 262, § 38 and MGL c. 44B § 8, which specifies the fees for recording documents with a registry of deeds...

Why Every Client Should Want an Attorney Who Blawgs

Posted on February 09, 2008
Teri G. Rasmussen of the Ohio Practical Business Law Counsel has a great post on Why Every Client Should Want an Attorney Who Blawgs.Teri point out that her blawg gets twice as many hits as the website for her 30 person law firm.Teri's reasons why lawyers should blog:Knowledge Entreprenuer...

Securitization and Lax Mortgage Lending

Posted on February 09, 2008
The Chain of Fools is the title of The Economist's Economics Focus column. The article points to the increasing evidence that securitization lead to lax mortgage lending in the United States.The column is based largely on the study by Atif R. Mian and Amir Sufi of the University of Chicago's Business School: The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the 2007 Mortgage Default Crisis...

REITs and Joint Ventures

Posted on February 08, 2008
Arleen Jacobius of PIonline.com reports on institutional investors entering into joint ventures with REITs to as an alternative to direct real estate investments: Joint Ventures Emerging as New Vehicle for REITs.The nice match of pension funds and REITs is that they are both used to dealing with the complexities of the tax code and other regulatory schemes that affect their investments in real estate...

Macklowe and his Capital

Posted on February 08, 2008
According to the Wall Street Journal, Harry Macklowe is still battling his lenders and his lenders are battling each other over his New York skyscrapers: Macklowe, Lenders Seek a Deal. At stake are: 717 Fifth Avenue, Worldwide Plaza, 1301 Avenue of the Americas, Park Avenue Tower, 527 Madison Avenue, 1540 Broadway, 850 Third Avenue and Tower 56 with about 6...

Legos and Real Estate

Posted on January 28, 2008
I admit that my first exposure to real estate was building houses out of Lego bricks. Today, January 28, 2008, is the 50th anniversary of the Lego brick. Even the Google logo has been lego-fied today.Some facts I found interesting:There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world's 6 billion inhabitants...

Closing Protection Letters - New Forms

Posted on January 24, 2008
The American Land Title Association (ALTA), recently approved three new form closing protection letters. These new forms took effect on January 1, 2008.Closing Protection LetterClosing Protection Letter - LimitationsClosing Protection Letter - Single Transaction LiabilityJon Anderson, Senior Title Counsel for CATIC wrote an article on these new forms and how they clarify the underwriter's liability...

Toronto's Land Transfer Tax

Posted on January 23, 2008
From Bruce McKenna at the Canadian Commercial Real Estate Law Blog, is this piece on the increase Toronto's Land Transfer Tax. Here is a copy of the Municipal Land Transfer Tax By-law from Toronto.ca.I spend a fair amount time structuring transactions to avoid triggering the payment of transfer tax...

Financing the Construction and Acquisition of Your Real Estate Development Project

Posted on January 18, 2008
Below is my material from Real Estate Development From Beginning to End in Massachusetts.The document is hosted on a site called Docstoc.

University Designation for a Training Program

Posted on January 16, 2008
We are revamping some aspects of the real estate group's training program. We are using the concept of a college catalog, with numbered designations for each course and summary of what the course is about. We also wanted to give it a brand element. We were thinking of something like: Goodwin Procter Real Estate University...

Trimming Trees in Massachusetts

Posted on January 11, 2008
After this latest snowstorm in Boston, I had to drag some fallen limbs into my compost pit. I thought this would be a good time to post on Massachusetts law on trimming your neighbor's trees.A neighbor may remove branches extending over a shared property line onto his or her own property...

New York and London Office Markets

Posted on January 11, 2008
With the fall-out of the sub-prime loans, there is continuing good news in the commercial markets.London has surpassed Hong Kong to hold the position of having the world's highest office rents. According to the NAI Global Market Report, the Mayfair submarket in London's West End reached $265...

Terror Risk Insurance Act Extended

Posted on December 29, 2007
With a week left before expiration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, President Bush Signs 7 Year Terror Insurance Extension, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (TRIPRA). The Act extends the insurance program through the end of 2014...

Free Speech at the Mall

Posted on December 26, 2007
The California Supreme Court upheld the rights of protesters inside a shopping mall when it handed out its opinion on Christmas Eve for the case of Fashion Valley Mall, LLC v. National Labor Relations Board and Graphic Communications International Union, Local 432-M (D...

The Mezzanine Section is the Nose Bleed Section

Posted on December 19, 2007
The Wall Street Journal has an article in the C Section by Jennifer S. Forsyth and Kemba J. Dunham on real estate mezzanine loans: Real-Estate Investors Like View From Mezzanine Section.If mezzanine investors think that it is a "no-lose bet" they are getting themselves in trouble...

REIT Stocks Continue to Tumble

Posted on December 12, 2007
On Tuesday, the MSCI US REIT Index (RMZ) dropped 5.61% to 914.85, and the SNL US REIT Equity Index plummeted 5.59% to 235.96 with five winners, 106 losers and four companies closing flat. The losses mark the worst one-day tumble for the SNL US REIT Equity Index since July 25, 1989...

Webcasts from NAREIT Annual Convention

Posted on December 10, 2007
The NAREIT Annual Convention was held in Las Vegas on November 14-16. Webcasts of the presentations are available on the NAREIT website: http://nareit.454creative.net/Gil Menna of Goodwin Procter LLP moderated the panel on the State of the Industry (MP3)...

Charities Using Limited Liability Companies to Hold Real Estate

Posted on November 28, 2007
Charities should not use a limited liability company to hold real estate in Massachusetts. Robert E. Cowden wrote an article about this in the November/December 2007 issue of the Boston Bar Journal.The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board ruled that even though a piece of property was owned by a single member limited liability company, whose sole member was a charitable corporation, the property did not qualify for property tax exemption...

Usury in Massachusetts

Posted on November 26, 2007
I ran across two articles on usury and expect we will see more as the debt markets and foreclosures continue to sort themselves out and more borrowers are faced with foreclosure.Usury is the charging of excessive interest on a loan. Most states have a law prohibiting usury and defining what is meant by usury...