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Real Estate & Property Law

Real Estate Space

Covers commercial real estate finance law and the real estate business.
By Doug Cornelius

Post Frequency: 1.5/day

Last Entry: February 23, 2009 at 09:00:00

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...

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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...

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