Real Estate Industry

The Polsinelli Real Estate practice arms industry clients with the ability to seize opportunities presented by the market as well as avoid and resolve challenges that inevitably arise along the way. With decades of experience and a broad array of knowledge in all aspects of the real estate industry, our attorneys recognize both the opportunities and challenges that real estate matters present to clients.

Our experience cuts across all segments of the real estate industry and includes collaborating with clients throughout every step in a real estate transaction. We have been involved in retail, office, industrial, and residential transactions in virtually every state in the country and most recently have developed teams focusing on emerging sub-markets such as health care, alternative energy, and data centers.

Polsinelli's Real Estate practice rankings include:

• Recognized as a national Real Estate practice by Chambers USA, 2018.
• National Tier One ranking in Real Estate Law by U.S. News and World Report’s 2018 "Best Law Firms".
• Ranked as Tier 4 in Real Estate by Legal 500, 2019.
• Top 10 Real Estate Practice Groups by Real Estate Law360 in 2014. 
• The number one Real Estate Law Firm in 2013 by Midwest Real Estate News.  

We handle all aspects of a real estate deal - from acquisition through development, ownership structure and financing, leasing or disposition. Our transaction lawyers have partnered with industry leading clients to close billions of dollars’ worth of real estate deals in the last year alone, representing single property transactions as well as portfolio sales. We have the bench strength to handle any project of any size.

We have a broad range of industry areas including:

• Affordable Housing
• Industrial
• Office
• Health Care
• Resort and Hospitality
• Residential and Multi-Family
• Retail
• Student Housing
• Senior Living and Long-Term Care

• Leasing counsel for a national kidney care provider with more than 1700 locations across the U.S.
• Representation of a major health system with respect to its leasing of medical offices, on and off campus spaces and administrative facilities. Assist with construction of new facilities and relocations, including structuring joint ventures, financing, negotiating construction agreements and obtaining entitlements.
• The University of Kansas Hospital Authority - Representation of hospital in negotiation of lease and construction agreement for construction and development of 202,000-square-foot medical office building addition to the hospital campus in Kansas City, Kansas. Representation of hospital in connection with negotiation of construction agreement and long-term lease of approximately 90 percent of the building to provide medical offices for the University of Kansas Medical Center campus for use by the physician group serving the University, Kansas University Physicians, Inc.
• One 57 - Assemblage of 21 parcels with multiple financings over a 14-year period, culminating in 2011 with completion of negotiations with Hyatt Hotels to acquire and manage a 210-key Park Hyatt in a portion of the 708,000-square-foot, 90-story building currently under construction that will also include luxury residential units and high end retail.
• “W” Times Square Hotel - Purchase of land (and air rights) to create a 53-story condominium development including lease to a “W” hotel with signage tower that is one of the primary advertising venues in Times Square.
• Sprint Corporation Headquarters - Development of Sprint’s $1 billion world headquarters office campus.
• Kansas Speedway - Development of NASCAR’s 80,000-seat Kansas International Speedway located in Kansas City, Kansas. 
• OnGoal,LLC / SportingKC/Livestrong Sporting Park – Development of 18,000-seat soccer and entertainment stadium, national-level youth tournament athletic complex and 4,500-employee medical IT office complex to be occupied by Cerner Corporation.  
• Saint Louis Office - Representation of major public company in acquisition of properties for development of new office headquarters in St. Louis County, Missouri including property acquisition, negotiation of development agreements, headquarters lease, and public approvals and incentives relating to the new company headquarters and related office, residential and retail mixed-use developments. 
• Sunflower Project - Representation of buyer in acquisition of 9,000-acre former Army Ammunition Plant including simultaneous negotiations with more than a dozen political subdivisions and departments (at all three levels of government), requiring a commitment to address explosive and environmental contamination (the first time that the Army privatized a site-wide explosives removal). 
• Smith Electric Vehicles Manufacturing Facility - Development of manufacturing facility in the Bronx for the world’s leading all-electric truck manufacturer.  Led successful negotiations with state, city, Borough redevelopment, zoning, incentive package including working with State to repurpose federal funds to assist buyers of electric trucks to receive a cash credit to help bridge the initial cost gap between diesel and all-electric.
• Diamond Tower - Acquisition, demolition, development, construction, financing and leasing of an assemblage of properties located in the Diamond District of Manhattan, New York intended to serve as a “global diamond exchange facility.” 
• Orion, Ariel, Altair, Lucida Condominiums Acquisitions and assemblages (and the related air rights) in various parts of Manhattan (including Midtown, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Times Square, Clinton, and Chelsea) for the development and new construction or conversion into luxury residential and mixed-use condominium properties.
• Carlton House - Representation of owner and developer in acquisition of long term ground lease in connection with Carlton House Hotel redevelopment project.
• Boston Harbor Hotel Intercontinental - 20-story (750,000-square-feet) luxury hotel/condominium/parking garage project on waterfront site in Boston Harbor. The hotel portion is leased and operates as a 420-room hotel. The upper floors have approximately 120 residential condominium units. 
• Universal Technical Institute- Representation of a publicly traded owner and operator of automotive technical training schools throughout the country, on the $40 million industrial sale and leaseback of UTI’s 200,000-square-foot campus in Sacramento, California, and on the $33 million sale and leaseback of UTI’s 150,000-square-foot campus in Norwood, Massachusetts. Representation also includes the negotiation and documentation of "big box" build-to-suit leases of UTI’s other campuses in Arizona, California, Illinois, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, and in connection with the lease of UTI's corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. 
• Schlitterbahn - $800 million year-round family resort Schlitterbahn water park complex with adjacent retail and entertainment river walk project.
• Enron Building, Houston - The former Enron Corporate Headquarters Building in Houston was acquired out of bankruptcy.  We helped our client submit the winning bid of approximately $100 million. Representation of client in the bankruptcy bid process, acquisition of the property, investor organization and acquisition and mezzanine financing, and leasing. 
• Chicago Insurance Exchange Building - This historic building in downtown Chicago has approximately 1,500,000-square-feet and has been redeveloped to convert the building to Class A office space with a completed value estimated in excess of $300 million.  Legal services included acquisition, financing (construction, mezzanine and permanent) and leasing.
• Miami Condominium Project - Development and construction of high-rise condominium on Brickell Avenue.
• Trial Courts of Arizona, Phoenix - Development of $339 million, high-rise, criminal courthouse; the largest locally funded public works project in Arizona history. Representation included coordinating and developing the court’s role as the main user of the project, including, aspects of the unique design and programming of the courthouse, programming, reviewing and commenting on designs, specifications, victim rights and ADA compliance, and, generally, translating the court’s needs into concrete designs and specifications. 
• Wind Energy Projects - Representation of wind energy developer clients current ongoing development of more than 40 wind projects in 12 states, including wind lease negotiation, financing, construction, environmental, easements, payment in lieu of taxes agreements, decommissioning agreements, title issues, and regulatory issues. 
• Prairie Center, Colorado - Acquisition and development of Prairie Center, a 2,200-acre master-planned community in Brighton, Colorado, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, open space, recreational centers, schools, trail systems, retail, and an on-site regional hospital. Negotiated public and private financing, development agreements, annexation agreement, and zoning. Creation and funding of special districts for service to the project.
• Mixed Use/Museum Site - Representation of developer client in obtaining approval of $30 million in Community Improvement District financing to help fund $600 million mixed-use project that will feature the first “franchise” location of the American Museum of Natural History in the country.
• Pet Resorts - Representation of privately held owner and operator of high-end kennels negotiating and documenting numerous build-to-suit leases in Arizona, Texas, Ohio and Oklahoma.
• Portfolio Sale - Representation of related sellers of 22 properties in seven states for $300 million.
• Regional Lifestyle Shopping Center - Representation of developer in obtaining annexation, development, land use and zoning approvals, including granting of governmental incentives, such as sales tax revenue sharing agreements, for a 900,000-square-foot retail center and town home development and the successful development and operation of the project.   
• Retail Site Redevelopment -  Redevelopment of an 88-acre retail site including the structuring of economic development incentives, including both Tax Increment Financing and a Community Improvement District; the issuance of municipal bonds to fund the project; the development and analysis of redevelopment pro formas; land assemblage including dozens of property owners; condemnation proceedings; blight and environmental remediation; litigation; and serving as lead negotiators and chairs of numerous meetings before the City Council, TIF Commission and numerous taxing jurisdictions. 
• Mall Redevelopment - Redevelopment of existing mall site. The total project cost was $250 million. Our lawyers led efforts to obtain obtaining all entitlements for new mixed-use improvements and securing incentive packages from state and local governments totaling $55 million.