Transactional Experience
Having worked for decades on real estate purchase, sale and development projects throughout Delaware, our lawyers have the experience to help clients structure and negotiate the best business deals, then quickly document and close the transaction. Whether the project involves single commercial properties or multiple property portfolios valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, we bring value to the table through our track record of completing more, and more sophisticated, transactions than most other real estate lawyers in Delaware.
We staff each deal with one or two working lawyers who maximize speed and efficiency through the kind of thorough market knowledge that requires little learning curve. Our lawyers give clients all the help they need to get deals done, from land acquisition and land use approvals, through the financing and construction phase, to the sale, purchase or lease of the project. Because we are project-driven rather than process-driven, we structure every transaction to our client's best advantage. The number of real estate transactions in our legal portfolio ensures that we bring sound business judgment to each deal, offering an efficient and thorough due diligence review of title, property conditions and legal obligations as well as an assessment of future opportunities.
CASE STUDY: Transactional Experience: A Landmark Example
- Client: International real estate development company.
- Issue: Development of first significant shopping center in the City of Wilmington in over a decade.
- Challenge: Working with an experienced client and other professionals to combine loan, equity, government incentives and tax credit components into an efficient financing structure.
- Solution: Creation of a separate joint venture entity under Delaware law to permit our client’s occupancy of the business as a lease from the joint venture.
- Result: Through multitiered ground leasing, financing and equity, the project is now open and providing long-awaited retail services to the community, and the client was able to sell its share of the joint venture ownership.
Such transactional effectiveness and creativity are typical of the value-added advantages that we bring to every client.
Government and Market Insight
The importance of our familiarity with local government contacts and market assessment cannot be overstated. We are able to handle unique development and regulatory issues (even in environmentally sensitive coastal areas), forge relationships with public officials that are essential for efficient deal closing, and resolve even difficult zoning or property tax problems. Our lawyers are skilled at settling crucial issues to secure the timely approval of permits and zoning applications, and make sure all due diligence, from determining environmental liability to insuring the title, is completed. While we are effective at appealing land use decisions, our real strength is in resolving the concerns of regulating bodies short of litigation.
Typical of Richards Layton’s broad and deep Delaware market sophistication, we have represented the City of Wilmington itself on development, land use and litigation involving a variety of real estate projects.
CASE STUDY: Government and Market Insight: A Landmark Example
- Client: A major corporation.
- Issue: Relocating its corporate headquarters.
- Challenge: Devise a strategy allowing the client to remain in its community without sacrificing the economic opportunities presented by a neighboring jurisdiction’s lower rents and lower taxes.
- Result: By crafting tax incentives for the client to maintain high-quality jobs for the community, including wage tax benefits for the client and property tax benefits for the landlord who would develop the client’s new headquarters, the client was able to use these tax savings to balance its higher rental costs to remain in the community.
Finance and Investment Connections
Because Richards Layton has experience with some of the largest financial institutions and institutional investors in Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic region, we can facilitate the financing of any development project. Turbulent times often require creative financing alternatives or combinations—we consider the most advantageous structure using conventional lending and available equity sources, such as syndications and real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Our lawyers advise owners, syndicators, underwriters and investors (including entrepreneurial individuals and funds looking for substantial investment returns) on financing strategies, and excel at evaluating real estate and facility portfolios to maximize asset value. We evaluate and structure financing alternatives, develop and analyze lease versus ownership advantages, and identify tax and economic incentives.
CASE STUDY: Finance and Investment Insight: A Landmark Example
- Client: A major corporation.
- Issue: Construction of the largest office building built in Delaware in the past 15 years.
- Challenge: Devise a tax-efficient strategy for the client to handle the project as both the developer and an occupant of the building.
- Result: Created a separate joint venture entity and structured the lease to enable the client to lease space and dispose of its share of joint venture ownership.
Restructuring Capabilities
In today’s challenging real estate market, Richards Layton represents secured creditors and developers in restructuring troubled real estate projects and real estate portfolios. Our wide-ranging knowledge of and contacts in the industry have given us special skills in lender liability, foreclosures and other workout-related transactions. Our lawyers can resolve defaults on commercial property loans by restructuring the loan agreement or handling portfolio transactions for both buyers and sellers.
Because we have the ability to represent all parties (lenders, buyers, sellers, developers), we are skilled at staying abreast of the market: for example, in our role as seller’s counsel, our extensive transactional experience enables us to anticipate and address buyer concerns and bring all parties to a successful closing. And we can handle such complexities as debtor-in-possession financing and deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transactions.
Summary: Efficient and Effective
Real estate is a complex, sometimes volatile and high-intensity marketplace where success means being prepared for opportunities and challenges. Richards Layton real estate lawyers use business insight and customized solutions to meet client objectives in this highly competitive industry. We know that time is money to our clients—our goal is to negotiate deals efficiently and resolve problems effectively.