REITs
Alston & Bird regularly advises and represents public and private REITs, involving almost every asset class, including office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, medical, timber, mortgage and specialty finance. Our lawyers have served as counsel to issuers, underwriters and financial institutions in raising more than $45 billion in capital for REITs in the last five years through equity and debt offerings, asset securitizations and lending transactions. We have the ideal combination of real estate securities experience and expertise in corporate and securities, tax, real estate, financial services, environmental, employee benefits, leveraged capital, construction, intellectual property and related legal disciplines to partner with our clients to structure and execute successful transactions. Our experience representing REITs and underwriters is supplemented by our experience representing institutional investors in private REITS and as lender’s counsel in loans to REITs and other real estate investment entities.
EXPERIENCE
Our experience includes public and private REIT and fund formations, IPOs and secondary offerings of common stock, preferred stock and debt, mergers and acquisitions, liquidations, going-private transactions and REIT purchases, sales, and development of properties. We have also assisted clients in accessing capital through the contribution of more than $1 billion worth of properties into joint ventures with institutional investors. We have formed UPREITs and DownREITs, which enable our clients to use the currency of convertible partnership units to acquire additional properties without cash and in a manner allowing tax deferral to the properties’ sellers. We have formed, restructured and tax-enhanced private REITs for a wide range of financial services companies. In addition, we have represented a wide range of real estate investment entities and their financial advisors in complex strategic transactions, including public and private REIT and fund formations.
SPECIALIZATION
We have specialized expertise representing non-listed REITs and limited partnership programs in best efforts public offerings. Our lawyers have advised issuers in over $12 billion of these transactions in the last five years alone. We regularly represent non-listed REITs and their broker-dealer affiliates in addressing state “blue sky” securities laws, NASD rules and NASAA guidelines, and we are familiar with the unique challenges posed by the underlying regulatory authorities and the due diligence requirements of the independent broker/dealer network distributing these securities.
RECOGNITION
Our lawyers are active members of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), with one of our lawyers serving on the Associate Board of Governors, the Government Relations Committee and the SEC Subcommittee. Two of our lawyers are members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE). One of our lawyers also serves as the chair of the Legal and Regulatory Affairs Committee of the Investment Program Association (IPA). Many of our lawyers are regular contributors to conferences, symposia, trade publications and position papers that help define the future of the real estate securities industry.
WHY ALSTON & BIRD?
Our combination of experience and expertise in corporate and securities, tax, real estate, financial services, environmental, employee benefits, leveraged capital, construction, intellectual property and related legal disciplines enables us to partner with our clients to structure and execute successful transactions.