Commercial Real Estate Development

Overview

The real estate development team at Alston & Bird understands that you want creative solutions that protect and advance your goals—without sacrificing unnecessary time and resources. In other words, you need to get your deal closed on time.

We have an established commercial real estate development practice, representing clients in sophisticated development transactions nationally, regionally, and locally. Our development practice covers a broad range of property types, including office, retail, industrial, multifamily, hotel, resort/hospitality, and mixed-use developments. Our lawyers and professionals are dedicated solely to our clients’ real estate development needs.

Our clients include developers, merchant builders, retailers, logistics companies, lodging companies, and others. We also represent institutional equity sources (including REITs, pension funds, insurance companies, and private equity funds) seeking investment and joint venture development opportunities with operating development partners.

We walk you through all phases of the real estate development process, including purchase options and rights of first refusal, land acquisitions, construction, protective covenants, easement agreements, leasing, government economic incentives, joint ventures, and much more.

Over the course of a development project, we often work closely with other lawyers at Alston & Bird who focus on land use regulation, construction, environmental, state and local tax, federal tax, and public/private incentives.

Equity players seeking investment in development opportunities turn to us to handle joint venture agreements, forward commitment contracts, fund formation, and other investment structures for investing in real estate developments. Our investor clients value our knowledge and understanding of the development process because it helps facilitate transactions between them and developers.

Experience

• Counsel to the developer of the multiphased "12th & Midtown" master mixed-use development in midtown Atlanta totaling almost $1 billion in deal value through the fourth phase of development. The four mixed-use projects currently comprising the master development have varying sources of joint venture equity and construction financing. The master development contains a total of approximately 1150 residential units (approximately one-quarter of which are residential condos), a 414-room "Loews"-branded hotel, approximately 725,000 rentable square feet of office space, approximately 135,000 square feet of retail space and related parking facilities. We are involved in all aspects of each phase of the master development, from land acquisition to joint venture formation and construction financing, tax planning, zoning, economic incentive planning and implementation, planning and implementation of condominium regimes (both at the master and residential levels) and other governance documentation, negotiation of project management and leasing agreements, and lease-up. Three additional phases of the master development are slated for the future, with ultimate deal value expected to be well over $1 billion.
• Represented the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team in its partnership with Emory Healthcare where we handled all aspects of the ground lease, construction financing, site development, building construction, and leasing of a two-story, 90,000 square foot facility in Atlanta containing both the official training and practice facility of the Hawks and the hub of Emory University’s Sports Medicine program and Sports Science and Research division. The Hawks’ Player Development Facility is the first in the NBA to be located within a sports medicine center, allowing for immediate treatment and on-site access to diagnostic equipment, rehab and sports performance training.
• Represented the developer in the acquisition of a 108-acre undeveloped parcel in Orlando for the development of up to seven industrial buildings (950,000 sq. ft.). Negotiated a joint venture agreement between the developer and a commingled fund of pension investors, which included a take-out commitment by the fund upon substantial completion of each building and an earn-out for the developer. Also negotiated a development agreement and a property management and leasing agreement between the JV and the developer. Negotiated a $20 million acquisition/development loan for the first two buildings, including a tri-party agreement with the lender, developer and fund (take-out buyer). Also established a reciprocal easement scheme between each parcel and a conservation easement over the common area and created the owner's association. Negotiated leases for the first two buildings.