Commercial Real Estate

When faced with permitting, zoning, transactional or other commercial real estate needs, having knowledgeable and skilled legal counsel is key to a successful project.

Our commercial real estate lawyers represent owners, developers, investors, and lenders in connection with all aspects of real estate investment. Entrepreneurial and business-minded, our attorneys have the acute legal skills, technical understanding and comprehensive knowledge required to negotiate complex real estate transactions.

With experienced, full-time commercial real estate attorneys practicing from each of our offices throughout Vermont and New Hampshire we consistently deliver timely and effective solutions to real estate challenges.

Our areas of concentration include:

• Commercial real estate transactions
• Environmental & land use planning, subdivision and development
• Project planning, financing and tax advice
• Environmental, permitting and zoning due diligence and compliance
• Regulatory and Environmental Court appeals
• Hazardous waste law
• Environmental insurance
• Construction and architectural contracts
• Common interest communities
• Long-term ownership and management of family real estate.

The depth of our commercial transactional experience includes:

• acting as national leasing counsel for major retail clients
• counseling domestic and foreign investment entities in the acquisitions and development of commercial and residential real estate
• assisting several national communications businesses with large-scale portfolio leasehold analyses to facilitate corporate restructuring and asset acquisitions
• helping developers acquire and convert under-utilized manufacturing and industrial spaces throughout the Northeast into modern, multi-use facilities to generate tenant revenue streams
• representing utilities to secure new and expanded utility line corridors via negotiated conveyances and condemnation
• resolving boundary disputes and title claims on behalf of owners and title companies through negotiation and litigation; and
• representing lenders and owners in transactional and insolvency/restructuring, analyzing default situations and business opportunities as well as debtors’ and creditors’ rights and remedies.

The range of services we offer our clients is as diverse as the real estate issues they face:

• due diligence, property acquisition and subdivision, land use permitting
• state environmental permitting including Act 250, wetlands mitigation, hazardous waste handling and disposal, wastewater treatment, stormwater runoff, and agricultural lands mitigation, drawing upon excellent relationships with top regulators throughout New England
• effective advocacy before municipal boards, regulatory agencies, regional environmental commissions and state and federal courts
• construction and design contract preparation and enforcement
• formation, registration and interstate marketing and sales of condominiums and other common interest ownership communities
• development of public relations strategies
• settlement and litigation counsel at state and federal Superfund sites throughout New England, with extensive experience as lead counsel to Fortune 100 companies in complex contribution actions in federal court.

Recent Accomplishments

Assisting from conceptual design to grand opening, our commercial real estate lawyers guide businesses, developers, contractors, and institutions through the maze of regulatory law and permitting.

Examples of recent projects include:

• guiding a ski area that is the foundation of its local area economy through a multiple-phase, long-range process of planning, proposal, presentation, alteration, permitting and construction that has enabled it to reclaim its status as a premiere world-class winter and summer destination resort
• advising lenders and developers about New Markets Tax Credit financed redevelopment projects
• assisting a tenant-in-common syndicator on the acquisition in a regional shopping mall.
• advising a national, high-end premier resort developer on a multi-phase, 1,000 unit-plus ski resort, hotel and golf-course development
• representing a national retailer confronted with conflicting state and federal laws for controlling stormwater runoff, achieving ultimate success through a combined regulatory, legal, and legislative strategy
• protecting the viability of a medium-sized, privately-owned energy company through a complex Superfund assessment, negotiation and settlement involving multiple parties