Closing a Time-Sensitive Real Estate Transaction

Industry: Real Estate

Key Facts

Proposed transaction would be viable only if it could close in seven days
Real Estate, Corporate, Litigation, and Environmental attorneys contributed to the successful deal
Legal team fostered a high level of collaboration, information-sharing, and teamwork with internal and external professionals

A client requested our representation in connection with a joint venture and acquisition of a pre-permitted, mixed-use development project located in Boston with first-floor retail and several hundred residential units. The proposed transaction would be viable only if it could close in seven days (a week prior to calendar year end) due to the expiration of a purchase option. In addition to voluminous due diligence for the acquisition — and to ensure that the project with its existing permitting was viable and could secure financing — unanticipated environmental contamination, title defect, and undocumented tenancy issues needed to be resolved prior to closing.

We immediately assembled a dedicated, multidisciplinary team of professionals to handle the various components of the transaction and to ensure that the transaction would stay on track and close in a timely fashion. Our corporate and tax lawyers negotiated the joint venture agreement and designed the corporate structure for the investor and acquisition entities. A team of real estate lawyers negotiated the various acquisition documents, analyzed the permitting and financial viability of the project, managed and ensured the performance of outside vendors, conducted a full title and survey review of the project, and negotiated unusual title insurance coverage for title defects that we discovered. Our environmental lawyers worked with the client’s environmental consultant to analyze environmental risk and to secure environmental insurance that would satisfy prospective lenders and investors. With so many pieces moving simultaneously, and at such a rapid pace, multiple daily conference calls were scheduled with the Mintz professionals on the team, the client, and the seller’s team to ensure a constant open pathway for the high level of collaboration, information-sharing, and teamwork necessary for the project to be completed before deadline.

We succeeded on all fronts and closed the transaction by the deadline. Since closing, we have worked with the client to assemble a new project team and to work with the City of Boston to redesign various components of the project, creating an improved and more-efficient project design that is also more profitable for the client.

Supporting Professionals

Rebecca Lee, Peter Gelzinis, Ken Gantz (Real Estate);Roy Gillig, Robert Giacchetti (Corporate); Tony Starr, Jacquelyn Burke, Kevin Mortimer (Litigation)