Practice Areas & Industries: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

HRO has extensive, high level experience in all of our firm’s offices in creating, developing and maintaining covenant controlled communities. This includes large multi-use projects combining residential, commercial and retail, stand alone condominium projects, and master planned communities with various amenities (including gaming, golf and country clubs). Our team’s experience ranges from large golf course communities to small infill projects, to resort condos, as well as high rise towers in major metropolitan areas. These complex agreements are established between many parties and can contain provisions for mixed-use residential, retail, entertainment and recreational aspects. We also have extensive experience converting existing multi-family projects to condominiums.

With respect to HOA activities, the team has formed residential homeowner associations for master communities and for the sub-communities within the master communities. The communities include large residential communities (estate homes, high-rise towers, residences with hotel and equestrian golf privileges, as well as in-fill communities). Further, HRO has formed commercial homeowner associations for industrial, office and mixed-use communities, including the preparation of declarations, plats, homeowner association entities, community rules, association minutes, association notices and demands, and other documentation needed to establish residential communities.

Further, the team has created agreements to establish resort communities that include gaming and casino components. All of these various documents and agreements can contain specifications on operational issues; CC&R amendments; enforcement; liens, and many other provisions. The team has also assisted in negotiation and drafting of casino management agreements between the developer and the casino operator.

Services Available

We work with developers of real estate to create these communities from the ground up. We assist our clients through entitlement, in obtaining necessary zoning changes and approvals and permits for their projects; drafting, preparing and enforcing the covenants and restrictions governing the operations of those projects; establishing club and sub-associations to own and operate specific amenities; and protecting intellectual property rights.

In addition to a broad range of developer work on these projects, we also have extensive experience representing lenders in documenting and enforcing loans having these projects as collateral.

We often assemble teams for projects so that each aspect of the clients' needs can be addressed efficiently. What distinguishes our lawyers is the close working relationships we maintain with our clients, our belief in value-based legal services and our wide range of experience in the many facets of law related to real estate and land use.