Practice Areas & Industries: Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Manatt’s attorneys have a broad background in all areas of real estate, land use and hospitality.  Our professionals are among the premier real estate and development advisors in the nation; they deliver the transactional expertise, market insight, and government advocacy needed for a successful and expedited project, from acquisition through financing, entitlement, construction and disposition. 

Our real estate practitioners are effective because they combine in-depth knowledge of the industry with their knowledge of law.  Many of our lawyers have extensive and meaningful nonlegal experience that gives them practical business insight into the challenges.  Among the attorneys in Manatt’s real estate group are some who have:

§         Worked as commercial property owners and developers and mortgage banking executives;

§         Served as government officials and regulators in local governments (as city attorneys and planning board members), state governments (as Deputy Bureau Chief with the Office of the Attorney General, New York State Department of Law, Real Estate Financing Bureau) and the federal government (in the Solicitor’s Office of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Resolution Trust Corporation);

§         Held memberships in a wide range of industry associations, including the American Planning Association, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) and the Urban Land Institute; and

§         Received extensive professional recognition, such as selection for the American College of Real Estate Attorneys and for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America.

Our attorneys stay abreast of current industry developments and maintain strong ties with regulators and political office holders and staff in state and local government, and are thus particularly adept at navigating through the political systems and the complex network of laws regulating government approvals of development, redevelopment and environmental issues.  We take a strategic approach, working to secure the support of staff, community activists, and elected officials, while aggressively advocating for client projects at public hearings.

Manatt’s real estate and hospitality practice encompasses the full diversity of the industry:

§         Clients include domestic and foreign developers, lenders, investors, not-for-profits with facility needs, landlords and tenants, contractors and other parties involved in the acquisition, planning, financing, development, leasing, lease auditing, syndication and disposition of real property;

§         Projects include hotel and resort developments, single-family residential tracts and multi-family buildings (varying from luxury units to affordable housing), shopping centers and power malls, office buildings, dormitories, hospitals, community centers, museums, industrial parks and mixed-use developments;

§         Services emphasize active involvement in structuring, negotiating and documenting and, when necessary, restructuring of transactions.  We offer efficient, economic, and thorough due diligence review, including title, leases, entitlements, environmental and other contractual and legal obligations that will affect development, cash flow and valuation; and

§         Expertise includes securing necessary entitlements and other land use approvals.

Services Available

Acquisition and Disposition of Real Estate

We regularly handle the purchase and sale of real estate for both domestic and foreign clients. 

We bring sound business judgment to every deal, offering an efficient and thorough due diligence review as well as an assessment of future opportunities.  We work with the nation’s leading financial and investment institutions, and often play a key role in public and private financing, leasing, syndication and other financing arrangements.

If there are title issues, we work with title companies to efficiently and creatively resolve them – including analyzing and resolving title problems and claims under title insurance policies.  If title disputes become litigation, we vigorously assert coverage claims and defend or prosecute liability issues.

Condemnation (Eminent Domain)

Our professionals include the premier experts in condemnation matters and the powers of eminent domain.  They are nationally recognized for outstanding advocacy in large cases or those involving complex or unusual legal issues.  They have been counsel in several landmark appellate decisions issued by the United States Supreme Court, the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals, as well as the California Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal.  We believe there is no other group of attorneys in any firm in California who have handled more published appellate cases in the field of direct and inverse condemnation.  They have successfully handled numerous jury trials involving a wide range of valuation issues, as well as bench trials involving the scope and application of the governmental condemnation power.  This same group has also been called upon to handle cases involving land use, property damage, construction defects, property insurance coverage and real estate fraud.

Development, Land Use and Construction Activities

We represent developers, property owners, investors, contractors, not-for-profit institutions, and financial institutions in a broad spectrum of development projects.  Our attorneys are involved from the first stages of planning through completion, operation and eventual disposition of projects.  We have experience in all entitlement, development and construction processes, including land use and subdivision approvals, variances and rezonings, environmental impact assessments, endangered species issues, development agreements, hazardous waste regulation and disposition as well as other environmental compliance issues, as well as redevelopment activities.

Many of the projects that we facilitate are located in the enormous, and enormously complex, real estate markets of California and New York.

§         In California, we advise on some of the highest-profile projects in the state, including the development of hospitality projects, urban entertainment and retail centers, office buildings, master planned communities and landmark mixed-use projects. Among many other projects, we have played key roles in the creation of major developments throughout the state, including a 582-room resort hotel about to start construction along the coast in Los Angeles County, a 105-acre/$150 million redevelopment of an industrial site in Hawthorne, a 50-acre site in Thousand Oaks approved for development with office and entertainment uses, a 39-acre site in Brea developed with office and retail uses, a 20-acre site in Santa Monica developed with office, residential and retail uses, an Embassy Suites hotel in Brea, a Holiday Inn in North Hollywood, and Palazzo Westwood, approved for retail and residential development.

§         In New York, we represent owners and developers in all phases of formation, operation and development of commercial, residential, mixed-use and condominium projects.  Many of our clients are New York City institutions with a variety of real estate holdings and interests and a full range of expansion, development and operational needs.  We have addressed virtually every kind of problem on their behalf, including construction defect disputes, leasing, master-leasing, and subleasing of commercial space, financing transactions, transfers and operational issues involving owners and occupants.  Our clients have included Amtrak (in its redevelopment of Penn Station), London Terrace Towers (one of the largest cooperative developments in Manhattan), and Chelsea Piers (a 1.7 million square foot sports and entertainment complex).

Wherever the location, we are experienced in negotiating and documenting development agreements, reciprocal easement agreements and other documents essential in today’s regulatory and development climate.  In new construction projects, we work with developers and contractors to prepare architectural, design, construction and construction supervision contracts.  We tailor contract provisions to limit risks and ensure timely completion, and are particularly adept at creating the kind of innovative compensation arrangements that help avoid project delays.  We also negotiate management and operating agreements for hospitality and real estate projects.

Environmental Compliance and Disputes

We help real estate clients resolve a broad range of environmental matters before, during and after a transaction or development has been completed.

Due diligence

We are deeply involved on our clients’ behalf in pre-transactional due diligence and environmental site assessments and can evaluate the existence of prior or current business location operations, on-site and off-site disposal practices, and potential liability to or from adjacent property owners.

Remediation and restoration

Our real estate lawyers are part of a sophisticated team of specialists who can help clients acquire and restore contaminated sites and Brownfield projects.  We evaluate the nature and extent of the contamination, estimate the cost of remediation, define the potential return from an investment in cleanup, and develop a cost-effective, environmentally sound response.  If the project makes sound business sense we coordinate with developers, environmental consultants, financing institutions, insurance providers, regulatory agencies and other legal counsel, all within a proper legal strategy that provides the greatest return and protection.

Litigation

As a pre-eminent real estate practice, we represent all parties–title insurers, lenders, borrowers, developers, subdividers, contractors, appraisers and brokers–when disputes arise over real estate transactions. 

In addition to litigating transactional controversies and the eminent domain actions described above, we handle the most complex disputes and litigation on behalf of all parties in real estate matters, including bankruptcy, environmental litigation, property tax disputes and challenges to regulatory approvals.

Clients:
AOL Time Warner , Bank of America Corp. , California National Bank (Golden State Bancorp) , Carpenters Pension Trust for Southern California , Casden Properties LLC , Comerica, Inc. , County of Los Angeles , Hawthorne Financial Corp. , Lennar Partners , Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority , Mills Corporation , Playa Capital Company, LLC , Pacific Theatres Corp. , RiverPark Development, LLC, Shea Properties, Union Labor Life Insurance Company , Urban Partners