Professional Experience Tom Muller is a partner in our Real Estate & Land Use Practice Group. Tom assists clients, including real estate investments trusts and offshore investors, in the acquisition, disposition, joint venture, ground leasing, like-kind exchange, development and financing of properties ranging from raw land to industrial and office properties to hotels to portfolios of regional shopping centers. Tom has also represented domestic and foreign lenders and borrowers in construction and permanent financings of hotel, office, retail, and industrial projects. During recessionary periods, that work involves complex loan workouts and restructurings for institutional lenders, purchasers of loan portfolios, and borrowers. Tom also has substantial expertise in land use regulation and real estate development, including environmental impact analysis, development agreements, and entitlement of mixed-use projects and master planned communities. Before law school, Tom worked on urban planning and economic development projects for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Regional Plan Association. Representative Matters Acquisitions and Dispositions. Acquisitions and dispositions of regional shopping centers, industrial, office, and development properties, including environmentally impacted properties. Joint Ventures. Partnership agreements and limited liability company operating agreements for acquisition, development and operation of real estate. Ground leasing. Long term ground leases and synthetic leases of industrial and office facilities. Finance. Borrower- and lender-side secured credit facilities, securitized loans, construction and permanent loans for retail, office, multifamily and hotel projects, including multi-state and multi-property loan transactions. Workouts and Restructurings. Loan and partnership workouts and restructurings, including acquisition and restructuring of loan portfolios. Land Use. Entitlement of new master planned communities and other residential, industrial, brownfields and commercial projects; transfer of development rights. Hotel Projects. Acquisition and disposition, joint venture agreements, financing, workouts, permitting and management agreements. International Transactions. European and Japanese inbound investment and divestment; China acquisitions and financing. Memberships & Activities Member, Real Property Sections, State Bar of California and Los Angeles County Bar Association; Urban Land Institute; International Council of Shopping Centers; National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. Adjunct Professor, UCLA School of Law; former Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning and Development. |