Real Estate

/Overview

We work with developers, investors, and lenders to bring real estate projects to life, from housing and commercial properties to infrastructure and data centers.

Real estate markets are adapting to evolving economic conditions, demographic shifts, and technology-driven expectations. Owners and developers are reimagining assets through digital integration, ESG investment, and adaptive reuse strategies to enhance long-term value. As they pursue smarter, more resilient portfolios, businesses must also address rising demands for climate preparedness, housing affordability, and community engagement.

Our real estate industry work is focused on clients across the spectrum including owners, developers, lenders, investors, and other industry participants. We guide clients through complex transactions, regulatory hurdles, and strategic decision-making to seize opportunities while understanding and minimizing risks. Whether structuring intricate financing deals, advising on tax credit programs, or supporting large-scale developments, our team of real estate lawyers delivers integrated approaches that align with your vision to achieve your business objectives.

Through our diverse experience and deep understanding of real estate markets, we provide counsel to help clients address evolving market dynamics. Wherever your project takes you—from affordable housing initiatives to high-value investments—we’re by your side, driving your impact and success every step of the way.

/Our Focus

• Affordable Housing: NP’s knowledge and experience in affordable housing is unmatched. Our team includes former HUD attorneys who bring unparalleled understanding of federally assisted programs. We guide developers and stakeholders through the intricacies in the financing, preservation, and development of affordable housing. We bring a legal team with extensive experience in affordable housing development and financing as well as regulatory advice and compliance These projects involve complex ownership structures and financing arrangements, tax credits lease negotiations, and equity arrangements. We are well versed in the numerous programs at HUD, including RAD, as well as FHA financing, and public-private partnerships.
• Commercial Leasing: We leverage our experience, versatility, and industry knowledge to guide landlords and tenants through the leasing process. Our team handles all forms of commercial leasing including build to suit, retail, gross leases, ground leases, master leases, net leases, sale-leasebacks, and whole property leases. Our team is experienced in many special leasing situations including those involving healthcare, biotechnology, seaport, energy, rooftop solar, and telecommunications facilities.
• Condominium and Cooperative Law: Given the role of real estate securities in housing transactions (e.g., condominiums, cooperatives, and real estate syndications), our team works with developers on these issues, with a particular emphasis on condominiums and cooperatives. We handle the initial planning and formation stages of condominium and cooperative projects, drafting of organizational documents such as by-laws and declarations, proprietary leases and offering plans, and the regulatory approval process. In New York State real estate securities such as condominiums and cooperatives are subject to stringent statutory and regulatory requirements under the State’s blue-sky law, Article 23-A of the New York General Business Law (also known as the Martin Act). Other real estate securities in New York include cooperatives, homeowner associations, and senior living communities—all structures we handle for our developer clients.
• Construction and Real Estate Litigation: We have a strong national practice throughout the United States with attorneys who regularly practice in construction and real estate litigation. While our team has considerable experience in construction and real estate, what distinguishes us is our ability to seamlessly work with our colleagues in related areas that may impact a project, such as environmental, bankruptcy and insolvency, labor and employment, and OSHA.
• Housing: From multifamily housing to luxury developments, we support a wide range of housing initiatives with tailored legal strategies, counseling clients on zoning and land use, construction financing, regulations governing senior and supportive housing, and acquisition and disposition.
• Real Estate Development: We assist developers on largescale, mixed-use, mixed-income development, redevelopment, and the conversion and repositioning of assets. We provide end-to-end legal support throughout the development lifecycle. Our strategic guidance covers land acquisition permitting, structuring and forming of investment vehicles and pass-through entities, including joint ventures, construction, tax, and project financing.
• Real Estate Finance: With deep experience in structuring and negotiating complex transactions, we help clients secure funding and optimize financial strategies for their real estate ventures. Our practice covers all forms of secured debt including bridge, acquisition, construction, and permanent financing secured by fixed and floating rate mortgages, mezzanine debt, and fee and leasehold mortgages.
• Real Estate Investment: From institutional investors to private equity firms, we guide clients in deploying capital strategically across a variety of real estate opportunities. We advise on fund formation, joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions, investment structuring, and creative financing structures.

/Representative Experience

• The Regents of the University of California. Representing The Regents and another university system in cases involving claims for breach of contract and negligence against contractors and manufacturers and suppliers of utility piping arising from the catastrophic failure of underground utilities distribution piping systems at multiple campuses
• Developer. Represented a developer in the $150 million redevelopment transaction in the purchase of 23 acres, consisting of substantially all of an existing shopping center site in Buffalo Grove, Illinois (a northwest suburb of Chicago), for redevelopment into a mixed-use project containing retail, restaurant, entertainment, and residential uses, together with a “Village Green” parcel for village programming of public events. Representation included negotiating redevelopment entitlements, tax increment financing, economic development incentives, and municipal development agreements; restructuring project operation and easement agreements; addressing title, survey, and subdivision issues, and facilitating the simultaneous sale of a portion of the site to a residential developer
• Private developer. Representing a private developer of 8.9 acres of land on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester (Boston) in the acquisition and permitting of 1.55 million square feet of mixed-use development, including three lab-tech commercial buildings, four residential buildings, and over one acre of new public open space
• Developer joint venture. Representing the developer teams in a joint venture with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) in its RAD/Section 18 PACT transactions, which total over 30,000 units, with 14 closings in the last six years and over 15,000 units scheduled to close in the next few years. These transactions have included a 99-year lease with NYCHA, various regulatory agreements, and RAD, Section 18, Part 200, and local approvals. Financing for these transactions included complex and innovative tax-advantaged structuring, using tax-exempt and taxable bonds, various types of loan structures, including conventional bank and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executions, and multiple sources of subsidy financing. Our representation on the most recent transaction that closed this year included coordination of federal and state historic tax credits, among other complexities. 
• Large institutional fund. Representing a large institutional opportunistic fund in connection with their single asset and programmatic joint venture transactions, acquisitions, and real estate finance closings, resulting in the acquisition and development of industrial and warehouse projects, major retail and mixed-use sites, multifamily housing projects, and senior housing communities
• Private equity fund. Representing a private equity fund in the acquisition of a majority interest in a large portfolio of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) housing developments and acted as lead counsel in structuring the go-forward platform joint venture for future LIHTC developments
• Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). Representing a Chicago, Illinois-based publicly traded REIT, which owns, manages, acquires, and develops bulk warehouses and light industrial properties, in connection with the sale of industrial properties individually and as part of a portfolio in Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri 
• American home improvement retailer. Representing the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, supplying tools, construction products, and services, with more than 2,300 locations. Representation includes all aspects of their new store acquisition, leasing, and development, including new concept stores, outlet sale and development transactions, and portfolio management work, including lease and reciprocal easement agreement amendments.
• National medical office portfolio acquisition. Represented the investor and purchaser in the acquisition of 31 medical office buildings across 10 states. The representation also included a joint venture transaction with one of the largest privately held acquirers of medical real estate in the country, serving as the seller of the assets, which yielded a go-forward programmatic joint venture to acquire a new portfolio of assets. Representation included the closing of the acquisition loan and the corresponding swap transaction.
• Dairy processing facility JV. Representing a food products company in the development of a $120 million dairy processing facility in Aurelius, New York. The project includes a joint venture between the client and a French company and requires cross-border negotiations between the parties. The 106,000-square-foot manufacturing facility will process more than 600,000 pounds of milk per year from regional dairy farmers.
• REIT. Representing a publicly traded REIT in executing a nationwide acquisition strategy centered on sale leaseback deals of over 100 properties across 30+ states 
• Various projects. Recent project experience includes a $1.5-billion mixed use project in downtown San Francisco, a $100-million-plus utility grade solar project in Minnesota, a $300-million-plus research facility at a leading university medical center, a five-star hotel in the Rocky Mountains, a major remediation project at a national laboratory, and various museum-quality personal residences valued at from ten to fifty million dollars
• Assisted living facility. Obtained a decision that reversed the denial of a master plan application for a $20+ million assisted living facility specializing in Alzheimer’s care. As a result of this judicial victory, a stalled development is back on track.

/Recognition

• Nixon Peabody has been named a Tier 1 National firm for Construction Law; Litigation - Real Estate; and Real Estate Law in the 2026 edition of Best Law Firms®.
• Nixon Peabody was recommended in The Legal 500 United States 2022 editorial for Industry focus—Real estate - Construction (including construction litigation).
• Ranked in Chambers USA for Real Estate in Massachusetts and Upstate New York and for Construction in California.