Jeffrey Rendin

/My focus

I focus my practice on real estate transactions with a particular emphasis on condominium development. I help clients navigate the full lifecycle of condominium projects—from drafting offering plans and amendments for state regulators, negotiating the terms of an affordable housing regulatory agreements, securing construction and permanent mortgage financings for borrowers to resolving post-conversion disputes that arise between a condominium board and its sponsor and representing real estate professionals subpoenaed to testify in an investigation or enforcement action brought by the New York Attorney General.

I have extensive experience with state and local regulators of New York’s real estate market. Prior to joining Nixon Peabody, I was a senior legal advisor at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City—the nation’s largest municipal affordable housing financier—providing legal advice and guidance to senior preservation finance staff on real estate transactions and related issues—and served as special counsel and chief of Real Estate Finance Enforcement in the Office of the New York Attorney General.

/Looking ahead

The Affordable Housing Retention Act (AHRA), signed into law this Spring, will take effect this Fall.  It represents a major opportunity for certain property owners with an existing affordable housing component to convert the whole property into a condominium with considerably less uncertainty about the conversion’s success than exists under current law.  It also represents a challenge to certain condo attorneys, many of whom are used to practicing under decades-old regulations that are seldom updated and perhaps too often rely on their familiarity with forms and archaic procedures.  The AHRA sweeps away much of what the market no longer needs.  Theoretically, a conversion can be accepted for filing just 30 days after submission under the AHRA.  I don’t expect one to be, realistically, but attorneys at Nixon Peabody understand the details and the rationale behind the changes.  We understand the full sweep of what the legislature wants this law to do, how it operates, and most importantly, what it can do for our clients.