Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell’s real estate group represents clients in all facets of real estate development, transactions and disputes. Our lawyers have the breadth, depth and experience to handle all aspects of real estate, including site selection, joint venture structuring, acquisition, land use and entitlement approval, financing, construction, leasing and disposition. Unlike real estate lawyers at other full service firms, ours is a true, stand-alone practice aimed primarily at clients directly involved in the real estate industry. Our experience bridges all project types, including office, industrial, retail, multifamily residential, single family residential, hotel, resort and vacation club properties, and mixed use development.

Having worked on thousands of purchase, sale and development projects throughout the United States and internationally, we have the experience to help you structure and negotiate the best business deals, then quickly document and close the transaction. Whether the deal involves single properties or multiple property portfolios valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, we don’t use the pyramid staffing structure common to other law firms. Instead, we staff each matter with one or two working lawyers who maximize efficiency and value. Our interdisciplinary strengths at handling corporate, environmental, tax and labor matters allows us to provide clients with single-source service, allowing us to guide clients through even the largest projects.

Our lawyers anticipate and resolve due diligence issues, environmental liability, title, deed and other problems during negotiation, with excellence and creativity, and also work tirelessly to maximize tax advantages in entity and project structuring.

JMBM has handled the acquisition, financing, development, lease-up and ultimate disposition of billions of dollars of office and industrial projects on behalf of publicly-traded and privately held companies. We have also represented major landlords of commercial, industrial and retail space in thousands of lease transactions (valued at an aggregate $6 billion), including many of the largest transactions in California.

Our Firm serves as real estate counsel for national giants in both retailing (such as Target Corporation and Bed, Bath & Beyond, Inc.) and the restaurant industry (including the Darden Group, Inc., the parent of Olive Garden and Red Lobster).

JMBM real estate lawyers collaborate with colleagues in bankruptcy and corporate law to represent secured creditors and developers in restructuring many troubled real estate projects. Both lenders and borrowers value our advice on resolving real estate loan problems, including defaults, workouts, repossession, foreclosure and receivership.

We work to resolve defaults on loans for large scale master-planned developments, office, residential and retail properties, utilizing creative structures that serve the best interests of our clients. Central to our ability to resolve problems is our financing experience with both conventional lending and conduit and securitized financing, including debtor-in-possession financings and related roll-ups.

Because real estate is often the most important (and valuable) collateral involved in a bankruptcy filing, we help clients resolve problems in the management and operation of foreclosed real estate, the servicing of mortgages and the general administration of loan portfolios. We also assist clients to dispose of troubled real estate – focusing on lender liability, environmental risk management and regulatory issues.

If you are an owner, developer, investor or lender in any commercial market sector, you can turn to JMBM for help with any project. Our lawyers will get your shopping center, office, industrial, hotel, resort, healthcare or mixed-use development project done right.

Using the experience we have gained from working with the key players in the development process, we do what’s necessary to make a project successful – get regulatory and land use approvals, negotiate development agreements, conduct environmental due diligence, secure loans and development incentives, and work to bring the construction and lease or sale of the project to completion.

We combine detailed knowledge of all legal and business aspects of the development process with a thorough understanding of multi-jurisdictional development requirements, and are skilled at resolving special zoning or other use restriction problems. On behalf of a developer client, we obtained the first successful approval under the new Los Angeles Mixed Use Ordinance for a development project that included 540 apartments and 27,000 square feet of commercial space. In another instance, we successfully tried a highly controversial case arising out of the demolition of an old structure without permit in downtown Los Angeles, crafting a settlement that resulted in new development of nearly 1,000 apartment units.

We can facilitate the financing of any development project using conventional or unconventional lending sources, including mezzanine financing. Our lawyers advise owners, lenders and investors (including entrepreneurial individuals and investment funds) on financing strategies, and excel at evaluating real estate and facility portfolios and converting debt and expense liabilities to maximize asset value. We can evaluate and structure financing alternatives, develop and analyze lease versus ownership advantages, and identify tax and economic incentives.