Real Estate

Manatt's attorneys have an extensive knowledge of the real estate industry and deliver the highest quality transactional expertise and market insight needed for a successful, expedited project. Our experience is not limited by the type of asset. Our projects involve a number of different types of properties, including raw land, commercial, retail, office, industrial, mixed-use, hotel, time share, golf course, winery, senior housing, health-care and resort properties. Manatt clients include domestic and foreign developers, institutional developers, pension funds, not-for-profits, landlords and tenants, lenders, regular and special servicers, borrowers, private investment funds, contractors and other parties involved in the acquisition, planning, financing, development, leasing, lease auditing, syndication and disposition of real property.  Read more

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Manatt's Affordable Housing Practice is comprised of the firm's corporate, real estate and tax attorneys who have broad experience in all aspects of development.  The firm's attorneys have represented clients involved with the financing and development of affordable housing since before the enactment of the low-income housing tax credit and have over 20 years of experience in representing real estate developers, lenders and tax credit equity investors in connection with the construction, rehabilitation, development and financing of affordable housing.  Our clients include for-profit and non-profit developers, investors, investment banks and other organizations in the full range of business activities relating to affordable housing development.  Read more

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Manatt has extensive experience representing clients in matters involving the California Coastal Act (the Coastal Act). Our attorneys can assist you with coastal development permitting issues, working with local agencies on drafting and obtaining certification of Local Coastal Programs, processing Local Coastal Program amendments, resolving Coastal Act violation and enforcement issues, and drafting Coastal Act legislation. Our projects have ranged from large industrial facilities such as a proposed liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Oxnard, to large master-planned coastal developments such as Newport Coast, to individual homes and ranch sites along the coast. We have also worked with clients on obtaining the necessary local coastal development permits from cities and counties, as well as securing the required permits from the California Coastal Commission (the Coastal Commission).  Read more

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Development and Finance 
Manatt's real estate and land use lawyers have successfully shepherded the development of residential (condominiums, apartments, single-family and senior housing), commercial (retail stores and shopping centers, restaurants and fast-food chains, office buildings and business parks, healthcare facilities and fitness centers, hotels and resorts) and industrial and warehouse properties. Our experience provides you with the resources to handle a broad range of real estate development matters, including preacquisition strategic planning; subdivision of land; waterfront and wetlands permitting; brownfields and environmental issues; utilities, easements and dedications; variance and special use permits; site plan review; nonconforming uses and rezonings; and vested rights and grandfathered conditions.  Read more

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Manatt, Phelps & Phillips' representation of colleges, universities, and other educational institutions spans a wide range of the firm's practice areas.  The firm includes lawyers who previously served as in-house counsel for a private university with extensive land holdings and others who practiced public law for government agencies; in those capacities, these attorneys provided ongoing advice to colleges and universities in a variety of contexts, including budgeting issues.  Several of Manatt's lawyers also have past and present experience serving on governing boards of educational institutions.  These lawyers bring a broad range of valuable experience and expertise to its representation of educational institutions.  Others have served as senior directors of real estate campus and real estate investment portfolios in major universities.  In addition the firm's extensive healthcare practice enables its attorneys to provide expert advice to institutions with academic medical centers, teaching hospitals and other programs where education and healthcare issues overlap.  Read more

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While it may seem daunting to take on the government when it comes after your property, the state's power to exercise its eminent domain authority is not limitless. With effective and aggressive legal representation, it can be defeated-or at least held to its constitutional requirement to pay just compensation. Manatt's eminent domain, condemnation and property valuation lawyers have collectively handled hundreds of these matters on behalf of both property owners and tenants, successfully challenging the limits of the government's taking power and the adequacy of compensation in connection with road, rail and airport projects, dams and flood-control facilities, water lines and reservoirs, electricity transmission and distribution grids and other infrastructure and redevelopment projects; blight removal programs, public housing and school construction; defense installations and homeland security requirements; and parks and conservation areas.  Read more

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Environmental degradation isn’t just bad for people, plants and animals; it’s bad for property owners and stakeholders—negatively affecting resale value, imposing significant compliance and remediation costs, and creating the risk of civil and criminal liability. To avoid or mitigate the legal, regulatory and economic impact of air and water pollution, habitat modification and overexploitation on your business or investment, it is essential to have an environmental assessment, mitigation and compliance lawyer in your corner who has extensive experience in compliance and strong relationships with regulators.  Read more

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The challenging economic, real estate and credit market conditions add up to great risk for those in the hospitality industry. Construction sites are silent; blueprints remain just that; and "go" projects can stop in an instant.  This volatile environment, however, offers tremendous opportunities for those with the experience and skill to evaluate, manage, and  develop them. That's where a seasoned legal team that can creatively navigate even the most complicated situations comes in.  Creativity and market experience can be the difference between a successful transaction and a failed effort.  Read more

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Manatt represents landlords and tenants in the leasing of commercial space and unimproved land. We have successfully negotiated and drafted every form of lease for a broad range of clients, including shopping malls and big-box retailers, office and professional buildings, manufacturing facilities and industrial warehouses, restaurants and movie theaters, and agricultural and farmland.  Read more

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In contrast to traditional communities that have evolved in an ad hoc fashion, master-planned communities usually start from a blank slate-undeveloped land-and require careful planning from the start to accommodate all the amenities they typically include: schools, pools, parks, golf courses, marinas, small retail businesses, professional services providers, restaurants, convenience stores and doctors' offices. They also require the assistance of lawyers who are experienced in resolving the unique legal issues and problems developers face in the land use planning and development of such communities.  Read more

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The lawyers at Manatt are strong in the representation of capital sources for residential real estate development and construction projects, which includes extensive representation of commercial banks in their construction lending activities.  We also have extensive experience representing Wall Street investment houses, opportunity funds, pension advisors and other investors in a wide variety of joint ventures, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, participating and mezzanine debt and other types of investments in entitled and unentitled land development deals, acquisition and development projects, housing joint ventures and apartment and other multifamily developments, including condominium conversions.  
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Restructuring and Workouts 
The terms "real estate" and "restructuring" have been practically synonymous since the financial crisis of 2008, and the sector is likely to go through more pain before things improve. On the plus side, the bust has created opportunities. Whether you want out or in, top flight legal counsel is a must. Manatt's real estate workouts and restructurings team has a long history representing lenders, investors, owners, and developers in all aspects of troubled or non-performing real estate assets, as well as in the reorganization of partnership and landlord-tenant relationships. Working with the firm's corporate, tax, bankruptcy, and capital markets practices, our real estate workout and restructuring lawyers have negotiated, mediated or litigated effective and often innovative solutions to a wide array of debtor-creditor challenges.  Read more

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Manatt attorneys have a broad background in all areas of finance, real estate and land use relevant to the vineyard, wine and beverage industries.  Our professionals are among the premier real estate and development advisors in the nation.  They deliver the transactional expertise, market insight and advocacy necessary to the completion of successful and expeditious projects, from land acquisition through financing, vineyard development, entitlement, construction, leasing and disposition.  Our real estate practitioners are effective because they combine in-depth knowledge of the vineyard, wine and beverage industries with their in-depth knowledge of the law.  Read more

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