Real Estate Strategies

We provide comprehensive service across the full range of legal and business issues facing our clients. We work with developers, buyers, owners, financial institutions, health care facilities, and other entities.

The lawyers in Kaufman & Canoles Real Estate Strategies group help our clients manage the costs and risks to make balanced and informed decisions on their real estate projects.

Our team guides clients through complex acquisitions, dispositions, financings, and other transactions. We help them negotiate, close, and develop a broad range of projects, from condominiums to office and industrial space to residential, retail, and more, while leveraging local, state, and federal incentives, and other economic development resources. We have a proven track record of managing land use challenges and other permitting issues effectively and efficiently. And we deliver the peace of mind our clients need to execute successful deals and strategies.

In addition, we regularly call on our colleagues at Kaufman & Canoles to advise on environmental law, tax planning, and other issues that arise in our clients’ real estate projects and transactions. In particular, we work closely with the Public Finance team to structure and implement public/private partnerships.

Clients count on our group to manage risk and resolve unexpected challenges in a timely and cost-efficient manner so they can close deals on time and within budget.

Our experience spans a variety of real estate matters:

• Acquisitions, Sales, and Financings
• Development and Acquisition Due Diligence
• Environmental and other Permittings
• Environmental Due Diligence and Limitation of Liability
• Leasing – including representation of landlords and tenants of all property types, including land for solar projects
• Rezonings, Variances, and Zoning Ordinance Text Amendments for all types of developments
• Low-income tax credit and historic tax credit projects

Our lawyers routinely advise CEOs, chief development officers, and other senior leadership at local and regional real estate companies, as well as property owners, landlords, and others.

Clients include:

• Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Retail, and Other Property Developers
• Lenders and Other Financial Institutions
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Property Owners
• Corporate real estate users

We have particular experience in the following industries:

• Credit Unions
• Government and Defense Contractors
• Health Care
• Hospitality/Resort
• Industrial
• Infrastructure and Transportation
• Mixed Use Vertical and Horizontal Projects
• Office
• Public/Private Projects
• Residential
• Retail

• Represented a developer in the first state level public-private partnership project in Virginia under the Virginia Public Private Educational and Infrastructure Act
• Acted as Virginia counsel for multi-state parties in complex REIT restructuring, loan assignments, zoning matters and multiple office building acquisitions in Northern Virginia
• Represent a non-profit health care entity in its land assemblage, development planning and environmental, archaeological, historical, and transportation analysis, permitting and approvals for a multi-jurisdictional mixed-use project in the Williamsburg, Virginia area
• Represented a developer in the due diligence, environmental permitting, transportation permitting, Community Development Authority approval, financing, and acquisition of land for the development of a regional lifestyle (retail) center
• Represented the owner of a medical facility in an eminent domain case filed by VDOT
• Represented a land purchaser in the conception and implementation of a Brownfields development strategy for a waterfront mixed-use project formerly the site of a hazardous waste generator regulated by the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act
• Represented a developer in all aspects of the acquisition, financing, and preparing condominium documents for a high-rise mixed-use (retail, office and residential) project in downtown Norfolk, including the sale of a portion of the developed project to a state agency
• Represented developer to establish vested property rights in non-conforming use of property and through all appeal levels, including the Virginia Supreme Court, against an adjacent property owner’s challenge to the client’s favorable land use determination
• Represented a non-profit foundation in connection with development of hotel, commercial buildings, research and development facilities and a residential village
• Represented cases involving the taking, and partial taking, of residential and commercial properties, including vacant parcels in excess of several hundred acres, professional office buildings, medical office buildings and medical parks, big box retailers, grocery stores and shopping centers, hotels, farms, mining lands, banks, fast food and other restaurants, gas station and convenience stores, churches, and community association properties
• Served as local counsel to a national outlet mall developer in zoning, permitting, and approvals for phased development of an outlet center in James City County, Virginia

• Credit Union
• Government Contracts & Defense Industries
• Infrastructure & Transportation

• Some Creative Ways to Use and Structure Condominiums
• Brandon S. Allred and Robert Q. Johnson Named Practice Group Chairs
• Real Estate Client Alert – May 2020
• Kaufman & Canoles Named to 2018 Edition of US News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms”