Office Space Purchases, Sales, Development, and Leasing
Our team guides businesses, developers, lenders, tenants, and others in complex real estate transactions with practical strategies and efficiency. We integrate extensive legal and business experience to help clients reach their office space objectives. Our representative experience includes:
- Manpower Global Headquarters – Represented the Fortune 500 company as a tenant in a build-to-suit lease of a 280,000-square-foot building, parking structure, and skywalk.
- Edison Technology Center – Represented a developer in the development, lease, and sale of a 506,000-square-foot office facility for GE Healthcare in Milwaukee County Research Park.
- Zywave – Represented the insurance technology platform in a build-to-suit lease of space as a tenant in the Mayfair Woods Office Park.
- Represented a developer in the development and lease of a 200,000-square-foot office building and parking structure in downtown Milwaukee and in the subsequent sale of the development in a syndicated tenancy in common (TIC) transaction.
- Represented a lender in a historic tax credit renovation of an office building in Schlitz Office Park.
- Represented a property owner in the leasing of individual office spaces to tenants in an office tower, including law firms, investment banking firms, accounting firms, and many others.
Retail Space Purchases, Sales, Development, and Leasing
Our attorneys have comprehensive experience with retail space transactions. Our knowledge counseling businesses on all sides of a transaction helps us to accelerate deals by identifying solutions for our clients quickly and clearly. Our representative experience includes:
- Multi-Tenant and Big Box Anchored Shopping Centers – Represented the buyer of an urban shopping center, and the developer-seller of a 318,000-square-foot redeveloped urban Milwaukee shopping center.
- National Retailer – Represented a national retailer in the acquisition, development, and leasing of department stores and distribution centers.
- Retail Centers – Represented a company in the acquisition, expansion, leasing, and ultimate sale of retail centers.
- Grocery Stores – Represented a regional retailer in the acquisition, development, leasing, and ultimate sale of grocery stores.
- National and Local Leasing – Represented landlords in leases to TJ Maxx, Pick 'n Save, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Michaels, Whole Foods, Panera, and other national and local retail tenants.
- Financial Institutions – Represented multiple financial institutions in branch acquisition and development.
Industrial Real Estate
Our team regularly manages the complexities of industrial real estate transactions, including negotiation with local, state, and federal agencies. The team works with related practice groups within our firm to efficiently deliver integrated services. Our representative experience includes:
- Represented a company in a public-private partnership development of an agricultural maritime export facility in Port Milwaukee. Our counsel included negotiating a ground lease with Port Milwaukee and a rail operations agreement for the company's shared use of the Port-owned rail track. The development is the largest one-time investment in Port Milwaukee since the 1950s. It opens Wisconsin’s maritime and agricultural economies to new international markets.
- Represented clients in the acquisition of printing, paper converting, and warehousing properties.
- Represented a regional developer in the acquisition and lease-up of multiple mixed warehouse/office spaces in the I-94 corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago.
- Represented an industrial corporation in the sale-leaseback of a key operations facility.
- Represented a national developer in appearances before local authorities in efforts to gain municipal approvals for industrial sites, including negotiation of TIF financing and developer agreements.
Borrower and Lender Representation
Our attorneys guide borrowers and lenders through the complexities of real estate financing. We regularly serve as local counsel in significant Wisconsin loans, including TIC syndication, acquisitions, and refinancing. Our representative experience includes:
- We represent a regional commercial lender in construction and term loans and refinancing transactions, ranging in value from $5M to $95M, including loans on high-profile, multi-family projects throughout Wisconsin. Our team provided counsel on a nearly $14M construction loan for a multi-level parking structure to support a high-rise tower under construction on the lakeshore in Milwaukee’s downtown business district.
- Represented a lead lender in a $57M loan to a tenants-in-common sponsor for the acquisition of a corporate office park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- Represented a lender in a $20M loan to the Pabst Family for the development of the Pabst Farms in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
- Represented a lender in a $30M loan to Cathedral Place, LLC for the development of the Cathedral Place Condominium, a mixed-use office, residential and retail space.
- Represented a lender in a $36M loan to New Land Development for the construction of the Kilbourn Towers Condominium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- Represented a higher education institution in connection with WHEFA bonds for the development of various campus facilities.
Supporting Catalytic Growth
Our work helps organizations achieve their vision for community connections and economic growth. Our representative experience includes:
- We serve as outside counsel for a non-profit arts organization in the predevelopment and development of a multi-component project, including an arts center, theater, and artist-in-residence housing/studio cluster. Our team led the acquisition of the project site from a state agency. Our lead counsel also serves on the arts organization's building committee, and our team has provided primary drafting support for the architect RFP, as well as strategic advice relating to the development process, project team interviews, and selections.
- Assisted a developer in its affordable housing development scattered across Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood, historically an African American economic and social hub that celebrated African American culture, the resurgence of which has attracted over $200 million in recent investment. Our role included helping resolve land use, zoning, and entitlement issues, negotiating a partnership agreement with the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) investor, negotiating government grant agreements, negotiating loan documents with private and public lenders, and drafting various site control documents.
- Our team has assisted a developer with complex financing, as well as city and land development agreements for a food-centric mixed-use development in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin first-ring suburb.
- Our team has assisted a developer in negotiating the sale of the anchor retail condominium unit in a mixed-use retail/office/residential project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.