Real Estate

Adams and Reese attorneys advise a variety of real estate clients – investors, portfolio managers, developers, lenders, and more – on all types of real estate transactions, credit facilities, and disputes throughout the United States. Our lawyers are regularly recognized by Best Lawyers® (by BL Rankings, LLC) for their work in real estate, banking, and finance.

Adams and Reese Chambers logo The Adams and Reese Real Estate Practice is ranked Band 4 in Tennessee by Chambers USA.

We advise clients on a full range of real estate matters, including sales and acquisitions, management and operation of properties, development and construction, commercial leasing and joint ventures, and other forms of ownership. Adams and Reese attorneys work collaboratively with our clients to understand their business and the goals, expectations, and tolerance level the client has for each transaction. Our multifaceted approach and wide-ranging knowledge enable our attorneys to develop efficient and focused strategies to maximize each real estate opportunity. The attorneys at Adams and Reese are well versed and have practical experience with negotiating and drafting:

• Purchase and Sale Agreements
• Joint ventures, partnership agreements and operating agreements
• Leases for office, industrial, restaurant and retail space as well as vacant land
• Variable and fixed rate loan documents
• Construction loan documents
• Tax-deferred exchange agreements
• Declarations of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictive Covenants
• Easements
• Development Agreements
• Condominium and townhome documentation
• Brownfield agreements

Acquisitions – We represent a national real estate owner and developer of industrial properties with a current portfolio of over 25 million square feet on its acquisitions, development, leasing, dispositions, and financing transactions.
Development – We represent a large South Carolina developer on all aspects of its waterfront multifamily projects located in Columbia, SC, Nashville, TN, and Charlotte, NC, and more recently on its dual brand Hyatt Hotel development in downtown Columbia, SC that will anchor an office, restaurant and multifamily mixed use project.
Financing – We represented a leading regional financial institution on a $110 million loan to a major private university which included negotiation of a construction leasehold deed of trust and related loan documents for a ground leased site slated for a new student housing project. Our commercial real estate expertise, particularly in the student housing sector, was an asset to the client in this matter.
Development – We represent a developer of large multi-tenant and single tenant industrial speculative and build-to-suit projects for tenants such as Home Depot, Domino’s Pizza, Kardex Remstar, Treehouse Foods, Unum, and other national tenants.
Financing – We represented a leading designer, developer, and manager of multi-use real estate properties in the acquisition, development, and construction of a major hotel property. Our team closed $185 million USD in permanent financing with Goldman Sachs as lender, prepared condominium documents for a restructured ownership of the hotel, hotel garage, and an adjacent lot slated for future development. The hotel is one of the first luxury properties of its kind in the area, and provided significant economic impact to the city as a whole. Our team’s steering of such real estate transactions that are important to the client, the industry and the communities in which we serve showcases the reputation we maintain within the industry and among our peers.
Commercial Leasing - We represent landlords and tenants in office, retail, industrial, and land leases in a variety of areas (e.g., restaurants, breweries, entertainment venues, offices, manufacturing, etc.). Many of the lease transactions included multiple restructures and modifications, including abatement and deferment agreements made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work in these matters highlight the team’s adaptability to assist clients with new challenges presented by unforeseen circumstances.
Commercial Leasing – We are representing a short-term rental (STR) property real estate investor with negotiating a long-term lease for a STR property in Nashville, Tennessee. With anticipated annual rental revenues of $732,000.00, the transaction requires us to navigate zoning and municipal restrictions in a lease with national player in the STR leasing market. Our work on this matter demonstrates our expertise in cutting-edge real estate issues such as the burgeoning short term rental market.
Timberland acquisitions and sales – We represent some of the nation’s largest purchasers and sellers of timber tracts in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, which includes our representation of the buyer of more than 400,000 acres of timberland in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
Multi-family housing – We represented a major multi-family housing developer in the acquisition of a 97-acre tract of land and the development of it, over a period of four years, into a 496-until multi-family housing development. The project was constructed in multiple phases and is comprised of a residential subdivision, a major retail site, and a public park.
Manufactured housing – Advising national and local developers, owners and investors on the acquisition and disposition of manufactured housing as well as tax structuring, regulatory requirements, administrative matters, dispute resolution, governmental compliance, zoning and operational issues. We were outside general counsel for one of the nation’s largest residential construction lenders for their national manufactured housing lending program, which fostered 51 mobile home developments in more than 14 states closing nearly $400 million in construction loans and related credit facilities. We have also converted investor-owned land-lease communities to resident-owned communities and vice versa.
Timberland acquisitions and sales – We have represented purchasers and sellers of timberlands in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, including the buyer of more than 400,000 acres of timberland in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
Portfolio representation – We represent of a variety of regional and national owners, tenants and other users in the acquisition, disposition, leasing and management of their commercial real estate portfolio across their business footprints. We represent a well-known financial institution with the acquisition, leasing and development of de novo branch banking facilities across its fifteen (15)-state footprint.
Graceland – the home of Elvis Presley – Negotiating with public and private entities, we put together a package of economic development incentives that made it possible to renovate and update the real estate complex containing the Presley home with a 450-room hotel and more than 200,000 square feet of entertainment, exhibit and retail space. Additional phases are expected to develop the property even more in the next few years. The project has transformed the Graceland property with a view to expanding the number of visitors able to enjoy the Presley home, museum and entertainment center for generations to come.

Summary

Adams and Reese real estate lawyers represent buyers, sellers, owners, developers, leaseholders, lenders, municipalities and other political subdivisions and public utilities in real estate management, transactions and litigation. Our clients recognize that we can do just as good a job managing their national portfolios of real estate – acquisitions, sales, leasing, development and construction – as national firms, at highly competitive rates.

Defining Strengths