Recessions can be trying times for real estate attorneys, but while Massachusetts has been in a prolonged economic downturn, many lawyers focused on that sector insist that the industry’s woes have not seriously impacted their practice.
“I have, in the past 18 months, been as busy as I’ve ever been,” reported commercial real estate attorney Robert C. Buckley. The senior partner at Riemer & Braunstein estimates he has handled legal matters for an estimated 3,000 units of housing being permitted throughout the region during that stretch, while his firm was also just retained to help develop a new retail center in Burlington.
With offices in Boston and Burlington, Riemer & Braunstein has created a diverse real estate practice sporting 12 full-time attorneys, as well as its own professional land use planner. Assignments for large scale corporate campuses, a market in which Riemer & Braunstein had been quite active in, have slowed to a trickle, but multi-family projects have moved into full gear, helping to feed another of the firm’s areas of expertise.
Other firms who have seen their real estate divisions remain robust during the slump include Goulston & Storrs, a Boston-based operation which offers a diverse array of services to clients, including lease negotiations, tax planning, acquisition, finance and development counsel. The firm now has more than 70 attorneys and five paralegals dedicated to real estate, while director David M. Abromowitz said an expansion to Washington, D.C. three years ago has proven a boon for the firm’s affordable housing group. Goulston & Storrs has long been a leader promoting affordable housing and helping clients understand the complex process required to develop residential projects with an affordable component.
“We have a lot going on right now,” said Abromowitz, whose firm was named the top real estate firm in Massachusetts by Chambers & Partners, featuring experts in hospitality, office, retail and multi-family development, as well as specialists with knowledge of real estate investment trusts and securities law.
Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels, headquartered at Boston’s One Financial Center, has also been active in the structured finance area, while Joel M. Reck, chairman of the firm’s real estate practice, said that aspect has been shored up by the arrival of attorney Jonathan C. Black, a specialist in tax free exchanges. BRBI also expanded its finance group by joining forces with a firm in New York City, and Reck said he believes there are additional opportunities for growth in the Big Apple and elsewhere.
BRBI opened a Washington, D.C. office earlier this year, largely to help strengthen its government relations area, but Reck said the real estate practice should benefit as well, particularly its energy subgroup which has also kept the firm busy during the downturn.
Overall, BRBI’s real estate group has held its own in the recession, said Reck, but the veteran attorney also stressed that commercial real estate has still not exhibited any clear signs of a recovery. “The market is very spotty,” he said. “There are pockets of activity which keeps us busy, but deal flow is very uncertain, and there’s no sense of when things are really going to start to pick up again.”
Having been involved in real estate for nearly four decades, Reck acknowledged that cycles are an inevitable aspect of the industry, so much so that BRBI has tried to build some countercyclical areas into its practice. For example, the firm has a solid grounding in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights law, and also responded to the most recent slide by assisting companies when subleasing activity became prevalent. And while it might seem counter-intuitive, retail has been intriguingly solid during the recession, helping bolster BRBI’s concentration on that field as well.
Another BRBI attorney, Thomas J. Phillips, came over from now-defunct Hutchins Wheeler & Dittmar and has strengthened the retail subgroup’s presence, according to Reck. Among the firm’s better known clients are Target Department Stores, Staples and Bed, Bath & Beyond. “Those clients are keeping us very busy,” said Reck.
Development work has been one of the more torpid aspects of real estate law, but BRBI is involved in two of the region’s largest projects currently underway. Led by attorney Edward S. Hershfield, the firm is working with Lennar Partners of Miami on redevelopment of the 1,400-acre South Weymouth Naval Air Station on the South Shore and the Fan Pier site in Boston’s Seaport District. Lennar wowed everyone in the Hub recently when it was selected to develop the Fan Pier parcel, with the firm agreeing to pay an estimated $125 million for the opportunity. “We’re excited about that,” Reck said of the Fan Pier site, which calls for a mix of office, hotel and residential units to be constructed on Boston Harbor.
Riemer & Braunstein has its own share of clients with lofty development goals, helping National Development permit 425 units of housing on Wheeler Road in Burlington, and also providing legal guidance on the creation of a so-called “smart growth” complex in Ashland that calls for 500 units of housing to be built along a major commuter rail line. Buckley has become a champion of mixed-use development in recent years, helping promote the idea that new construction should be positioned to interact better with public transportation and cut down on traffic by having needed amenities such as commercial space nearby residential components.
“We’re finally getting it here,” Buckley said of acceptance towards clustered development, as well as the notion that new housing is needed to help Massachusetts remain economically viable.
Riemer & Braunstein rode the wave of commercial office construction as well as anyone on the cusp of the new millennium, but Buckley said he believes the firm has succeeded in making up for subsequent shortfalls in that area by its involvement in the multi-family market and by other practice groups that the firm has built up over the years. Riemer & Braunstein has been particularly active in environmental law, helping clients restore brownfields sites for new uses. The Ashland project, for example, is being built on a former Superfund site, while Buckley noted that the lack of available land in New England is increasingly prompting developers to pursue brownfields properties. That has been made easier, he said, by efforts from state and federal regulators to encourage brownfields construction by easing up onerous liability issues.
“People are not as intimidated as they were in the past,” said Buckley. “They realize (redevelopment of brownfields) is doable now.”
Overall, Buckley said Riemer & Braunstein has remained active despite the region’s economic difficulties and the recent onslaught of national law firms bringing their real estate knowledge into the Bay State. “I haven’t seen any erosion in our practice,” said Buckley, who credited the firm’s knowledge base and its established presence in Massachusetts for keeping the work flow steady. “The last two or three years, we have done extremely well,” he said.
