Real Estate & Finance

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The attorneys in Hodgson Russ’s Real Estate & Finance Practice Group have the local knowledge and extensive experience to effectively guide clients throughout New York State and across the country through commercial lending, real estate acquisition and finance, and bond and note issuances for public entities.

Commercial Lending & Finance

Our attorneys represent traditional and non-traditional lenders in a variety of commercial lending and finance transactions, including:

• Advising on transactions involving lines of credit, term loans, revolving credit loans, formula-based inventory and accounts receivable loans, equipment leasing and finance, and letters of credit
• Counseling on all aspects of restructuring, work-out, and enforcement matters
• Facilitating acquisition, construction, and permanent financing
• Providing business and legal advice to borrowers in arranging, negotiating, and refinancing credit facilities

Our extensive experience also includes:

• Asset-based financings
• Debtor-in-possession financings
• Domestic and cross-border unsecured and secured lending transactions
• Securitized “conduit” credit facilities
• Subordinated debt issuances
• Syndicated lending arrangements

In connection with these transactions, we frequently assist our clients with the negotiation of interest rate swaps and inter-creditor and subordination agreements and with a wide range of collateral types.

Lender clients include leading commercial banks, asset-based lenders, equipment leasing companies, and other domestic and international lenders. We represent as borrowers both publicly traded and private companies and nonprofit entities, including colleges and universities and health care facilities.

Public Finance

Hodgson Russ acts as bond counsel to a wide variety of public issuers, assisting them from beginning to end on transactions ranging from simple note financings of equipment to highly complex refundings and revenue bond transactions. We routinely act as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, and trustee’s counsel, and handle environmental/SEQRA matters in connection with the issuance of industrial revenue bonds, revenue anticipation notes, tax anticipation notes, budget notes, certificates of participation, statutory installment bonds, bond anticipation notes, and serial bonds for issuers located throughout New York State and elsewhere.

Hodgson Russ is listed in the “Municipal Bond Attorneys” section of The Bond Buyer’s Directory of Municipal Bond Dealers of the United States (often referred to as The Red Book). We work with a variety of financial advisory firms to address the financing needs of municipalities, school districts, industrial development agencies, and other public clients.

Our attorneys counsel issuers with respect to attractive financing opportunities available under a variety of federal and state programs, including those managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation and those made available under the recently adopted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Hodgson Russ has been certified by the New York State Authority Budget Office as an approved provider of Public Authorities Accountability Act training. Under the act, board members and executive officers of industrial development agencies, governmentally affiliated nonprofit corporations, public authorities, urban renewal agencies, and other entities covered by the Public Authorities Accountability Act must participate in approved training regarding their legal, fiduciary, financial, and ethical responsibilities as members or officers of such covered entities.

Real Estate

Our attorneys routinely represent buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, and developers, including individual entrepreneurs, traditional for-profit developers, nonprofit corporations, and public agencies, in conjunction with all types of commercial real estate transactions. Our portfolio includes office buildings, shopping centers, industrial warehouses, hotels, residential and commercial condominium developments, and mixed-use projects.

Real estate development attorneys at Hodgson Russ regularly:

• Draft and negotiate complex, multi-party acquisition contracts and commercial leases
• Form and advise in the administration of homeowners and condominium associations, including providing assistance with enforcement matters
• Manage a variety of complex tax issues
• Provide representation after construction completion, including leasing, refinancing, sales, and 1031 deferred exchanges
• Represent borrowers and lenders in construction and permanent financing
• Represent project developers and municipalities in conjunction with various alternative energy projects, including wind-farm developments
• Secure regulatory, land use planning, and zoning approvals and to resolve environmental impact issues

Our attorneys have significant experience with myriad public financial incentives utilized for real estate development projects, including public/private partnerships, state and federal tax credits, industrial development agency incentives, Empire Zone benefits, and other similar state and local financial incentives. Our attorneys are involved at all levels of these transactions, which often require the creation and utilization of complicated, multi-tiered ownership structures to maximize financial incentive eligibility.

Hodgson Russ has been awarded a prestigious Best Law Firms Metropolitan Tier 1 ranking by Best Lawyers/U.S. News & World Report in the Real Estate Law category.