Real Estate

It is now more important than ever to seek the advice of experts to protect your current real estate investments and take advantage of the opportunities available in today’s real estate market.  Bodman’s real estate attorneys can provide this expert advice, from restructuring the use and financing of leased and owned real estate through selecting the perfect site on competitive terms for your new real estate investments.

Our real estate clients include large and mid-size firms, many of them high tech or information systems firms. We have close working relationships with commercial real estate brokers and we are familiar with real estate market opportunities throughout the region.

Our Services:

We represent buyers and sellers in commercial and residential transactions, and we document real estate loan transactions for financial institutions. We initiate creative solutions for distressed real estate projects. We are expert in real estate dispute resolutions processes, such as arbitration, mediation, litigation, voluntary workouts, and liquidation or bankruptcy options.

We have particular expertise in traditional and innovative uses of condominiums in both residential and business projects, including use of the condominium form of ownership in public/private redevelopment. On our clients’ behalf, we work closely with developers, engineers, and governmental authorities. We also assist in due diligence reviews (particularly environmental reviews) and assist in the municipal approval process.

Typical services include:

• Private Development
  • Purchase and sale transactions
  • Resolution of title issues
  • Like kind exchanges, including reverse and deferred exchanges
  • Zoning variances and land-use approvals
  • Tax and assessment challenges
• Condominiums/Subdivisions
  • Establishing traditional and site condominiums
  • Preparing master deeds and disclosure documents
  • Working with surveyors and engineers on subdivision plats and condominium plans
  • Drafting restrictive covenants
  • Creating homeowners’ associations
• Real Estate Finance
  • Documenting loans for commercial and residential projects
  • Obtaining bank financing through mortgages and construction loans
  • Obtaining seller financing through land contracts and purchase money mortgages
  • Negotiating and structuring public-private partnerships
• Leasing and Construction
  • Drafting and negotiating commercial and industrial leases
  • Drafting and negotiating construction and architectural contracts
  • Resolving construction lien issues 
  • Green building alternatives
• Foreclosures, Workouts, and Real Estate Litigation
  • Representing lenders and borrowers in:
    • Mortgage foreclosures or voluntary workout arrangements
    • Forfeitures of land contracts
    • Seller/purchaser disputes
    • Boundary disputes
    • Quiet title actions
    • Adverse possession claims
    • Riparian rights issues
• Environmental Issues
  • Negotiating administrative agreements with government agencies
  • Resolving environmental liabilities
  • Pursuing Brownfield redevelopment grants and tax credits

Representative Matters:

We established creative uses of business condominiums in public-private redevelopment projects in downtown Detroit, including a major stadium project.

Our firm represented a private foundation in the acquisition of 6,000 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline dunes for transfer to a land conservancy.

We represented the purchaser in the aggregation of 900 acres located near Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport for hotel, office, residential, convention, and recreational uses.

As regional counsel for one of the nation’s largest residential mortgage lenders, we have represented our client over the past year in more than 50 separate matters involving truth in lending claims, mortgage fraud claims, and other issues.

As real estate counsel to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, we represented the National Shrine of the Little Flower in connection with a $4,200,000 bond financing of a high school renovation.

We represented the lead bank in a $130 million syndicated construction loan for a 72-unit luxury condominium in Naples, Florida.

We represented a large commercial bank in connection with its lease of more than 20 branch sites throughout the United States, including leases in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida.

We represented a manufacturing client in the sale of a 330,000 square foot, environmentally challenged manufacturing facility in New York and in the purchase of a 50,000 square foot facility in Indiana.

We have represented lenders in hundreds of real estate financing; recent projects include the financing of a regional shopping center in Rochester Hills, Michigan, the financing of a restaurant and clubhouse in Naples, Florida, and the financing of a 150,000 square foot medical office building in Dearborn, Michigan.

We represented a lender in real estate workouts and foreclosures involving one of Michigan’s largest real estate developers, including three developments with more than 170 residential condominium units and additional unimproved tracts of land, securing more than $20 million in debt.

We assisted a Fortune 150 automotive supplier with the sale and leaseback of a 120,000 square foot facility in Ohio to achieve maximum value before a drop in the market.

We represented an automotive supplier in the development of a new 157,000 square foot facility in South Carolina, including site due diligence, negotiating the lease, and obtaining governmental tax incentives.

We represented a physician group in the take over of several publicly owned medical centers including transfers of multiple real estate holdings and other assets with the approval of bondholders, medical licensing bodies and a court appointed receiver.

We represented a multistate manufacturing company in the sale of industrial facilities and real estate holdings in Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Wisconsin.

In two separate transactions we represented a large automotive supplier and a public land bank in the division of large commercial/industrial buildings into separate condominium units to facilitate the sale of portions of the building to interested purchasers.

We negotiated amendments to long term leases and approval of subleases for a multistate consulting firm needing to downsize its facilities.

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