Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP’s real estate finance practice, co-led by David Drewes and Carly Glover Saviano  in New York, alongside Misty Sanford who chairs the West Coast practice from California, handles complex transactions for lenders. The practice is particularly active in advising debt funds, banks, and life insurance companies on loan originations, syndications, and remedies across various asset classes including life sciences, data centers, gaming, and industrial properties. The group leverages its multidisciplinary approach, collaborating with the firm’s corporate, tax, and restructuring teams to handle sophisticated transactions, including the acquisition and disposition of balance sheet and CMBS mortgage loans and mezzanine loans on behalf of lenders. Joint ventures and financings form the core of Daniel Backer and Jennifer Coffey‘s practice. Krystyna Blakeslee and Thomas Henry have left the firm.    
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Key clients

  • Adept Development AGC Equity Partners Aspen Skiing Company Breakthrough Properties The Broad Museum Brookfield Cain International Capital Senior Living Corporation Caruso Affiliated Holding Centerbridge Partners Choice Hotels International CIM Group & CIM Real Estate Credit Commerz Real Fund DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (fka Colony Capital) Column Financial, Inc. (Credit Suisse) The Davis Companies DiamondRock Hospitality, Inc. DW Partners EMS Capital Faropoint GI Partners Goldman Sachs Harbor Group International (HGI) Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. HIG Realty Partners Hines Interests Limited Partnership Hudson’s Bay Company IO Data Centers LLC JP Morgan KKR Lyric Opera of Chicago Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies Meadow Partners Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MSD Capital Oaktree Capital Management Paramount Group, Inc. Reverance Capital Partners SL Green Realty St. John’s University Taconic Capital Tishman Speyer Trammell Crow Company Van Barton Group

Work highlights

Represented Henry Crown & Company on the $3.5 billion refinancing of Rockefeller Center, in what was the largest CMBS issuance ever for a single office asset.
Represented HBC, parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, on its $2.65 billion acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group, parent company of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
Represented Choice Hotels in Exchange Offer to acquire Outstanding Shares of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
Practice head

David Drewes; Carly Glover Saviano; Misty Sanford

Other key lawyers

Daniel Backer; Jennifer Coffey; Karen A. Lorang; Melissa Fischetti; Aimee M. Contreras-Camua