The real estate practice at Sheppard assists both regional and national clientele across the U.S. regarding their acquisition, joint venture, financing, and private equity ventures, with a distinct focus on sectors such as hospitality, healthcare, and energy. Representing a broad range of residential developers, landlords, tenants, and private equity investors throughout their property portfolio transactions and ground leasing agreements, is practice co–lead Michael Leake, based out of the San Diego office, with New York-based Scott Stern also co-leading the practice group. Leake is a specialist at handling complex commercial leasing matters and devising financing strategies for clients, with Stern focusing more on distressed real estate loan workouts and enforcement strategies. Also based out of the New York office are Peter Koffler and Robert Gorzelany, both highly experienced in handling acquisition matters and leasing initiatives, with a broad industry focus spanning construction, hospitality, retail, and multi-family housing.
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Key clients
- 1HWY1, LLC
- Prudential
- Prospect Health System/Prospect Medical Holdings
- Terreno Realty Corporation
- DM Development
- Bridge Investment Group
- Flatiron Development Group
- KB Home
- Shea Homes
- Tri Pointe
- Century Communities
- Landsea Homes
- Toll Brothers
- The Walt Disney Company
- Cain Development
- Urban American
- Sotheby's
- AmTrust Realty Corp.
- Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC
- Trammel Crow
Work highlights
Assisting 1HWY1, LLC with its negotiations with the Port of San Diego, City of San Diego and County of San Diego regarding the DDA, master leases, government backed bond and related financing and construction contracts in connection with the planned redevelopment of San Diego’s Seaport Village.
Representing Prudential in negotiating a major office lease in downtown San Francisco’s finance district opposite software and AI company, Databricks, Inc. Databricks is leasing approximately 250,000 rentable square feet of office space in the historic One Sansome building, with expansion options that can be exercised to increase the rentable square feet to over 450,000 rentable square feet (or over 1/3 of the building) over the next few years. This is one of the largest new office leases in California in the past several years and an important milestone for San Francisco, especially given the city’s recent downward trend in the commercial office real estate market. The successful completion of this lease is hoped to represent a strong rebound in demand for high-quality office spaces in key markets.
As lead transaction counsel for Prospect Medical prior to and during its bankruptcy proceeding, we are overseeing six transactions across multiple states and delivering critical value in one of healthcare’s most complex restructurings.
Practice head
Michael Leake; Scott Stern
Other key lawyers
Peter Koffler; Robert Gorzelany