Real Estate Restructuring & Workouts

The real estate market has been at the center of the economy’s downturn. Developers and lenders both hold onto properties they cannot sell or property worth substantially less than they paid for it. That is why lenders, developers and builders turn to Squire Sanders. With offices in hard-hit areas like California, Arizona, Florida and Ohio we are at ground zero of the real estate market’s collapse. Since the real estate market’s collapse is not limited to the United States; clients throughout the world also turn to us for assistance. To help our clients through the downturn we have assembled a Real Estate Restructuring and Workouts Task Force, comprised of lawyers from our bankruptcy and restructuring, construction, financial services, real estate, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, taxation and litigation groups. We understand the challenges of today’s economic conditions and are committed to provide the in depth experience and expertise necessary to help our clients meet their business objectives.

How We Can Help

We routinely advise clients on and negotiate the structure, acquisition, development, financing, leasing and sale of real estate ventures. Many of our clients require innovative approaches to the rapidly changing political and business climates and legal regulations that shape the real estate and financial arenas. By focusing first on our client’s overall planning and business objectives and the urgency of its requirements, we can provide meaningful and effective counsel. Ultimately, our clients can be assured that our lawyers will apply carefully considered strategies to facilitate maximum results in real estate workout and restructuring matters that resolve their short-term business challenges and achieve their long-term strategic goals.

Real Estate and Real Estate Finance

Our real estate practice encompasses the full spectrum of issues and structures, including construction, interim and permanent loan financing transactions and the resolution of distressed real estate loans – in particular, workouts, restructuring, refinancing and foreclosure. Areas covered include commercial, residential, and industrial loan portfolios as well as foreclosed real estate and non-real estate assets. Our workout experience is vast and current matters include:

Asset-Backed Securitizations

We represent a broad range of clients in all aspects of asset-backed securitizations and structured finance transactions. Our clients include issuers, underwriters, placement agents, trustees, investors, lenders and servicers. The types of assets involved in our clients' transactions include mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, commercial loans, health care receivables, leases, charged-off and delinquent accounts, foreign mortgages and offshore accounts. We also assist clients in servicing, lending or investing in financially troubled securitizations and have been a leader in developing securitization programs suitable for first-time issuers and investors. During the last five years, we have participated in more than 250 structured finance and securitization transactions totaling in excess of US$130 billion.

Restructuring and Workouts

Over the past several years, our restructuring and workout lawyers have represented distressed companies and financial institutions, creditors’ committees, and strategic and financial buyers of troubled companies and/or distressed assets with combined debt levels in excess of US$250 billion.

We were also appointed as one of two law firms to represent the US Treasury in the implementation of the TARP Capital Purchase Program (CPP). The CPP was established to stabilize the financial system of the United States by providing capital to viable financial institutions of all sizes throughout the country. The US$250 billion program was successful in accomplishing this task of strengthening financial institutions. The legal work provided to the CPP by our firm included reviewing investment agreements, due diligence, working with accepted financial institutions to identify and resolve legal issues before closing, and conducting the closing of transactions.

Community Development Districts

We have extensive experience with Community Development Districts (CDDs), which are local special-purpose government established with the consent of area landowners to finance, acquire, construct, own and operate infrastructure improvements including roads, bridges, stormwater control facilities, conservation areas, public parks, recreation facilities, and water, sewer and other utility systems. The financing of the infrastructure improvements was accomplished through tax exempt bonds to be repaid through special assessments levied on lands within the district benefiting from the improvements. Over the past 10 years we have been involved in more than 130 CDD bond financings valued at more than US$1.4 billion. In recent years we have also provided substantial assistance and guidance in the workout and restructuring of various CDD transactions to districts, bondholders, and trustees that have been involved in various CDDs throughout Florida.