Overview

Katten has long represented landlords and tenants in the leasing of all types of properties and lease structures throughout the United States and abroad. Combined with our broad Real Estate practice, our attorneys can provide a diverse perspective from all parties involved in the leasing process and can combine this knowledge to provide insight into current trends and issues facing landlords and tenants during complex lease negotiations under all market conditions.

Katten's real estate attorneys advise clients on a variety of leasing transactions across many different asset types, including space leases, ground leases, sale-leaseback transactions, build-to-suit leases, credit-tenant and bondable lease financing structures, as well as negotiate thousands of leases each year for our clients. Named the 2023 “Law Firm of the Year” in Litigation (Real Estate Law) by U.S. News, our team is well-positioned to handle lease disputes. We also work with our Litigation and Insolvency and Restructuring practices to provide counsel on issues facing sophisticated landlords and tenants, such as issues related to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations, cannabis use, operating expense litigation, interpretation of force majeure and continuous operating clauses, general administrative amendments, and enforcement and workout coordination.

Experience

  • Tenant leasing transactions
  • Represented the anchor tenant in the construction and leasing of approximately 555,000 square feet of office and retail space in a newly constructed Class A office tower in Chicago.
  • Represented the anchor tenant in the construction and leasing of approximately 400,000 square feet of office and retail space in a newly constructed Class A office tower in Charlotte.
  • Represented the tenant in the leasing of approximately 386,000 square feet of office and retail space in the redevelopment of an existing office building in Midtown, New York City.
  • Represented the anchor tenant in a lease modification and restructuring transaction, reducing the tenant’s leased premises from 100 percent of the total premises to 85 percent of the total premises in a 1.1 million-square-foot office complex.
  • Represented the tenant in a lease modification/restructuring transaction involving 87,000 square feet of office space located in Lower Manhattan in New York City.
  • Landlord leasing transactions
  • Represented a real estate developer and operator in the negotiation of more than 100 office and retail space leases in more than 16 office buildings located throughout downtown Chicago.
  • Represented the owner in the negotiation of more than 20 office leases of an office tower located on South Wacker Drive in Chicago.
  • Represented a real estate development company and its owner in the negotiation and structure of a transaction to move leading online footwear and clothing retailer's 1,000-plus employee corporate campus from suburban Henderson, Nevada, to downtown Las Vegas.
  • Represented an institutional investor in leasing 387,000 square feet of industrial space to a third-party logistics provider.
  • Sale-leaseback transactions
  • Represented a national hospital system in the sale/leaseback of a portfolio of hospitals in multiple states and in forming a joint venture with a university to own and operate a hospital and research center.
  • Represented a corporate real estate investor for the forward purchase and leaseback of an international hotel.
  • Represented the seller/tenant in connection with the sale and leaseback of three data centers consisting of nearly one million square feet.
  • Represented the seller/tenant in connection with the sale and leaseback of approximately 250,000 square feet in an office tower in Troy, Michigan.
  • Ground leasing and capital lease financings
  • Represent a finance company in multi-property and multi-jurisdictional acquisitions of properties leased under net bondable-style leases.
  • Represent a real estate fund in the negotiation of a ground lease for a New York City hotel development.
  • Represented an international banking and financial services provider in a credit tenant lease financing for the development of two office facilities occupied by Dow Chemical.
  • Represented an international banking and financial services provider in credit tenant lease financing for the development of a production facility occupied by Monsanto.
  • Represented an international banking and financial services provider in the development and leasing of its retail centers throughout the United States.