Real Estate, Construction & Development

A legal team that’s right at home across the real estate industry

From property management companies and real estate agents to construction, development, and engineering companies, Shumaker serves the full spectrum of companies involved in buying, selling, leasing, building, and developing commercial and residential real estate of all kinds.

Working across the country, our specialized teams help clients manage risk; secure financial and political/regulatory support; clear complex titles; and negotiate and review agreements, leases, deeds, and purchase and sale documentation. We serve as counsel for private and public construction projects of all sizes, including state, local, and federal government projects, with experience across the full range of project delivery systems. Our attorneys also advise real estate investment trusts (REITs), especially those that are publicly traded, with securities law filings and compliance, corporate governance, investor relations, executive compensation, employment law, intellectual property (IP) issues, and litigation monitoring.

Our Services

• Advice on a range of land use issues, including zoning, annexation, eminent domain, permitting, impact fees, and property taxes
• Advice on financings—from traditional mortgage or lease arrangements to complex deal structures such as partnership syndications and equity participation arrangements, as well as asset-based, cash flow, mezzanine, and construction financing and permanent loans
• Assist with operational issues for REITs, including securities law filings and compliance, corporate governance, investor relations, executive compensation, and employment law
• Assistance with property acquisitions and dispositions, including tax-free exchanges
• Bidding and Bid Protests
• Brokerage and property management
• Change order disputes
• Commercial landlord tenant disputes
• Commercial leasing
• Construction law and dispute resolution
• Contract negotiation and preparation
• Counsel in REIT transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, sale-lease backs, and joint ventures
• Counsel on leasing transactions or disputes from the perspective of owners, property managers, or tenants
• Defective work
• Delay, acceleration, and inefficiency
• Environmental issues and claims
• Extra work
• Government contracts
• Guidance on transactional structuring and documentation
• IP and litigation monitoring
• Licensing for construction
• Liens
• Loan workouts and foreclosures
• Negotiating and drafting owner/contractor and owner/architect agreements, from the conventional to unique design/build or integrated project delivery arrangements
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• Payment and performance bond claims
• Preparation and presentation of claims or defense of claims
• Private and public construction projects of all sizes
• Property development, purchases, and sales
• Real estate finance
• Representation for arbitration proceedings conducted by the American Arbitration Association and Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services
• Residential acquisition and investment
• Residential purchase
• Resolution of real estate disputes, including loan workouts and foreclosures, construction litigation, and brokerage disputes
• Structuring real estate partnerships and investments
• Title insurance and closing
• Zoning and land use