• WilmerHale acts as general outside counsel for a premier international real estate developer, playing the leading role in several recent major projects including:
  • the acquisition and continued development of One Dalton, Boston, a Four Seasons hotel and luxury residential development which, when completed will be the tallest building developed in Boston since the 1970s and the Boston’s tallest residential project ever;
  • the ground lease acquisition and redevelopment of the World Trade Center in New Orleans into a luxury Four Seasons hotel and condominium project; and
  • the acquisition and ongoing development of Iceland’s first five-star hotel, a Marriott Edition in Reykjavik.
• We represented the developer in the conversion of Boston’s historic Charles Street Jail into the acclaimed Liberty Hotel, including the ground lease acquisition, design, construction, permitting, financing and recapitalization of the project.
• We represented the acquirer of the Mandarin Oriental Boston.
• We represent a client on a multi-billion-dollar coastal development in Asia to be anchored by a resort casino and to include tens of thousands of square feet of residential, office and retail space, a sports arena and a championship golf course.

• We represented the lender in a loan workout of a $300 million loan secured by the iconic Acapulco Princess resort in Acapulco, Mexico.
• We represented the developer of the St. Regis hotel and residential project in San Francisco.
• We are representing the developer in the acquisition, structuring and development of the hotel component in a mixed-use hotel, residential and parking complex in Boston’s Seaport District under a layered multi-ground lease arrangement with a governmental landlord.
• We represent the owner and operator of one of Boston’s major hotels and its related theater, restaurant and garage complex for four decades in connection with construction, operation, financing and repositioning.

We are one of the nation’s leading firms for senior living. We represent the largest privately-held senior living operator in the Northeast and some of the most active institutional investors in the industry. In recent months, we have advised:

• An operator on the formation of a joint venture to acquire a continuing care retirement community in Massachusetts, and a joint venture to develop senior housing communities in Connecticut and New York.
• A Boston-based real estate investment advisory firm, in the formation of joint ventures to acquire or develop senior housing facilities with one of the leading developers and operators in the US having an aggregate value of more than $200 million.
• We represent borrowers on more than $1 billion of acquisition loans and refinancings secured by mortgages on senior housing facilities located throughout the United States, including a $500 million credit facility from a government-sponsored enterprise.

• We represent two of the world’s largest retail companies in site assembly, acquisitions, ground leases, permitting and the development of more than 200 new stores, expansions and conversion projects throughout the East Coast. In connection with this work, we have also negotiated operating and easement agreements and restrictive covenants with virtually all major anchors and junior anchors in the United States.
• We represent one of the nation’s largest grocery store chain in the redevelopment of urban stores across the country into state-of-the-art mixed-use projects, with mid- and high-rise developments located above ground-floor grocery stores.
• We represented the acquirer of the Arsenal Mall in Watertown, which is being repositioned as a lifestyle center and residential project.
• We represented the acquirer of The Shops at Highland Village, a 375,000 square foot lifestyle shopping center in the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX market area.

• We have been engaged in many large real estate portfolio transactions, such as the acquisition by Vail Resorts of four mountain resorts (Triple Peaks, LLC, the parent company of Okemo Mountain Resort; Mount Sunapee Resort; Crested Butte Mountain Resort; and Stevens Pass Resort) in two transactions, and the merger of Regal Entertainment Group with Cineworld plc.
• We successfully executed a high-profile sale of a portfolio of 17 highly complex commercial real estate loans for a foreign governmental agency charged with administering and disposing of the assets of a failed bank.  The assets were pursued aggressively by some of the most sophisticated real estate finance teams in the world, ultimately yielding more than $1.2 billion for the client.  Our work included every aspect of the transaction, including structuring the auction, assisting the client with rights of first offer and other third-party obstacles, creating diligence rooms, remedying loan defects, helping answer over 1000 diligence questions from bidders, and negotiating in parallel six draft loan sale agreements. 
• We represented a US-based developer in a joint venture to develop a $20 billion urban center in Incheon, South Korea.
• We represent some of the nation’s most prestigious universities and museums on real estate matters, including:
  • A Rhode Island university in the negotiation of a 10-year, $31 million payment in lieu of taxes agreement with the city of Providence involving the acquisition of parking rights and municipal land and the abandonment of municipal efforts threatening the university’s tax-exempt status.
  • One of Boston’s largest universities in the expansion of its science and technology campus involving several phases of development totaling 1,500,000 square feet of space on a 10-acre parcel, including a dormitory, arena and recreation center. We also represented the university in zoning and permitting for a second dormitory and the development of an administrative building, research center, life sciences and engineering building, and field house, and in its joint development with a national developer to create graduate student housing.
  • One of Boston’s largest universities in acquiring a site and obtaining all zoning approvals required for a mixed-use phased project to contain five buildings and more than one million square feet of floor area on a five-acre site, including an office, hotel, retail space and parking garage.

• We represented a consortium of two life insurance companies and a pension fund on a $300 million mortgage loan on Boston’s Prudential Center.

• We represented a life insurance company on a $200 million construction mortgage loan for a mixed-use retail, office and residential project in Boston.
• Through our Berlin office, we advise European clients on real estate transactions totaling more than €1.5 billion in value, including leasing, asset management, construction projects, contract negotiations, and litigation matters.
• Our team represented a private equity adviser on behalf of its European and domestic investors in real estate investments totaling more than 3,000,000 square feet of office, retail, hotel and industrial space in cities across the eastern United States.

• We represented a national commercial real estate investment firm in the rollup of several syndicated limited partnerships and the subsequent listing of the rolled-up entity as a $1 billion public company. Issues included complying with the SEC’s rollup rules.
• We represented entrepreneurial real estate developers in the disposition of properties to public UPREITs. Issues included tax protection, resale registration, valuation, and negotiation of representation and warranties.
• We represented a public UPREIT, valued in excess of $1 billion, in going private, including the tax-free disposition of the operating partnership.
• We advised on the formation of a joint venture with an offshore REIT in a $435 million recapitalization of the client’s senior housing investments with a foreign financing source.
• We represented an investor in the formation of private REITs for the acquisition of investment properties.