Real Estate

We represent buyers and sellers in acquiring and disposing of properties in all asset classes, from property identification through due diligence, contract negotiations and closing.

Our team offers wide-ranging experience with state, county and municipal regulators throughout Florida and regularly represents clients at public hearings before planning, land use and zoning boards, architectural review boards, historic preservation boards, municipal councils and county commissions in connection with annexations, site plans, comprehensive plan amendments, rezonings and large-scale master plan approvals.

We assist clients with all aspects of development and redevelopment, including development and management agreements, governing documents for condominium, townhome and mixed-use projects, declarations of covenants and restrictions and shared access/reciprocal easement agreements. We also assist with construction contracts and construction defect litigation.

We handle billions of dollars of real estate and construction financing for lenders and borrowers each year and advise on strategies to minimize state, federal and international real estate tax exposure. Our lawyers also advise in connection with debt restructuring, loan modifications and workouts, nonperforming loans, and distressed property purchases and sales, as well as represent borrowers in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financing.

We regularly advise property owners, landlords and tenants on lease transactions, including office, industrial and retail leases, ground leases, build-to-suit issues, options, subleasing, lease assignments and lease terminations. When necessary, we also assist clients with tenant-related disputes and evictions.

Our attorneys have significant experience in the acquisition and disposition of multifamily projects, including those subject to affordable housing tax credit and bond restrictions that require transfer approval from state and local housing authorities. We also assist with compliance issues, government incentives and day-to-day operational matters.

We guide clients through the ever-changing environmental regulations and handle environmental permitting related to wetlands, water use, endangered species, air and emissions before water management districts, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as advise on hazardous substance mitigation and removal.

We represent clients in real estate and project-related disputes in state and federal courts and arbitrations, and before federal and state administrative courts. These include eminent domain proceedings, constitutional property rights litigation, claims arising under the Bert J. Harris Private Property Rights Protection Act, contract and title disputes, and administrative litigation.

• Representing a Southeastern United States regional developer/homebuilder in connection with various types of development projects, including all aspects of land use, entitlements, environmental, permitting, acquisition, financing, development, and ultimate disposition of various types of projects (e.g., raw land, developed lots, single-family homes, condominiums, hotels and other commercial parcels). As part of this work, Gunster has been instrumental in the development of numerous master-planned communities, condominium towers, hotels, and branded residences throughout the Southeastern United States.
• Representing multiple national clients in the acquisition, redevelopment, financing and disposition of multifamily apartment properties throughout the United States, including properties with market-rate rents, low-income housing tax credits, bond restrictions and HUD HAP contracts.
• Serving as lead land use/zoning counsel to the owner of over 280 acres of agricultural land in Western Miami-Dade County in connection with its application to move the county’s urban development boundary (UDB) to permit a $1 billion-plus mixed-use development on the site that will include approximately 2,080 townhome units, 1,750,000 square feet of industrial space, and 80 acres of parkland. Amending the UDB is considered one of the most difficult land use approvals one can undertake in the county.
• Serving as ongoing counsel related to one of the largest mixed-use, sustainable communities in Florida, handling land use and environmental approvals, litigation arising from those approvals, tax planning, and sales to multiple residential buildings, along with various governmental contracts, and construction contracting.
• Acted extensively for an owner-manager of major commercial real estate holdings in connection with more than 35 loans on multifamily apartments around the U.S. in 11 states for transactions totaling approximately $700 million.
• Advising a real estate owner-manager in the acquisition of a three-property multifamily apartment portfolio located in the greater New Orleans, LA area. All properties were originally developed with federal tax credits and subject to Section 42 IRS tax credit regulations. Coordinating and obtaining transfer approvals from the Louisiana Housing Corporation and partnership documents and equity investment with a national institutional investment fund.
• Representing a client in the acquisition, construction, development and operation of an electric-generation facility with a 520 MW capacity.
• Representing a U.S.-based financial services provider and the subsidiary of a global-leading financial institution in a vast range of negotiations linked to various retail bank branch leases, corporate office leases, acquisitions, sales of surplus properties and sale/leaseback transactions across the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
• Representing a global real estate investment company in negotiating industrial leases throughout the Southeast of the United States.

• Acting as lender’s counsel on multiple bridge loan transactions related to multiple asset classes.
• Serving as counsel for multiple mitigation bank owners in the permitting and sale of mitigation credits throughout Florida.
• Representing some of Florida’s largest agricultural producers in matters of water use, environmental permitting, production and agritourism.
• Represented the master developer in acquisition, land use, environmental permitting, and the sale of a large property to the State of Florida, as well as in permitting a solar field for the largest sustainable community in Florida's history.
• Represented a farming company in the sale of 28,000 acres to a governmental entity for environmental conservation purposes.
• Represented a landowner in an inverse condemnation matter against the United States based on regulations causing a total loss of value to its property.
• Represented a large landowner in an administrative challenge to amendments to a county’s comprehensive plan designed to impede future development of the property.