Real Estate

Archer's Real Estate Group is comprised of lawyers who provide a full range of services in connection with acquisitions, dispositions, financing and development matters. Our clients include national, regional and local industrial, retail and residential developers and investors, as well as home builders, brokers funds, and lenders. We have the experience and ability to handle the most sophisticated matters from the concept stage to completion.

Transactional Real Estate

Archer has decades of experience helping clients buy, sell, lease, and finance all types of real estate. Our attorneys are highly experienced in structuring and negotiating the transaction, protecting our clients’ interests, and closing the deal. Since the inception of Archer, real estate transactions have been a strong complement to the business orientation of our firm. Over the years, the Real Estate Group has evolved in response to various changes in laws regulating development, environmental compliance, banking, title insurance and other related legal areas. We handle very complex acquisitions and financing.

The Real Estate Group's multidisciplinary focus permits us to operate efficiently by coordinating closely with other practice areas, particularly those involved in land use, environmental permitting, environmental litigation, and corporate and tax matters. We work closely with regional and local professionals, including lenders, environmental consultants, surveyors and title insurance companies, to reach effective and efficient results for our clients. We also have significant experience handling condemnation and eminent domain and land valuation litigation matters.

Real Estate Development

Archer attorneys assist with the structuring, negotiation and financing of development projects across all asset classes, including residential, retail, office and mixed-use projects, resort and recreational properties, and sports complexes and arenas. Our attorneys offer broad-based experience with all types of projects and all phases of development—from acquisition, through planning, conversion (as applicable), development, construction and use. We handle contract negotiation and documentation, due diligence review, construction-related work and land use entitlements, and acquisition, development and construction financing. We have extensive experience in counseling developers as they interact with public and private agencies, architects and engineers, professional managers, and general contractors.

Our depth of knowledge and experience regarding all aspects of mixed-use, residential, planned communities, and condominium real estate development ensures that our attorneys structure such communities to be efficiently developed, marketed and operated. We are experienced in preparing covenants to govern the highest density, mixed-use, lifestyle centers, as well as office parks, retail centers, single-family communities and condominiums. We structure master associations, condominium associations and sub-associations as necessary and appropriate to ensure the effective operation, governance and fiscal management of the community. With our extensive knowledge and experience regarding land use, acquisitions, public and private finance, condominium law, eminent domain and condemnation, environmental law, wetlands regulations, and construction law, Archer attorneys counsel developers through all stages of the development and successful marketing of new communities.

We also assist clients in completing and managing affordable housing projects through a variety of financing tools, including low-income housing tax credits, new markets tax credits, historic rehabilitation tax credits, energy tax credits, facade easements and other tax incentive programs. Archer attorneys represent developers in obtaining federal grants, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loan guaranties, HOPE VI funds, tax increment financing, enterprise zone funds, redevelopment agreements and tax abatements.

We represent developers on the full transaction, including the real estate purchase, rezoning, application for tax credits, construction and permanent loan financing, compliance with tax credit regulations, delivery of the required opinions and negotiating and structuring the partnership or limited liability company documents involved with the investment by national funds to acquire the benefit of the tax credits.

Real Estate Tax Appeal

Property taxes are a considerable business operating expense. Elevated or unfair property valuations increase tax liabilities. Often, commercial properties can be over-assessed resulting in excessive and unlawful taxes. Archer’s Real Estate Tax Appeal Group assists clients in monitoring and controlling their tax obligations through sophisticated and strategic representation to achieve tax savings. Our attorneys have achieved substantial tax savings for thousands of our corporate, business and residential clients, handling the litigation for all types of commercial, residential, industrial, and special property.Attorneys in Archer’s Real Estate Tax Appeal Group are well-versed in the complexities of property tax laws. We review individual strategies and issues in order to pursue tax reductions. We ensure that our clients pay only the amount in property taxes required by law through challenging assessments and pinpointing other tax-savings opportunities. We help non-profit clients obtain and retain their tax-exempt status and provide solutions that reduce liabilities to local taxing jurisdictions. We also have extensive experience in negotiating tax exemptions, abatements, and payments in lieu of taxes for qualifying projects.

Real Estate Lending

Archer has a strong real estate lending practice, representing both borrowers and lenders, including banks, insurance companies, REITs, and other public and private lenders in connection with all types of real estate financing and joint venture transactions. The collective experience of our real estate finance team in banking and finance, CMBS loans, insurance, workouts and restructurings, insolvency, and tax allows us to provide strategic counsel at each phase of the deal and in every kind of loan arrangement, including:

• Conventional commercial loans
• Mezzanine financing
• Middle-market & large corporate loans
• Subordinated & convertible debt
• Construction loans
• Credit-enhancement instruments
• Sale-leaseback transactions
• Bond & tax-exempt financing
• Ground leases
• Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac loans
• Capital markets
• Housing & Urban Development (HUD) multifamily loans
• Commercial mortgage-backed securities