Real Estate

Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster was founded more than a century ago as a real estate firm. Today our lawyers provide a full range of transactional services in the areas of real estate finance, acquisition and development, leasing, and title and conveyancing. We facilitate transactions involving commercial, industrial, multi-family residential and mixed use properties, and provide all the related services necessary for successful completion of the deal:

Parcel assembly (including air rights development)
Permitting matters
Partnership formation and related tax planning
Construction and permanent financing
Loan restructuring, mortgage foreclosure, bankruptcies and workouts
Dispute resolution.

Lawyers and Clients

We serve our real estate clients using a team approach that allows our lawyers to share their substantive experience in the most cost-effective manner. Serving on our team are two former presidents of the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts, and team members have worked on real estate transactions statewide. With such high-profile experience, our firm can undertake even the most complex real estate matters. For example, we represent a major Massachusetts-based defense contractor in the acquisition and disposition of its real estate holdings, and serve as counsel for a national telecommunications company in connection with the leasing, acquisition and sale of real estate throughout New England. Our lawyers have also worked with all major Massachusetts title insurance companies, as well as educational institutions (including several local universities), financial services companies, governmental entities, developers and real estate services.

Real Estate Finance

We represent both lenders and borrowers in all forms of commercial mortgage lending. Our clients include both short-term construction lenders (typically banks) and long-term permanent lenders (often insurance companies). Our lawyers also represent borrowers in financing the acquisition or development of property, or the refinancing of existing projects using both conventional lending techniques and conduit and securitized financing arrangements. We also handle complex transactional structures, such as representing real estate developers in the syndication of real estate partnerships and tax-deferred like kind exchanges. The firm also has experience providing guidance on financing of affordable housing projects. When necessary, we represent our clients in loan workouts and restructurings, foreclosures and asset recoveries.

Acquisition and Development

Our real estate lawyers work in close collaboration with colleagues in the firm’s environmental practice to secure all permits and approvals required for development projects, and with the firm's business lawyers in structuring entities for the acquisition, development and operation of real estate holdings to best address liability and tax issues. In acting as permitting counsel during the development process, our lawyers represent clients in meetings and hearings before federal, state and municipal boards, agencies, and officials. We facilitate transactions by negotiating and drafting contracts, easements and settlement agreements, and handling all environmental oversight and due diligence.

Rackemann’s development clients include traditional private developers of retail, office, industrial, research and development, and multi-family residential projects. In addition, we provide management and development counsel to non-traditional development entities, including national corporations developing facilities for their own use, hospitals, universities and similar institutional clients expanding their campus facilities, and governmental agencies and authorities. Significant examples of our work on behalf of clients include representing:

A national shopping mall developer in the acquisition, re-development and expansion of an existing retail shopping mall in a suburb west of Boston, including successful guidance of the client through the local, state and federal land use permitting process
A large out-of-state residential apartment developer in connection with the development of a 400-unit apartment complex that overlapped municipal boundaries, and on a large mixed-use development north of Boston containing over 2,500 housing units, with associated retail, restaurant and hotel uses
An existing manufacturer in acquiring and developing a facility at the former military base in Devens, Massachusetts, and a startup manufacturer in the acquisition of a manufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts
Several Massachusetts-based developers in connection with age-restricted projects ranging from 22 units to 118 units and single-family subdivisions containing between 8 and 50 lots
A non-profit organization in its negotiation of architectural and construction contracts for the renovation of historic property in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts
Various lending institutions in the disposition of their real estate portfolios
A realty trust in assessing property contamination, defending against numerous allegations and investigations, and ultimately turning its property into a residential development
Developers in the acquisition, financing and disposition of single and multifamily rental and condominium properties, luxury apartments and hotels
Non-profit entities in the acquisition, financing, development and disposition of their real estate assets.

Leasing

Our real estate attorneys are involved in leasing activities, both as an adjunct to their work in the development lending areas and as an independent practice focus. We represent both landlords and tenants in all types of commercial real estate leasing, including leases of space within buildings and leases of entire buildings for office, industrial, research and development, and retail operations. We are also experienced in ground lease development projects, including the development of residential and commercial condominium projects and construction of facilities on so-called “air rights” parcels. Among other projects, Rackemann has represented:

A Washington, DC-based retailer in negotiating its lease for its Boston flagship location
Landlords in the development, negotiation and documentation of leases for shopping centers, office buildings and industrial parks, including air rights leases
A regional automotive service and tire sales company in the acquisition, financing, development and leasing of tire sales service centers
A transportation based real estate advisory company in the negotiation of easements, telecommunications contracts and leases for air rights development
A large telecommunications provider in a lease dispute with its landlord over an alleged lease discrepancy, winning a judgment that was upheld on appeal and successfully collected.

Title and Conveyancing

Our lawyers have at their disposal both an extensive library of title abstracts for properties throughout Massachusetts dating back to the firm's founding and an in-house staff of experienced title examiners. Another key aspect of our practice is the working relationships we have with all major title insurance companies in the Boston area. In addition to undertaking title examinations and securing title insurance in connection with acquisitions, development and financing, our real estate lawyers work closely with colleagues in the firm’s environmental and litigation practices on hazardous waste contamination matters and title insurance litigation.

Dispute Resolution

Members of our firm have extensive litigation experience representing clients (from individuals to Fortune 500 companies) who own, buy, sell and develop real estate, in matters that include:

Defense of permits for residential and commercial development
Appeals of permit denials
Disputes involving the validity and enforceability of zoning by-laws
Damages claims based on trespass, nuisance and other property-related torts
Disputes over offers to purchase, purchase and sale agreements, options and restrictive covenants
Disputes arising out of commercial leases
Adverse possession and prescriptive easement claims
Real estate title disputes

Our real estate litigation practice focuses on the Massachusetts Land Court, where we have handled over 100 cases. In a recent example, a partner defended a developer of affordable housing against the claims of a large, sophisticated abutters’ group attempting to stop the client’s proposed project in western Massachusetts. After a four-day trial, the court rejected all of the abutters’ challenges and upheld the project’s comprehensive permit. The abutters’ appeal of that decision was heard by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and the project's permit was upheld in that appeal by the Commonwealth's highest court. In other recent litigation successes, we persuaded courts to vacate the disapproval of work for a subdivision under a local wetlands protection ordinance, declare invalid a moratorium on building piers, and nullify the disapproval of proposed work under the Scenic Roads Act.