Real Estate Transactions
The Real Estate Practice Group of Webb, Tanner, Powell, Mertz & Wilson, LLP serves the Firm’s clients in the real estate industry and also those engaged in real estate transactions incidental to other businesses. The Firm’s real estate attorneys provide sound legal advice with respect to the complete range of commercial real estate transactions including acquisitions, development, financing, ownership, leasing, dispositions and title insurance. Our practice is diverse and sophisticated and, while we have facilitated literally thousands of real estate transactions in the Metropolitan Atlanta area since the Firm’s inception in 1929, we also handle transactions involving properties located throughout Georgia and the Southeastern United States.
Our clients include national banks, community banks, life insurance companies, other institutional lenders, title insurance companies, individuals, developers, builders, investors, public and private companies and landlords and tenants. We focus on our clients’ goals while promoting and protecting their interests through innovative approaches that meet client requirements for practical and cost-effective solutions. We are proud of our success in assisting our clients in responding to the challenges and opportunities of the real estate industry and the current market.
Our experience and expertise includes all manners of real estate transactions, including acquisition and development, financing and leasing. Our attorneys are able to approach a real estate transaction from the side of any party to the transaction with an understanding of the distinct various perspectives.
For assistance in this practice area contact Andrew Mertz, Bill Tanner or Brian Edwards.
ACQUISITION AND DEVELOPMENT
The Firm’s real estate attorneys assist a range of developers and others in the real estate industry in planning, structuring and documenting projects and real estate investments involving land assemblages, office and warehouse buildings, business and industrial parks, multifamily, commercial condominium communities, residential communities, mixed-use developments, hotels and retail shopping centers. Our real estate attorneys represent our clients throughout the acquisition or sale of commercial real estate, from negotiating and drafting letters of intent and purchase and sale contracts through due diligence, closing and post closing escrow agreements. In the process of handling these various transactions, the real estate attorneys negotiate and draft joint ventures from the investor or developer side, development agreements, covenant, condition and restriction agreements, easements and ancillary rights, leases, owners associations and all forms of closing documents. At the request of our clients, our real estate attorneys review due diligence materials including title insurance commitments, title exception documents, leases, surveys, environmental reports, service contracts, zoning and land use documentation, easement and covenant documentation. Our real estate attorneys also issue owners policies of title insurance as agents for several national title insurance companies.
In addition, our real estate acquisition and development practice includes assisting structuring and facilitating completion of tax-deferred exchange of real property of all types, including raw land, multifamily buildings and complexes, office and warehouse buildings and shopping centers, including “reverse” exchanges.
FINANCING
The Firm's real estate attorneys represent both lenders and borrowers in all aspects of loans and credit arrangements secured by or related to real property. In this regard, our real estate attorneys negotiate and draft all loan documentation, from loan commitments to security instruments, promissory notes, loan agreements, guaranties, environmental indemnity agreements, opinion of counsel, security agreements, subordination and attornment agreements and tenant estoppel certificates. At the request of our clients, our real estate attorneys review due diligence materials including title insurance commitments, title exception documents, leases, surveys, environmental reports, service contracts, zoning and land use documentation, easement and covenant documentation and organizational documentation of business entities. Our real estate attorneys also issue lenders policies of title insurance as agents for several national title insurance companies.
LEASING
The Firm’s real estate attorneys represent both landlords and tenants in commercial leasing transactions involving a variety of property types, including office, retail, warehouse and build-to-suit space. Our services include drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial leases, renewals and amendments, and representing landlords and tenants in transactions involving sale-leaseback, ground leases, assignments and subletting, rights of first refusal, options to purchase, expansion, renewal and extension, subordination, non-disturbance and attornment documentation and termination and eviction.
For assistance in this practice area contact Andrew Mertz, Bill Tanner or Brian Edwards.
