How can a legal architect bring your development to life?
As a real estate developer, are you leveraging the benefits of a legal architect to bring your development to life?
If you find someone with the right capabilities, a legal architect can help you complete your project quickly and efficiently.
What is a legal architect?
A legal architect is an attorney who works closely with the real estate developer to use all of the tools in today's regulated business environment to creatively pursue the client's project goals.
The attorney should be able to handle a variety of development types, including commercial retail, industrial, office, parking, mixed-use, and residential. A strong legal team can add value in many areas, including project financing, environmental issues, and zoning.
Be sure to gauge experience
When you are ready to bring an attorney onto the project team, be sure to ask about his or her experience related to your project. An experienced attorney can generate unique and innovative development ideas.
If you are pursuing a commercial or retail project, ask the attorney about experience in developments of similar size and scope. There is a difference between experience in a single storefront and experience in shopping centers and outlet malls.
For industrial projects, be sure to ask about similar experiences to your project, as well as experience in all aspects of the project life cycle. This life cycle experience should include complex zoning, development, construction, transactional and leasing assignments. It may also be useful to find an attorney who has represented different types of parties in industrial projects, including owners, buyers, sellers and contractors. This perspective will be valuable during negotiations.
Office developments may require knowledge of complicated zoning and rezoning matters. Your attorney should be able to assist on those matters, as well as the overall development, construction, common ownership, transactional and partitioning phases of the project.
If you are pursuing a residential development, be sure to ask the attorney about similar experience in size, but as importantly, experience in incorporated and unincorporated areas. This is important, particularly regarding zoning and subdivisions. Your attorney should also be able to assist with workouts for large, failed or financially distressed projects through tax redemptions and financial restructuring.
Get help with project financing
An experienced attorney can assist with financing arrangements for the project. Your attorney should have experience in economic development transactions, as these tools may be a part of your project. Look for an attorney who has served on a variety of public finance transactions, as deal trends in one area of development may translate to another.
An experienced attorney, or legal architect, may be able to help you get your project completed quickly and efficiently, helping you meet your short and long-term goals.
• Michael Roth is a partner at Ice Miller LLP. He has more than 30 years' experience representing businesses, land owners and tenants and local governmental bodies in complex land developments. He can be reached at (630) 955-6594 or michael.roth@icemiller.com.
• Bob Schillerstrom is a partner at Ice Miller LLP. He counsels clients on public affairs matters, and on real estate tax appeals issues and zoning related matters. Bob has been an active figure in DuPage County politics for three decades, holding leadership positions in state, local and county governments and in the Republican Party. He can be reached at (630) 955-6598 or robert.schillerstrom@icemiller.com.