Housing
Supporting Every Phase of Your Real Estate Journey
The legal needs of developers, landlords, and tenants are as diverse as the projects and people they represent. Whether you are closing a deal, resolving a dispute, or managing a property, you can depend on our experienced real estate attorneys for sound advice.
The Perkins Coie’s Real Estate practice, has been at the forefront of housing development projects across the United States. This includes large-scale residential and mixed-use communities in urban and suburban settings. We represent many clients, from companies that build things, lenders, and investors to state and local agencies, seniors who need housing, universities, and landowners. We offer full legal, business, and regulatory advice.
Our clients rely on us for support in real estate transactions, help with property transfer, leasing, and financing, and guidance for business and corporate procedures.
We are dedicated to securing the entitlements and defending the approvals of developers through litigation. We also provide counsel on compliance with a wide range of state and federal environmental laws:
Brownfields and hazardous site remediation
Compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), including use of CEQA streamlining provisions
Defending entitlements in litigation brought under CEQA, California planning and zoning laws, and other statutes
Obtaining water, air, protected species, coastal development, and other environmental permits
Our firm’s commitment to the industry are the cornerstones of our understanding of market dynamics and the complex business and legal challenges our clients face.
In real estate, the workforce has many different jobs. We can give you complete guidance in labor and employment law. From employee discipline and termination to policies that ensure equal opportunity and privacy; from wage-and-hour considerations to managing medical accommodations and leaves, we are by your side. Our support extends to litigation and administrative challenges, including cases of employment discrimination, noncompete agreements, and charges brought before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state anti-discrimination agencies.
Our lawyers work hard to help you avoid risk in the building and running of senior housing facilities. If litigation becomes necessary, we stand ready to support you through federal and state court disputes, mediation, arbitration, and regulatory proceedings, be they individual lawsuits or class actions. Our attorneys bring specialized knowledge in areas such as defending consumer protection claims, breach of contract issues, and breach of fiduciary duty matters arising from residents and resident groups. Additionally, we have a dedicated team focused on advising tax-exempt organizations, including those in the sphere of assisted living and the organizations they rely on.
How we help clients
- Advising on overall transaction structures/methods
- Securing land use entitlements (including general plan amendments, zoning ordinance amendments, specific plans, use permits, variances)
- Real estate and environmental due diligence
- Negotiating purchase and sale agreements and disposition agreements
- Real estate financing
- Public-private partnerships
- Tax-deferred exchanges
Areas of Focus
Affordable Housing
We are proud of helping our clients with many affordable housing and community development programs and challenges. Our knowledge covers community and economic development, compliance, loans, and investment, rental assistance, tax credits, financing, and investigations. This means we are well-versed in the complex world of affordable housing.
Our efforts extend to the development of compliance programs, investigating, and resolving disputes, and navigating litigation in matters of accessibility, in the context of Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and local and state fair housing statutes, coupled with knowledge in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily loan and investment initiatives.
HUD/Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily loan programs
HUD’s Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), Section 108 and Economic Development Initiative (EDI) programs, as well as Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities
HUD’s Section 8 and Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance programs
Low Income Housing Tax Credits
Historic Tax Credits (HTC) and New Market Tax Credits (NMTC)
Public housing, including the redevelopment of public housing under HUD’s HOPE VI and mixed-finance programs
Representation in connection with administrative, civil, and criminal investigations and actions by HUD, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and other government agencies
Tax-exempt bond financing for housing and community development
Single-Family and Multifamily Housing
With experience on large, complex housing developments, Perkins Coie attorneys regularly develop and implement effective strategies for single-family and multifamily projects including:
Negotiating development agreements to vest development rights
Processing subdivision map approvals
Using density bonus laws to increase unit count and obtain other benefits
Utilizing California’s Housing Accountability Act (HAA) and the federal Fair Housing Act to support residential development applications
Addressing fees, dedications, exactions, and other conditions of approval
Advising on military base reuse
Senior Housing
Perkins Coie has experience in senior housing. This includes transactions, land use, employment, taxes, securities, and litigation. This experience includes:
Helping clients buy, sell, and combine assets and shares, including tax and regulatory analysis.
Asset evaluations
Confidentiality agreements
Land use entitlements
Letters of intent
Post-transactional escrow and noncompetition arrangements
Our lawyers are adept at addressing a range of real estate needs for senior housing clients. We handle everything from building projects to sales. We help our clients through the hard parts of doing research and getting land use rights. Our team is experienced in getting and refinancing real estate deals. We are good at all stages from buying to loans, including those financed through bonds. We are proud of our complete support of the financing needs of senior housing clients. This includes public offerings and credit lines, so our clients can choose from a wide range of options.
