Retail

Our Retail industry team is one of the largest legal teams of its kind in the nation, consisting of more than 40 lawyers with various specialties which are relevant to the retail industry. Our attorneys have deep retail industry recognition and respect and bring comprehensive and proven solutions to our clients’ most complex legal issues.

Overview

Our Retail industry team is one of the largest and most respected groups of retail real estate attorneys in the United States. We provide actionable, practical legal advice and business guidance to landlords, tenants, retailers, property owners and managers, franchisors and franchisees, as well as developers, lenders, and investors. We also represent the real estate divisions of large private equity companies and inbound foreign investors.

One of our core strengths is our collaborative approach and the inclusion of our team of a variety of extremely experienced retail attorneys who practice in legal disciplines that impact the industry. This multidisciplinary team works closely together with our clients to achieve optimal results relating to acquisitions, financings, leasing, franchising, dispute resolution, tax, bankruptcy, workouts, and environmental due diligence. The breadth of our practice and expertise, coupled with our decades of industry experience, enables us to offer deep market insights that achieve successful outcomes for our clients’ most challenging deals and disputes.

Our clients include institutional investors, family businesses, construction companies, national retailers and restaurants, franchised brands, and brokerage firms. We welcome deals and clients of all shapes and sizes. As such, our variety of clients mirrors the wide variety of personalities, transactions, and perspectives within the retail industry itself. Our retail industry team welcomes the opportunity to work on transactions of all sizes, ranging from high-profile, multi-block redevelopments to single-parcel developments in rural America. Our brand representation ranges from the largest, most recognizable brands in the U.S. to start-up businesses and local entrepreneurs.

Team members frequently write about key issues that are important to retail clients, present to select groups, conduct training sessions, and are quoted in business publications. Each year, a large contingent of our retail industry team attends the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) RECon and U.S. Shopping Center Law conferences. Our team is also actively involved in leading real estate organizations, including Urban Land Institute, the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), and Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW).

Experience

  • Represent the largest owner of retail real estate in the United States as its exclusive outside leasing counsel.
  • Represent the fastest-growing franchise brand in the United States in 2018 as its franchise and outside real estate counsel.
  • Represent the fastest-growing restaurant in the United States in 2018 as its outside leasing and operations counsel.
  • Serve as outside leasing counsel for large acclaimed retail redevelopment projects in the Buckhead community of Atlanta, Georgia, and the River Oaks community in Houston, Texas, and for numerous regional and national landlords, including Westfield, Gregory Greenfield and Associates, Trademark, and others.
  • Serve as outside general real estate counsel for multiple restaurants and franchised concepts.
  • Represent large mixed-use projects nationally, such as Fifth + Broadway (Nashville), River Oaks (Houston), Pinecrest (Cleveland), Clayton Lane (Denver), Shops at Broad (Mansfield, TX), One Daytona (Daytona Beach, FL), The Shops Buckhead Atlanta (GA), White Provisions (Atlanta), Atlantic Station (Atlanta), and Warehouse Row (TN).
  • Represent several of the largest regional property management firms in handling landlord/tenant disputes of all sizes.
  • Represent Walt Disney Parks & Resorts U.S., Inc. in the redevelopment of Disney Springs (f/k/a Downtown Disney) in Orlando, Florida.
  • Represent the real estate divisions of several of the ten largest private equity companies in the United States in ongoing shopping mall acquisitions, redevelopment, leasing, and property management matters.
  • Serve as a preferred vendor, and frequently as general outside counsel, for franchisees of a wide variety of regionally and nationally franchised concepts in providing real estate, corporate and franchise counsel, including negotiating leases across the United States and Canada for child care systems, health care clinics, restaurants, service providers, apparel retailers, and fitness facilities.
  • Represent borrowers in the refinancing of raw land and operating retail and mixed-use assets, including negotiation of securitized loan documents.
  • Successfully defended a landlord against claims for millions of dollars related to a roof leak and recovered $350,000 for a client on counterclaim for damages and fees.
  • Representation of various clients in complex, high-end, restaurant negotiations, including with such notable restaurants as: Abattoir (Atlanta), The Farm House (Nashville), Empire State South (Atlanta), West Egg Café (Atlanta), Ormsby’s (Atlanta), The Optimist (Atlanta), Etch (Nashville), Garrido’s (Austin), MF Sushi (Atlanta), Bartaco (Atlanta), Cooks & Soldiers (Atlanta), Negril Village (Atlanta), Smokebelly (Atlanta), Sweet Auburn BBQ (Atlanta), The Southern Gentleman (Atlanta), Gypsy Kitchen (Atlanta), Bakersfield (Nashville), Two Ten Jack (Chattanooga), Tupelo Honey Café (Chattanooga), Ichiban (Atlanta), Yet-to-be-named Ford Fry Restaurant (Inman Park), World of Beer (Atlanta), Newk’s Express Café (Atlanta), Sweet Hut Bakery (Atlanta), Momma Goldberg’s Deli (Atlanta), The Big Ketch (Atlanta), Fado Irish Pub (Atlanta), Bread & Butterfly (Atlanta), Amer (Atlanta), Barcelona VinoTeca (Atlanta), Brash Coffee (Chattanooga), Corner Bakery Café (Atlanta), Perrine’s Wine Shop (Atlanta), Zoe’s Kitchen (Atlanta), Ford Fry Steakhouse Concept – Marcel (Atlanta), Hampton & Hudson (Atlanta), Revelator Coffee (Atlanta), Brash Coffee (Atlanta), Carolyn’s Gourmet Kitchen (Atlanta), Dtox Organic Juice and Junk (Atlanta), Stout Brothers (Atlanta), Cacao (Atlanta), Provenance (Raleigh), Sweet Auburn Seafood (Atlanta), Marco’s Pizza (Boca Raton), Freshii (Boca Raton), Herban Fix (Atlanta), Steadfast Coffee & Cocktails (Nashville), 42 & Lawrence (Raleigh), The Painted Duck (Atlanta) and Rreal Tacos (Atlanta).
  • Represented a publically traded REIT in connection with the acquisition and financing of 8 grocery-anchored shopping centers located across Georgia, Florida, Texas, and North Carolina, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $210 million.
  • Won summary judgment for Atlanta Retailers Association of more than 800 stores in defense of a class action in which plaintiffs alleged that the group’s membership criteria and contracts with vendors discriminated on the basis of race and, therefore, violated 42 U.S.C. Section 1981.
  • Serve as lead counsel for a national warehouse retailer in negotiating acquisitions, ground leases, and site development agreements for store sites in shopping centers throughout the United States.
  • Serve as lead counsel for various investment and syndication firms in the acquisition and financing of big box and/or grocery-anchored, multi-tenant shopping centers throughout the United States.
  • Represent landlords and tenants in the negotiation of AIA construction contracts for the construction of national retailers build-to-suit buildings and space build-outs and remodels.
  • Led due diligence team in the representation of an Australian-based, vertically integrated fund manager in the acquisition of a 49% interest in a portfolio of 8 super-regional malls throughout the United States.
  • Represent a multi-branded, publicly traded footwear and apparel retailer in the leasing and management of their retail portfolio.
  • Representation of various developers/landlords in negotiations of big box leases, including sporting goods stores, craft stores, fashion and department stores, movie theaters, office supply stores, and pet supply stores.
  • Representation of regional developer in acquisition, redevelopment, leasing, and re-financing of neighborhood shopping centers in Georgia and Alabama, including negotiation of big-box anchor leases and restaurant ground leases.
  • Represented the largest MBE in the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with various concessionaire disputes.
  • Representation of retail real estate investment and development company in the acquisition and leasing of shopping center out parcels in the mid-Atlantic and Southwest regions.
  • Represented various retailers on their distribution facility leases, including one of over 1,000,000 square feet.
  • Worked with a major retailer regarding its data breach, particularly with regard to Congressional investigations and hearings.
  • Representation of national developer with property management issues relating to regional mall ownership.
  • Works with the National Retail Federation, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and other retail trade associations to support important data security and data breach policies.
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