Real Estate

Heenan Blaikie’s approach allows us to help clients minimize risk and maximize benefits in their real estate-based development, financing and leasing transactions. In the area of real estate law, we offer expert advice to various domestic and international clients, including:

• large and small commercial real estate developers
• investors and project lenders
• property owners, buyers and sellers
• construction contractors and subcontractors
• landlords and tenants
• all levels of government, including municipalities and local authorities, and public institutions
• architects and engineers
• insurance companies
• management companies

Services Overview

Heenan Blaikie’s Real Estate practice provides advice in connection with:

• Commercial leasing – negotiation of offers, leases, subleases, surrenders and terminations, lease interpretation, restructurings and workouts, telecommunications facilities and services such as installations on vacant land, roof tops and other point of presence locations
• Construction – drafting and negotiation of construction contracts, green building projects (LEED certification), tender documentation, cost estimation, technical terms and conditions, construction project management agreements
• Environment – negotiation of environmental risk and legal liability in development, investment, and financing transactions; environmental due diligence and remediation (site assessments); landfill and waste management; environmental permits and licenses; brownfield development strategies and initiatives; environmental insurance; legislative and regulatory compliance
• Infrastructure and public-private partnerships – accountability and funding issues; risk allocation, assessment and management; domestic and international tax implications; bidding and tendering process; governance; preparation and review of project documentation and negotiation of real estate public-private partnerships
• Litigation – construction and builders’ lien disputes, environmental litigation, breach of contract, landlord/tenant disputes, land use and zoning litigation, boundary disputes, title fraud, foreclosures
• Municipal law – advice regarding transfer taxes and mutation duties, expropriations and annexations; land use planning; tax assessments on commercial and industrial properties; official plans; zoning and subdivision by-laws, by-law amendments, and water treatment programs
• Real estate development – development of mixed-used retail projects, commercial developments, seniors residences, and hotels
• Real estate financing – negotiation of real estate investment and construction financing, including asset-based lending and project financing transactions
• Real estate investment – property acquisition/disposition, preparation, negotiation, conclusion and revision of agreements for buyers and sellers of commercial, industrial, retail and multi-unit residential real estate; and negotiation of sale/leaseback transactions
• Title opinions and real estate due diligence – in relation to the sale, purchase, development or financing of real estate and related assets, including title search and revision of existing contracts, title deeds, surveys, certificates of location, deeds of mortgage, hypothec and related security documentation, and review of tenant leases and other encumbrances

Organizational Involvement

Many of our lawyers belong to a vast array of real estate-related associations and organizations, such as the following:

• Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD)
• National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (United States)
• Toronto Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW Toronto)
• Montréal Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW Montréal)
• Community Associations Institute (United States)
• International Council of Shopping Centers
• Institut de développement urbain du Québec (IDU Québec)
• Association of Québec Women in Finance
• Institut pour le partenariat public-privé (IPPP)
• The Canadian Council for Private-Public Partnerships