Real Estate and Land Use

Acquisitions and Sales
Leasing
Construction
Land Use
Financing
 

The Real Estate and Land Use Group at GCA Law Partners LLP represents a broad range of clients with a practice devoted equally to corporate facilities users and those whose primary business is real estate - investors, developers and lenders. Our work encompasses every aspect of office, commercial and industrial leasing and subleasing, real property acquisitions and sales, financing, construction, land use approvals, redevelopment and environmental compliance.

Specific areas in which the Group regularly practices include the following:

Acquisitions and Sales. We have handled the purchase and sale of numerous sites on behalf of high-technology, bio-technology and institutional public and private companies. These include the assembly, acquisition, entitlement and development of:

• Multi-tenant office buildings
• Research and development facilities
• Corporate campuses
• Warehouse and industrial facilities
• High density housing
• Mixed use projects

Leasing. The Real Estate and Land Use Group has a sophisticated national leasing and subleasing practice, with significant experience in handling the leasing and subleasing of a broad range of properties. We also assist Fortune 500 companies in managing their national and international leased property portfolios. Representative transactions include the following:

• Properties for start-up companies
• Headquarters facilities for mature bio-tech and hi-tech public companies
• Major build-to-suit corporate campuses for public companies
• Retail and restaurant sites
• Single and multi-tenant high rise office buildings
• R&D, warehouse and industrial properties

Construction. We have negotiated construction and design contracts for some of the largest public and private projects in the Bay Area, including:

• Major sports arena
• Convention center
• Corporate campuses
• Bio-tech facilities
• Mixed use residential projects
  

Land Use. We have assisted clients on some of the largest and most challenging entitlement projects undertaken in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area, including:

• Obtaining new development entitlements, including subdivision approvals and statutory development agreements, for major office/R&D space for Fortune 100 companies
• Acquisition of land use approvals and CEQA compliance for corporate headquarters complexes
• Obtaining comprehensive land use entitlements for medical clinics and medical research facilities
• Obtaining entitlements for large master-planned residential communities and subdivision approvals for multifamily and detached "infill" housing projects
• Obtaining CEQA and land use approvals for shopping centers and "big box" retail centers and for rural wineries
• Advising land owners on compliance with wetlands, endangered species, Coastal Zone, groundwater and redevelopment laws

Financing. Consistent with the other areas of our transactional practice, we work with companies and real estate professionals in obtaining financing for acquiring operating facilities, land and investment properties. Financing work on behalf of real estate investors has included various debt and equity transactions and conduit financing.

The broad transactional, land use and business experience of the GCA Real Estate and Land Use partners permits us to provide sophisticated and cost-effective representation uniquely tailored to each client. We offer every client practical and efficient advice in virtually every type of real estate transaction.

Attorneys in the GCA Real Estate and Land Use Group include Deborah Churton Aikins, Douglas B. Aikins, Jeffrey K. Lee, Peter M. Schwab, and Kenneth R. Van Vleck.