Leasing
Understanding all of the risks involved in making leasing decisions is fundamental to negotiating a good lease. Whether you are a landlord or tenant, Silver Law Offices, Inc. protect your interests in your space lease - an extremely important document to your business.
We have extensive experience in retail, office, industrial and residential leasing. From “big box” national retail chain leases with scores of exhibits and schedules that take months to negotiate, to a relatively simple small space lease, we’ve done it all. We can manage the process from negotiating a letter of intent through build out and move-in.
Financing
Mr. Silver has represented clients in providing and obtaining debt and equity in the aggregate amount of over one billion dollars. On the debt side, he has represented borrowers in construction and permanent loans, refinance and acquisition loans, loan assumption and defeasance transactions, mezzanine and credit lines, and has provided the required legal opinions to satisfy some of the most demanding lenders’ counsel in the nation. On the equity side he has represented investors and syndicators/sponsors of investments involving real estate investment partnerships of all sizes.
Purchase/Sales
In addition to the seventeen retail and industrial properties Mr. Silver acquired and sold in Eagle Group, LLC prior to 2009 (www.eaglegroupllc.com), he has represented clients in scores of acquisitions and dispositions of all property types. Preparation and negotiation of all documents required to buy and sell properties, review and abstract of leases, title documents, land surveys, environmental reports, physical inspection reports, review of zoning and use restrictions, estoppel certificates and subordination, non-disturbance and attornment agreements are all handled by this firm so that you buy with confidence and sell with a carefully controlled escrow process.
Partnerships and Joint Ventures
Forming limited liability companies, limited partnerships and other business entities for syndicators and joint ventures and organizing them to satisfy the single purpose entity requirements of lenders has been a mainstay of our practice.” to read “Forming these entities for organizers, investors and partners and having the agreements satisfy the single purpose entity requirements of lenders has been a mainstay of our practice.
Loan Defeasance and Loan Assumption
Defeasance
When a property is encumbered by a mortgage loan which cannot be paid of early, typically a “conduit loan”, it must be “defeased” in order for a buyer or existing owner to place new more favorable debt financing on the property. Defeasance involves a substitution of collateral for a loan, whereby the mortgaged property is replaced with government securities. The cash flow from these government securities must be sufficient to cover the debt service requirements for the remaining term of the loan. Unlike a pay off, the loan is not paid off, but the mortgaged property is released.
We have acted as borrower’s counsel in many defeasance transactions and provided legal opinions to most nationally prominent lenders; we’ll be there by your side from the “kick off call” through the “3 day closing”. Obtaining the appropriate release of future liability and considering the tax ramifications are crucial issues. We work in sync on these complex transactions with defeasance consultants such as Commercial Defeasance, LLC (www.defeasewithease.com) who has selected Scott Silver as a preferred attorney.
Loan Assumption
Many times a property is being sold and better financing isn’t available or defeasance would be cost prohibitive. Assuming a favorable existing loan is sometimes the best option. However, assuming a “conduit” loan which has been securitized is anything but simple. A Master Servicer and Special Servicer will need to review and approve of submissions by seller and buyer to satisfy a long checklist of documents, both business and legal, on the property and the existing and proposed borrower(s) and guarantor(s). And many documents and a few legal opinions will need to be drafted and approved by the servicers for closing. In today’s economic environment, servicers will be looking for opportunities to tighten up their underwriting and condition their approvals on lender favorable loan modifications. All of this delay and complexity can lead to huge delays and cancelled escrows. We make order from chaos and stay on top of the process to help minimize the risk.
