Weintraub Tobin’s Commercial Real Estate attorneys have played a critical role in the growth and development of the greater Sacramento Region and communities throughout the state, representing clients in many of the largest and most complex real estate transactions and related financing structures to date. Whether these matters have involved the birth of a project, early-stage development, asset management, financing or disposition, or active disputes in arbitration and before the state and federal courts, our attorneys excel in providing reasoned, tactful guidance to help achieve client goals and minimize risk throughout the process. Our clients include developers, investors, financial institutions, homebuilders, property managers, brokers, contractors, construction companies, public entities, and high-wealth individuals. Our real estate attorneys practice throughout California, assisting in matters involving a wide variety of industries and asset classes and ranging from small to multi-million dollar transactions.
Of the diverse collection of matters in which our real estate team provides legal services, we have extensive expertise in the following:
The acquisition and disposition of real estate often involve significant risk, requiring experienced advisors who can highlight potential exposure areas and provide creative, time-tested solutions. Our attorneys provide counsel through the sales process, including the drafting and negotiation of purchase and sale agreements, due diligence, title and environmental issues, and facilitation of the financing and escrow process. We assist clients with sales, acquisitions and exchanges of land, office, residential, retail, hotel, industrial, mixed-use, and other properties.
From idea to groundbreaking to occupancy, our attorneys represent developers in the acquisition and development of land and real estate projects, including design, construction and builder contracts, ground leases, easement agreements, CC&Rs, licensing and regulatory compliance including environmental compliance agreements, construction and permanent financing, and related development documentation. We also work with large-scale community developments to create, manage, and enforce governing documents. In partnership with our tax practice, we offer counsel on Opportunity Zone developments and Qualified Opportunity Fund investments.
Even the most straightforward lease transactions present exposure issues for landlords and tenants alike. We represent landlords and tenants in negotiating leases, subleases, and assignments across all relevant industry sectors, including industrial, office, and retail properties. This includes crafting letters of intent to frame the key lease terms, overseeing commencement and tenant improvements, and advising on complex lease interpretation issues. Our attorneys also assist with lease enforcement, guiding landlords and tenants through default issues and ensuring that the unlawful detainer process is completed in accordance with applicable law and the parties’ agreement. Where desirable, we help structure creative lease settlements to minimize risk to the owner’s property while preserving the tenant’s interest in it.
The success of a real estate project is typically driven by the strategic acquisition, deployment and management of capital. We advise both borrowers and lenders in secured and unsecured credit transactions, including construction, bridge, and permanent financing and related lines of credit or operating capital. Our lawyers assist clients with all aspects of the loan process, participating in the structuring, negotiating, documenting, closing, and administering of loans and the restructuring and workouts of troublesome financing structures. With experience representing both borrowers and lenders, our attorneys can provide a unique perspective on the interests of both parties, helping minimize unnecessary delays.
The structure of a real estate transaction is critical to preserving the expectations and interests of all parties involved, from developers to equity investors or owners. We offer a wide range of services in this area, such as assistance in structuring development and investment entities, drafting business plans, and completing fundamental business formations. We have extensive experience with the considerable array of entity choices, including joint ventures, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations. Each of these entities has many variations to manage distinct financial, operational, and tax goals that must be carefully considered to avoid future disputes.
In the event that an investment, project, or partnership goes sideways, our team offers extensive experience in both transactional and insolvency/restructuring matters, including negotiation and pre-litigation counseling, as well as assertion of debtors’ and creditors’ rights or resultant bankruptcies. We provide the best strategies for our clients while maintaining flexibility should litigation or insolvency prove necessary.
Our real estate team has experience and expertise with solar, wind, and battery energy storage system projects. We have successfully represented clients in multiple aspects of renewable energy project development and ownership. Our clients include a broad scope of parties, including landowners, project developers, owners, investors, and contractors. The scope of services that we provide includes all of the primary aspects of development and ownership, from site acquisition, project development, tax counseling, and financing, to the purchase and sale of completed projects and project-owning entities.
On Saturday, March 9th, Weintraub attorney Alison Geddes presented at the California Lawyers Association 2024 Real Property Law Retreat. The presentation, titled, “Weathering the Looming Office Storm: Strategies to Navigate the Rough Waters Ahead,” addresses issues being faced by and strategies for success for office tenants in the post-COVID pandemic…
On Wednesday, November 8, 2023, commercial real estate attorneys Mark Ellinghouse and David Creeggan will present with the Sacramento chapter of the Association of Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) on the topic of, “AIR CRE Purchase Contracts: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.” The presentation will be held over breakfast…
On August 4, Weintraub Tobin lawyers Shauna Correia and Louis Gonzalez provided an overview of the most common types of lawsuits faced by builders and contractors – as well as possible new claims due to the COVID-19 health crisis – relating to employment, workplace safety, and construction contract disputes. This…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to be named in multiple practice areas and metropolitan areas in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms®, including 10 Tier 1 rankings. The Firm maintained rankings in all Tier 1 categories from last year, and advanced two categories from Tier 2 to Tier 1 in…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 41 of its attorneys have been recognized in the 2025 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. 32 Weintraub attorneys are included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, of which six…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that David W. Creeggan has been elected President of the ACRE Sacramento 2024 Board of Directors. Dave is a Shareholder at Weintraub Tobin and member of the Firm’s Real Estate practice group, where he assists a wide range of clients, from family-owned businesses to…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that Alison E. Geddes has been appointed to the 2024 Board of Directors for Building Owners & Managers Association of Sacramento and the Central Valley (BOMA Sacramento). She will serve as Chair of the Government Affairs Committee. Alison is a shareholder at Weintraub Tobin…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to be named in multiple practice areas and metropolitan areas in the 2024 edition of Best Law Firms®, including eight Tier 1 rankings. Weintraub Tobin was named a Metropolitan Tier 1 firm for the following practice areas in the 2024 edition of Best Law Firms: Business…
On Wednesday, November 8, 2023, commercial real estate attorneys Mark Ellinghouse and David Creeggan will present with the Sacramento chapter of the Association of Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) on the topic of, “AIR CRE Purchase Contracts: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.” The presentation will be held over breakfast…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to welcome Katherine E. McComic as an associate in the Firm’s Real Estate practice group, where her practice focuses on advising and representing purchasers, sellers, lenders, and borrowers in real estate sales, leasing, and financing transactions.
Weintraub Shareholder Mark Ellinghouse (seated, right) with all his chips. On August 12th, the Northeastern & Central California and Northern Nevada Chapter of Make-A-Wish hosted its 2023 Make-A-Wish® Poker Tournament, celebrating 40 years of granting wishes for children with critical illnesses. This year’s event raised more than $135,000 to support…
Three Weintraub attorneys were named “Lawyer of the Year” in the milestone 30th edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, earning four prestigious “Lawyer of the Year” awards. The Weintraub attorneys named a “Lawyer of the Year” in the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers® are: Chris Chediak – “Lawyer of…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 25 of its attorneys have been recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, and eight attorneys have been named to the 2024 edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. Three attorneys have also named “Lawyer of…
Weintraub shareholder Louis A. Gonzalez was recently profiled in the August 2023 “Top Lawyers” edition of Sacramento Magazine, where he discusses his career path and why he chose to focus on Real Estate Litigation. “Its interesting, complicated, and creative. I am always amazed by how much benefit clients bring to…
California law has long treated commercial and residential tenancies differently. Consumer protection-focused regulations enacted to protect residential tenants were legally considered inapplicable to business tenants which were considered to have a higher level of sophistication. This is all about to change in California. As we prepare to usher in 2025,…
Though Halloween has come and gone, a real-life scare continues to linger: the office sector of commercial real estate. Office has been the slowest sector to recover from COVID, as companies wrestle with remote/hybrid work policies in determining their future office needs. While some businesses have relinquished their office space…
It is rare for the commercial real estate industry to be the target of legislative reform. Even for a progressive state like California, real estate-focused initiatives tend to focus on promoting housing policies, residential tenant rights, and environmental protections. This year, however, there are three pending bills which could significantly…
We’ve all read the headlines recently. From Big Lots to Joann’s to Express, many retailers which were staples of popular retail centers at the turn of the century have succumbed to the pressures of online shopping, higher interest rates and rising costs, and called it quits (or are significantly reorganizing…
The Downtown Sacramento Partnership (DSP) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) recently convened a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) of distinguished third-party analysts from around the country to analyze and recommend growth opportunities for downtown Sacramento. The TAP’s recommendations were made public this month. As a member of ULI Sacramento’s Executive…
The classic fable of The Tortoise and the Hare is well-known across mainstream culture. Yet despite the story’s reliable and surprisingly universal thesis, it appears to have become commonplace for investors to look for faster and bigger results in lieu of slow and steady returns. And with recent high rates of…
There are not many things in life that are truly “one size fits all.” We certainly don’t take this approach when it comes to our clothes, our TV shows, or our lunches. Yet for some reason, we regularly employ this method in our commercial real estate transactions. Almost daily, I am…
Every spring, usually on the first weekend of good weather, I rush to the local nursery and spend what feels like a week’s worth of wages on new plants, soil, fertilizer, and irrigation lines. I can’t wait to get the seedlings in the dirt, connect the water, and watch the home-grown,…
Spring is here! We finally have warmer weather, longer days, and the prospect of weekend plans not getting ruined by rain. If you’re anything like me, you were ready for the turn of the season after a very wet winter. What I wasn’t ready for was the inevitable assault on…
With the turn of the year comes ill-fated resolutions, needed but annoying rain, and a slew of new legislative enactments coming into effect. While commercial real estate is not typically a hotbed for legislative activity, there are a few noteworthy changes that may affect prospective projects, mostly focused on relaxing…
In protracted contract negotiations, many clients become dismayed when a deal they thought had been agreed in a letter of intent is suddenly the subject of contentious exchanges between the parties and their counsel. The clients may be comfortable with the purchase price or due diligence timelines, but many clients…
