Lee Korland is a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group at Benesch. He represents developers, property owners, tenants, lenders and borrowers, including global private equity funds, large public REITs and Fortune 500 companies, in all facets of commercial real estate transactions throughout the United States. He has extensive experience successfully closing deals that typically range anywhere from $10 million to in excess of $250 million, with a particular emphasis on the retail, multifamily and industrial sectors.
Lee serves as lead counsel on a national basis to many prominent commercial property owners and investors, handling a high volume of complex real estate acquisitions, sales and loan transactions. In addition, he provides representation on numerous large scale mixed-use development and redevelopment projects, assisting clients in navigating multiple layers of debt and equity financing, as well as construction, leasing, environmental, title and zoning considerations. He frequently advises clients with respect to multi-site portfolio deals, joint ventures, sale-leaseback transactions, real estate taxation, loan workouts and distressed real estate, while also providing counseling to clients on a broad range of general real estate and corporate matters.
Representative Experience
- Represented a publicly traded REIT in connection with a $495 million sale of a six property portfolio of shopping centers located in Ohio, Florida, Oregon and Arizona, consisting of approximately 2.5 million square feet of gross leasable area, to a joint venture between a state pension fund and Chicago area real estate investment firm.
- Represented a global real estate private equity fund and that company’s operating partner on a complex portfolio sale of four large open-air shopping centers located in Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado and Arizona, in a deal valued at approximately $100 million.
- Represented one of the country’s largest owners of multifamily properties on the acquisition and financing of a six property apartment portfolio located in Indiana, comprising over 2,100 units, with a transaction value of approximately $250 million.
- Represented one of the world’s largest owners of industrial properties on the sale of a three property multi-tenant industrial portfolio comprising approximately 1,000,000 square feet in the San Antonio, TX area for more than $140 million.
- Represented a global real estate private equity fund in connection with the acquisition, joint venture structuring and financing of a 600,000+ square foot mixed use property located in the greater Oakland, CA area for more than $85 million.
- Represented a Fortune 500 company on the sale, leaseback, development and redevelopment of the client’s world headquarters and longtime campus located in northeast Ohio. The $250+ million project involved the sale of hundreds of acres of improved and unimproved property to numerous third parties.
- Represented a publicly traded REIT in connection with the portfolio sale of two regional power centers located in the greater Boston, MA market for $300+ million.
- Represented a global real estate private equity fund in connection with the acquisition of a 165,000+ square foot grocery anchored shopping center and industrial mixed use condominium project located in the greater Los Angeles, CA market, with a transaction value in excess of $45 million.
- Represented a publicly traded REIT in connection with the sale of an 11 property grocery anchored shopping center portfolio consisting of assets located in New York, Georgia and Ohio to a global investment fund for in excess of $150 million.