Legal

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the retail apocalypse due in part to noteworthy bankruptcies, massive store closings, and the unprecedented number of store vacancies across New York City. Real estate giant Brookfield Property Partners made headlines in 2018 when the firm acquired seven storefronts on vacancy-ravaged Bleecker Street in […]

There was a lot of attention around Kenneth Griffin’s $238 Million apartment purchase at 220 Central Park South. By setting a record as the most expensive home purchase in the United States, the news brought a lot of issues to the forefront, one of the many being the “pied-à-terre” tax which has been introduced annually

As a real estate attorney, I am thinking about what retail concepts succeed and what don’t since I often find myself working on transactions at the beginning and end of a store’s lifespan. There was a lot of talk about how within the span of 48 hours several large retailers announced they would be closing

This Wall Street Journal Article about WeWork: WeWork’s CEO Makes Millions as Landlord to WeWork has been stuck in my head ever since it was published. I’ve been involved in transactions involving WeWork, but you don’t need to be a practitioner to see the truly transformative effect of the company on the way people use

Amazon has announced it is establishing a presence in Long Island City, in addition to the 360,000 square feet it currently rents in Hudson Yards. Today, we take for granted that New York is a vast resource for technology talent but that is the culmination of a lot of effort not the least of which

It is obvious that there is a lot of retail vacancy in New York City. This article in the Atlantic that portends a dark future for retail received a lot of attention (my favorite part is the Tennessee Williams quote), and the New York City Council is debating a bill to institute arbitration for commercial

I’ve been taking my sweet time with Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (which is a must read), but one of the many ways that humans as a species were able to evolve is as result of a set of societal rules, also know as the law. And the law only works when people believe in it.

As a lawyer, I represent a lot of businesses on their commercial lease transactions whether it be for retail or office space.  Responsibility for compliance with laws is always an important topic for a commercial lease, especially the ADA which has a built in private enforcement mechanism.  Recently, a serial plaintiff who sued various businesses