Our practice encompasses the full range of activity for the real estate development, construction and leasing industry. We work for the following industry participants in all of their activities:
- Private, public and institutional investors in the establishment of real estate investment funds, syndications and joint ventures and in their acquisition, development, and management of real estate assets;
- Governments and private-sector participants in the development of innovative public and public-private infrastructure projects;
- Lessors and lessees in negotiating and drafting long-term and ground lease agreements;
- Issuers and underwriters in real estate debt and equity capital markets, including public and private offerings on most major securities exchanges in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Europe;
- Developers and lenders in financing and refinancing projects and acquisitions, and in syndicated or securitized financings and refinancings;
- Major corporations, REITs and other entities in all industries in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, financings and public offerings; and
- Domestic and foreign investors, such as REITs and pension and investment funds in the acquisition, disposal, joint venturing, structuring and offering of investments in the industry.
We advise on every type of major real estate development, including office, commercial, hotel, entertainment, industrial, mixed-use, multi-family residential, pipelines, mines and forests. We have particular expertise in handling all aspects of large, complex construction transactions, bulk real estate portfolios and restructurings and in the establishment of investment funds and joint ventures. Our Real Estate Group works closely with our environmental practitioners to ensure integrated and responsive service on all transactions.
The excellence of our Real Estate Group is consistently recognized in important industry surveys. The 2007 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory recommends the group in each of Canada's major real estate markets: Toronto, Montréal, Calgary and Vancouver and lists six key partners, drawn from all four offices, as among Canada's best. Several of our members are also listed in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Real Estate Lawyers and in Practical Law Company. Chambers Global's The World's Leading Business Lawyers 2008 also endorses the real estate practice of Stikeman Elliott. The 2008 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada lists five of the Group's practitioners drawn from our Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver offices.
The Real Estate Group's international network including London, New York and Sydney, reflects our commitment to serving our real estate clients, whether based in Canada or elsewhere, in an increasingly global industry. International clients find us knowledgeable and helpful on appropriate structures for non-residents, the Canadian income tax treatment of non-residents, the Investment Canada Act, the Competition Act and other legislation and regulations directed at foreign activity in the Canadian economy and off-shore acquisitions of Canadian real estate.
The ability to draw on the outstanding skills of our real estate practitioners across Canada and around the world, as well as lawyers with expertise in such related areas as tax (structuring), banking (financing and regulatory compliance), environmental, municipal (land use, permitting and approvals), insolvency and litigation (liens and liquidated damage claims), allows us to provide clients with seamless, integrated service on even the largest and most complex transactions.
Community Involvement
Our Real Estate Group values the importance of industry-related initiatives and actively participates in events supporting local communities. Our Group was proud to sponsor and support the 2005 Architecture & Urban Design Awards, acknowledging the contribution that architects, artists, urban designers and builders make to the quality of city living.
In 2006, members of the Group volunteered to provide legal services on a pro bono basis to property buyers of housing units built by Habitat for Humanity, making Stikeman Elliott the first law firm in Canada to provide large-scale support for this worthy initiative.
Members of the Montréal Group are very active within the Urban Development Institute of Quebec (UDI), an independent, not-for-profit organization that acts as the main spokesperson of the commercial real estate industry in the province and is a significant player in societal debates relevant to that industry and its economic development.
Since 1999, many members of the Group participate as lecturers in an intensive four day session provided to students enrolled into the Real Estate MBA program of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), discussing various legal issues relevant to real estate transactions and problems specific to the real estate industry, including portions devoted to taxation, environmental, municipal law, construction, financing, ownership titles, insolvency and employment matters.
Real Estate - Representative Transactions
The Stikeman Elliott Real Estate Group's experience includes acting for:
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The City of Toronto in its $220 million acquisition of Green Lane Landfill;
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Women's College Hospital, in connection with its capital redevelopment project;
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Hines REIT in its $252 million acquisition of Atrium on Bay, an office and retail complex in Toronto, from Brookfield Properties Corp.;
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ING Real Estate in its $3.3 billion offer to acquire Summit REIT;
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Kingdom Hotels International in connection with the $3.8 billion acquisition of Four Seasons Hotels by Kingdom Hotels, Cascade Investment, L.L.C. and Triples Holdings Ltd.; and
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Kingdom Hotels International in its US$5.5 billion bid with Colony Capital to acquire Fairmont Hotels.
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