Our lawyers serve as counsel to lenders and borrowers involved in the financing of real estate projects throughout the region and nationwide. The value we bring to these clients stems from our decades of experience in lending transactions, combined with our commitment to providing efficient and cost-effective legal services. This deep experience we’ve gained by working on both sides of lending transactions means that we understand the market dynamics at play and the most critical compromise points.

We strive to understand a borrower’s business so we can provide the most effective advice to our client in the context of the borrower’s particular business model. For borrowers and developers, we have become so interwoven with many of our clients as outside general counsel that we serve as members of their risk management teams, helping to negotiate the key points where they can afford to compromise and the stands they need to take regarding critical transaction points.

Our Services

We offer a comprehensive range of services to support both lenders and borrowers involved in the financing of real estate transactions.

  • Traditional commercial financing: acquisition financing; letters of credit; facilitating secured and unsecured lending; preparation and negotiation of underwriting agreements
  • Syndicated lending: creation of syndicates; management of multi-facility credit lines
  • Mezzanine financing: structuring, due diligence, document prep and negotiating inter-creditor agreements with senior lenders
  • Mixed-financing projects: including public/private partnerships and projects utilizing mixed financing sources; conventional financing; FHA financing; low income housing tax credits; new market tax credits; historic tax credits; and bond financing
  • Loan restructuring: determining opportunities for changing, amending and improving documentation and collateral position
  • Acquisition and disposition of distressed debt: including negotiating private and public purchase and sale agreements and enforcing lien interests 

Our Clients

Our attorneys work with a diverse range of lenders and borrowers regionally and nationally. In these real estate financing transactions, we represent community, regional and national lending institutions, including community banks, national banks and life insurance companies. As counsel to borrowers, we also represent some of the area’s most prominent local, regional and national real estate developers, property managers and brokerages, including:

  • One of Ohio’s leading real estate development and property management companies focusing on residential, commercial and mixed-use properties
  • A large commercial developer focusing on the rehabilitation and redevelopment of underutilized and abandoned properties
  • A Columbus-based real estate business offering comprehensive services, including construction services, brokerage services, and property and association management
  • One of the nation’s largest and most prominent housing authorities

Contact Us

For more information on the services we offer to borrowers and lenders in real estate financing transactions, please contact Michael L. Schottenstein or Jeffrey W. Stiltner.