Matt Olhausen | Lawyer

Matthew Olhausen advises clients on complex commercial transactions, helping clients to structure and close high-value real estate and infrastructure deals, with a particular focus on joint ventures, financings and capital transactions. His work spans the real estate, construction and professional sports industries.

Matt has represented a wide variety of clients, including publicly traded U.S. companies, private real estate funds, international investors entering the U.S. market, state and local government agencies, professional sports teams, family offices and major pension funds. Clients value Matt’s practical, business-first approach to navigating complex transactions. He focuses attention on the legal issues that matter most, anticipates obstacles before they become material deal risks and develops solutions that keep deals moving toward completion. Matt’s representative experience spans joint ventures, financings of various types, land use and entitlements for ground-up construction projects, acquisitions and dispositions, public-private partnerships, pooled CMBS investments, affordable and workforce housing projects, renewable energy projects and commercial leasing, among other matters.

Representative Experience

Advised Major League Baseball franchise on corporate, finance and real estate matters, including negotiating several major credit facilities, raising additional capital from both internal sources and external private equity investors, selling an affiliated minor league team, acquiring businesses in new segments and negotiating various leases.
Represented client developing master-planned data center and associated critical infrastructure projects, including Project Jupiter, a projected $165 billion development in New Mexico, including acquiring land, structuring various tiers of joint ventures, preparing investor subscription documentation and negotiating financing and power purchase arrangements.
Assisted major international steel company in conducting its U.S. site selection process for its first $5.8 billion domestic green steel manufacturing facility in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, and negotiating key agreements for state and local incentives, real estate acquisitions, tax-exempt bond financings and engineering, procurement and construction.

Represented a major state pension fund in its due diligence, acquisition, financing and disposition of multifamily, industrial, office and retail properties across the country, including in California, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida, and in its entitlement and construction of new ground-up industrial projects in Georgia, Kentucky and Missouri.

Represented client in acquiring a significant equity interest in the Treasure Island Development Project’s master developer entity and acquiring and entitling subsequent vertical development projects on Treasure Island in San Francisco, California.

Advised one of America’s largest school districts on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and on its “Return to School Program,” which entailed reopening over 1,000 school sites for 650,000 students and 70,000 faculty and staff; the effort included providing regulatory guidance and negotiating a wide variety of contracts with state and local governmental agencies, diagnostic laboratories, testing and vaccination services providers, community health clinics and other key stakeholders.

Represented municipality in the sale of public land located in the city’s Advanced Clean Energy Park to developers of cutting-edge technologies, including a nuclear fuel production facility, a zero-carbon fertilizer plant and a 700 MW data center campus, and in the negotiation of key public infrastructure incentives and community benefits.

Advised client on the potential acquisition of a significant equity interest in a Major League Soccer expansion franchise, including reviewing and negotiating organizational documents, joint venture agreements, financing commitments, stadium acquisition and development agreements, and governmental and MLS approvals.

Assisted client with the acquisition and financing of various solar projects located in the Central Valley region of California.

Drafted and negotiated architect and construction agreements on behalf of a pro bono client for the design and construction of the 21-court Golden Gate Park Tennis Center in San Francisco, California.

Advised client on purchasing, financing and ultimately selling a 28-story Class A office tower in San Francisco’s East Cut neighborhood.

Assisted state pension fund with selling multiple ground-leased, low-income-housing-tax-credit-financed apartment projects in Los Angeles, California and advised on various matters concerning ongoing multiphase residential development projects in Sacramento, California, Phoenix, Arizona and Brentwood, California.

Advised pro bono client on entitlement, real estate and community engagement matters relating to the 32,000-square-foot expansion of its existing food bank warehouse, to create capacity to feed an additional 300,000 people per year throughout the Bay Area.

Professional Highlights

Affiliations and Associations

CREDA San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, YPG Committee Chair
San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, Regulatory Committee Member
San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research, Member

Urban Land Institute, Member

Marin Montessori School, Trustee

Education

J.D., University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, 2018
magna cum laude; Order of the Coif; Pro Bono Distinction

B.A., Gonzaga University, 2013
magna cum laude

Admissions

California

Languages

Spanish

Matthew Olhausen

Areas of Focus

Practices

Representative Experience

Professional Highlights

Matt's Insights