Pej Razavilar

Over the last several years, Pej has also developed experience in advising data center companies, including in connection with build-to-suit transactions, data-center leasing transactions, data-center-based securitizations and similar transactions, joint venture transactions, and acquisition and disposition transactions. In this regard, Pej’s experience on qualified opportunity zone structuring and his years’ focus on borrower- and lender-side representation in construction lending across the United States has proven particularly helpful.

Pej also routinely counsels institutional investors on real estate platform investments, including the formation and recapitalization of real estate operating companies in a variety of asset classes, including low-income housing, industrial and hospitality. Pej has also advised stakeholders on complex in- and out-of-court restructurings of distressed real estate assets (including, in the context of in-court restructurings, debtors, creditors’ committees and the like).

Pej is recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. for his work in REITs and real estate, and by IFLR1000 as a “Notable Practitioner” in real estate. He has been named to Lawdragon’s 2024 “500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers,” recognized by Super Lawyers in New York since 2021, and selected by Connect CRE in 2022 for its “Lawyers in Real Estate” award.

• Represented sponsor, as manager and sponsor of a joint venture, in connection with construction financing to fund the construction and completion of a multifamily development, as well as related joint venture structuring as a qualified opportunity zone business for a total equity and debt equity capitalization of approximately $100 million.
• Represented sponsor, as co-general partner, in connection with its investment in and subsequent related construction loan debt negotiations with respect to a project in Austin, Texas, with a total debt and equity recapitalization of $200 million.
• Represented sponsor, as co-general partner, in connection with its investment in and subsequent related construction loan debt negotiations with respect to a project in Austin, Texas, with a total debt and equity recapitalization of $250 million.
• Represented resort operator in connection with a debt and equity capital restructure for a resort hotel, with a total debt and equity capitalization of more than $600 million.
• Represented institutional fund in connection with a mortgage and mezzanine financing of a New York City building, with a total equity and debt capitalization of approximately $300 million.
• Represented institutional fund in connection with the making of a capital commitment in excess of $100 million in a multibillion-dollar European real estate platform through a dedicated fund vehicle managed by a third-party asset manager.
• Represented Eli Lilly & Company in its acquisition of a manufacturing facility located in Pleasant Prairie, Wis.
• Represented New York City sponsor in connection with a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure and related negotiations with respect to a Manhattan office building.
• Represented client in connection with the structuring of a debt and equity platform with an institutional capital partner to provide anticipated capital commitments of $1.5 billion.
• Represented international asset manager in connection with an equity and debt investment in connection with a marquis Manhattan property, with a total equity and debt capitalization of more than $1 billion.
• Represented international asset manager in connection with equity side-car investment in and restructure of debt and equity with respect to property, with a total debt and equity capitalization of more than $500 million, in Manhattan.
• Represented sponsor in connection with the negotiation of a multi-tier equity joint venture structure and related loan negotiations with respect to a to-be-constructed industrial facility in Queens, N.Y., with a total capitalization in excess of $500 million.
• Represented sponsor in connection with a $400 million recapitalization of a mortgage and mezzanine loan with respect to industrial space in New York City.
• Represented an institutional investor, as lender and administrative agent, on a $388.4 million construction mortgage loan to be made by lenders to a nationally recognized developer for a 19-story luxury residential condominium development located in Miami Beach, Fla.
• Represented ATCO Properties, as borrower, in $83 million mortgage loan refinancing of 40 Central Park South, a residential and retail building located in New York, N.Y.
• Represented TruArc Partners (f/k/a Snow Phipps Group) in its acquisition of Trademark Cosmetics, Inc.
• Represented the formation of an operating company arrangement between the former head of The Carlyle Group’s New York real estate transactions group and an institutional international multibillion-dollar conglomerate.
• Represented Innovo Property Group on a variety of real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, mortgage and mezzanine financing, and various property-level and up-tier joint ventures transactions and other equity arrangements for various property investments in the New York City area, totaling over $3 billion in transactions over the past five years.
• Represented ATCO Properties in the formation and operation of a sponsor capital platform for the making of GP-capital investments in select strategic markets in the United States.
• Represented client in a discretionary programmatic capital allocation from an institutional fund for the funding of so-called “sponsor capital” for the acquisition of properties throughout the New York City area.
• Represented institutional client in various debt and equity investments in a variety of real estate operating company platforms through multi-tiered joint-venture structures and through the formation of real estate funds totaling over $2 billion in transactions.
• Represented ATCO Properties in the formation and operation of an equity platform formed to develop a multiphase 70-acre planned community in Charlotte and subsequent joint venture arrangements from property-level institutional capital providers for the phased development of the community.
• Represented Colony NorthStar, Inc. in the acquisition of an ownership interest in RXR Realty’s portfolio of New York City properties with a value exceeding $6.5 billion and consisting of 108 properties, and the launch of a new non-traded REIT platform.
• Represented Colony NorthStar Inc. in various strategic investments in real estate operating company platforms, including a European AIFMD-approved asset manager and a select-service hotel operator and property manager.
• Represented institutional client in various debt, preferred equity and common equity investments made in connection with the formation of various private REITs, including a mortgage REIT with a multibillion-dollar equity capitalization and a senior-housing health care REIT.
• Represented ATCO Properties in the acquisition, subsequent equity capitalizations and disposition of various properties in New York City, including the recapitalization of 240 West 35th Street through a 49 percent equity investment by an Israeli insurance company and a GP co-investment in and the ultimate disposition of 850 Third Avenue.
• Represented client in the acquisition of an assemblage of properties in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan in connection with the development of a mixed-use condominium, as well as various property-level, co-GP and other up-tier equity capitalization transactions, mortgage and mezzanine pre-development financing, construction financing and EB-5 mezzanine financing for the vertical development.

• Recognized by Super Lawyers for Real Estate (2021–2025)
• Selected by CRE for their ‘Lawyers in Real Estate” award in 2022