Lacking a common scheme or plan, two adjacent commercial condominium units owned by the same debtor and subject to the same mortgage and deed, but having different tenants, commercial uses, plans for commercial development...more
Recently, in Shady Bird Lending, LLC v. The Source Hotel, LLC (In re The Source Hotel, LLC), Case No. 8:21-cv-00824-FLA (C.D. Ca. June 8, 2022), the Central District of California District Court adopted the majority view that...more
A recent Utah Court of Appeals opinion, HKS Architects, Inc. v. MSM Enterprises Ltd. 2021 UT App. 70, puts contractors and designers on notice that they need to pay attention to receivables and excuses for non-payment. The...more
Single asset real estate (SARE) is a unique classification under the Bankruptcy Code with implications for both debtors and lenders. SARE classification is apparent for a property such as a shopping center, apartment complex...more
Clothing stores, restaurants, gyms and other businesses find themselves in a $52 billion and growing hole of unpaid retail rent that’s been missed since April 2020. According to CoStar Group Inc. TIAA Real Estate Account –...more
In sophisticated real estate financing transactions, most prudent lenders attempt to deter borrowers from filing for bankruptcy before loans are paid in full by providing in loan documents that such a filing constitutes an...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many hospitality professionals and their clients to confront bankruptcy, insolvency, and loan workout issues for the first time since the Great Recession. Chapter 11 presents a host of unique...more
The global COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the hospitality industry. Hotel occupancy rates have fallen greatly in many markets, with employee layoffs and property closures affecting even the largest and otherwise best...more
A standalone securitization of a portfolio of properties closed in June. To our knowledge, this was the first transaction in recent memory done in a direct issuance format. In this case, direct issuance means that the...more
The August 28, 2015 LEAN Email Blast contains information on the final rule regarding fire safety equipment, the new delegated underwriter approval process, the Green Lane, and the mortgage termination process, among other...more
In re SR Real Estate Holdings, LLC, 506 B.R. 121 (Bankr. S.D. Cal. 2014) – A group of lenders moved to dismiss the debtor’s bankruptcy case on the basis that it was filed in bad faith, or in the alternative asked the...more
In a pro-debtor opinion released on February 26, 2013, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a debtor may “artificial impair” claims in a class to obtain an impaired and accepting class of claims as required by section...more
Last October, I wrote about a scheme employed, in three separate bankruptcy cases, by debtors seeking to evade the absolute priority rule in order to keep the real property owned by the debtor in the hands of the ‘family’ at...more
Originally published in Law360, February 22, 2013. As real estate markets continue to rebound, owners of single asset real estate properties are increasingly incentivized to devise bankruptcy strategies that allow them...more