Real Estate

The lawyers at Yurko, Salvesen & Remz have extensive experience in the full range of problems faced by owners and managers of real estate, including construction and lease disputes, purchase and sale agreements, workouts, debtor/creditors’ rights, relationships with banking and financial institutions, foreclosures, eminent domain claims, construction loans, title insurance litigation, escrows, and quiet title issues.  We provide clear, practical advice to help our real estate clients to develop a workable strategy to achieve their goals, whether it involves negotiating a simple lease renewal or litigating disputes arising from complex securitization financing.  Our lawyers regularly represent real estate partnerships and joint ventures, commercial landlords and tenants, condominium associations, general contractors, developers, and private owners.

Whether our clients are seeking sound advice and assistance to avoid a dispute or representation in court or before an arbitration panel to resolve one, our lawyers' skill, depth of knowledge and experience will help secure the best solution as efficiently and effectively as possible.

We have litigated a significant number of real estate disputes for clients in federal and state court, including Massachusetts Land Court.  Matters we have handled for clients include the following:

• Achieved extremely favorable settlement for our client, a limited partnership that had owned an office building in New Haven and sold the building to its major tenant, a local university. Seeking to reduce the purchase price, the tenant alleged numerous breaches of its lease to try to offset the purchase price.  The claims were quite complex, requiring structural engineering experts and various other engineering and code expertise.  The prolonged mediation process included various expert reports, written submissions by both sides, two formal mediation sessions, further meetings and inspections and additional mediated negotiations.

• Took over the representation of a state-wide bar association that had challenged the defendant’s practice of “witness only” closings for residential home transactions. Devised a comprehensive strategy that resulted in a First Circuit decision vacating an adverse ruling and led to a decision by the Supreme Judicial Court on the issue of the unauthorized practice of law that the client lauded as a “huge win.”

• Tried declaratory judgment action on behalf of restaurant in dispute with its landlord over restaurant’s right to extend its lease for an additional 5-year term despite being in default of some of the lease provisions. Following an appeal to the Massachusetts Appeals Court by the landlord, we obtained a decision affirming the restaurant’s right to extend the lease. Trinity Realty I, LLC v. Chazumba, LlC, 77 Mass. App. Ct. 913.

• Tried a matter to a jury on behalf of one of the members of a joint venture which had developed real estate in Cambridge. The jury awarded our client more than she had requested in damages.

• Represented landlord seeking to enforce a 15-year lease for a build-to-suit childcare facility and office building for the defendant company.

• Represented joint venture seeking to develop commercial land in Cambridge. Faced with the imminent lapse of the crucial building permit, the Firm devised a strategy that included a counterclaim for declaratory and injunctive relief to obtain a decision that the obligation to build under the permit was stayed pending the appeal. Following trial on bifurcated issues, the parties came together with a modified plan for the development of the site for laboratory and bio-tech space that was quickly approved and implemented.

• Successfully defended owner of large office building against motion for preliminary injunction seeking to halt exterior construction work on building.

• Successfully defended a large residential condominium association and its board members in a bitter, hard fought case brought by the owners of a unit who were not satisfied with the position the board had taken with respect to their planned renovation of the unit. With our clients facing multiple, substantial claims for damages and for declaratory and injunctive relief, we obtained summary judgment for our clients on all claims, which decision was affirmed by the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Owners of Flagship Wharf Condo 702 & another v. Parker, et al., 80 Mass. App. Ct. 283 (2011)