Ari Glatt

My focus

Acquisitions and Sales

My work encompasses all stages of purchase and sale transactions from preparing and drafting the entire range of deal documents, through negotiations and closing. I help clients such as major developers, institutional lenders, joint ventures, high profile sponsors, and private investors by counseling them with respect to purchase and sale agreements; conveyance, construction, and escrow documents; broker and property manager arrangements; transfer tax planning; general corporate contracts; and financing structures, and all other diligence needed to ensure our clients are protected while efficiently sealing the deal.

Condominiums and Cooperatives

As part of my condominium and cooperative law practice, I guide sponsors and investors on the formation, marketing, and sale of commercial and residential units in both new construction and conversion condo and co-op buildings. A significant part of these matters includes preparing offering plans, overseeing unit sales, and navigating clients through the submissions process with the NY Attorney General’s Office—which has helped cultivate strong relationships with other assorted city and state agencies. By continuously collaborating with firm colleagues and attorneys on both the NYS Bar and NYC Bar Cooperative and Condominium Committees, I am apprised of cutting-edge issues in the world of condos and co-ops, permitting me to keep my clients aware of critical legal developments and new regulatory requirements.

Mortgages and Financings

I draft a wide variety of acquisition, bridge, and mezzanine financing documents—including loan agreements, guaranties, environmental indemnifications, assignments, modifications, subordinations, certificates, resolutions, and mortgages—for commercial and private lenders and borrowers. These sophisticated deals involve forming companies and preparing governing documents for a multitude of entities, which has allowed me to acquire in-depth knowledge of operating agreements as well as LLC, partnership, and corporate law. My experience in representing both sides of the negotiating table enables me to analyze and identify business opportunities for clients at every finance stage, from the term sheet to loan payoff.

Leasing

I work with both landlords and tenants in fast-paced markets to negotiate, assign, sublease, and amend commercial leases. I advise regarding all forms of leasing arrangements, from large and small office leases to more complex ground leases, including utilizing leasehold condominium structures to enable not-for-profit tenant entities to qualify for otherwise unavailable exemptions from real property taxes. I also handle issues in the context of landlord-tenant disputes, counseling my clients on litigation strategy and resolving disputes. These various leasing matters regularly involve negotiating related agreements such as brokerage, confidentiality, subordination, nondisturbance and attornment agreements, and contracts with design professionals, developers, and listing agents.

Representative experience

• Represented a joint venture as borrower in the CMBS financing of 15 multifamily properties, containing more than 1,000 apartment units, located in 4 states 
• Represented a major developer before the Real Estate Finance Bureau of the NY State Attorney General’s office through the offering plan process for a 100+ unit luxury residential condominium in New York City
• Represented an owner of a 550,000-square-foot commercial office/retail building in Chicago for its leasing and financing transactions
• Represented the lessor/owner of the leased fee interest of a retail building in midtown Manhattan with negotiating a lease termination and surrender from the triple net lessee, and handled the subsequent bridge financing, marketing, and ultimate sale of the building 
• Represented a joint venture partnership in its sale of two fully leased multifamily buildings in New York
• Represented the owner/landlord to negotiate and implement a master lease structure covering a portfolio of 160+ healthcare facilities with an approximately $1 billion securitized financing 
• Represented the sponsor of a high-end NYC condominium in its sale of a commercial unit to the nonprofit tenant, including obtaining the no-action letter from the NY State Attorney General’s office to exempt the transaction from registration and filing requirements
• Represented a REIT as lender with frequent commercial bridge and preferred equity financings for properties throughout the country 
• Represented a publicly traded manufacturing company as landlord in the negotiation of a long-term ground lease to develop an industrial factory
• Represented a real estate development company as the seller/sponsor in the disposition of a downtown NYC commercial condo unit to a nonprofit organization, including structuring the transaction to qualify as a “Bargain Sale” under § 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, and closing title in accordance with the offering plan
• Represented a nonprofit corporation through the process of obtaining NY State Attorney General confirmation and court approval to sell all its real estate assets 
• Represented a well-known New York real estate family on numerous real estate matters, including the lease-up of several of its mid-town office buildings and corporate restructuring of 60+ limited liability companies and corporations

Looking ahead

As fewer workers commute and office vacancies remain high, more and more building owners are calling emphatically for governments to reimagine the future of city business districts, all the while as residential communities are agitating for additional affordable housing options.

Due to this excess office space and growing housing need, I foresee greater emphasis on the use of real estate tax exemptions and abatements by elected officials to incentivize office-to-residential conversions. Those tax-saving opportunities will serve as a catalyst for savvy developers and investors to revitalize unused commercial and retail areas by converting them to new uses and living spaces.