Overview
We counsel all major stakeholders in real estate finance transactions, including:
- Over 50 national, regional and local banks
- Administrative agents
- Borrowers
- Institutional investors
- Insurance companies
- Lenders, including more than a dozen of the largest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured multi-family lenders
- Sponsors
Our 360-Degree Approach
Our real estate finance group works seamlessly across Vorys’ corporate real estate, tax and litigation practices to provide holistic service throughout the full lifecycle of real estate development projects.
Leveraging our collective knowledge and experience to provide pragmatic counsel and innovative solutions to clients is a top priority for our firm. To that end, Vorys created proprietary software that streamlines the preparation of FHA-insured loan documents and implements quality controls, exemplifying our commitment to efficiency and excellence.
What We Do
We have negotiated and structured sophisticated finance transactions for an array of real estate projects across the country, many involving prominent metropolitan buildings such as the 41-story Great American Tower – the tallest skyscraper in Cincinnati, Ohio.
We lead multimillion- and multibillion-dollar transactions, including cross-border and multicurrency deals, as well as secured, unsecured, syndicated, single-lender and mortgage financings.
Our experience also includes real estate finance transactions involving:
- Asset-based facilities
- Bond financing
- Bridge loans
- Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CNBS) or “conduit loans”
- Construction financing
- Derivatives
- Development bonds
- Diligence
- FHA-insured loans
- Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) loan programs
- Joint ventures and partnerships
- Lease-hold mortgages
- Loan assumptions, modifications and workouts
- Mezzanine financings
- Opportunity zone structures
- Public and private syndications
- Real estate fund financings
- Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Refinancings
- Sale leasebacks
- Securitized financings
- Short-term loans
- Subordinated debt financings
- Swaps
- Tax credit transactions
- Tax-exempt bonds
- Tax increment financing
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Vorys’ real estate finance team has closed more than 5,000 FHA insured loans on behalf of borrowers and more than a dozen of the largest FHA insured lenders. Notably, we close approximately 15% of all FHA insured multifamily and health care loans in the nation each year.
With deep experience handling FHA transactions since the early 1990s, we currently represent more than a dozen FHA-approved lenders. Our experience in assisting HUD with drafting legal documents used in FHA insured loans positions us to provide pragmatic counsel on various statutory, regulatory and administrative considerations for such transactions, as well as deals involving bridge-to-HUD loans.
National Recognition and Industry Leadership
We are proud to have earned top honors as a national Tier 1 firm for real estate law in the Best Lawyers® 2024 “Best Law Firms” report, as well as long-standing recognition as a “Leading Law Firm” in Ohio for real estate law in the prestigious Chambers USA guide.
In its 2024 guide, Chambers and Partners notes that Vorys’ “premier real estate group” has “significant experience in a wide range of matters including financing, lease negotiation and entity structuring.” Our practice also is lauded for its experience in “HUD financing and joint venture transactions,” and for maintaining “a fine track record for its work in condominium development and urban redevelopment projects.”
Our team includes numerous attorneys who have held prominent leadership positions with preeminent industry advocacy groups, such as the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Southeast Mortgagee Advisory Council (SMAC) and the Eastern Lenders Association (ELA), among others. Vorys attorneys also regularly present on a range of real estate finance topics at annual HUD and lender conferences.
