Overview
Real estate is at the heart of Gunster’s legal practice. Our firm has been committed to remaining at the forefront of Florida’s dynamic real estate market since 1925. We strive to continuously deliver both poignant and effective legal counsel pertaining to all types of real estate transactions. Because real estate is a primary driver of growth in Florida, our attorneys have consistently focused on providing the insightful and sophisticated legal counsel needed to succeed in this critical industry.
Gunster real estate attorneys are dedicated to offering clients a multidisciplinary, single source option for high-quality representation on sophisticated and complex real estate matters. Gunster clients in the real estate industry include owners, investors, lenders, borrowers, brokers, contractors, management companies and developers for all types of real estate and related matters, including:
- Acquisitions and dispositions of all property types
- Traditional residential community development
- Multifamily development
- High-rise condominium development
- Mixed-use development
- Hotel, golf course, leisure and resort development (including club structuring)
- Agricultural land
- Industrial, office and retail development
- Leasing of all property types on behalf of landlords and tenants
- Long-term ground leasing
- Entity formation and structuring
- Real estate joint ventures
- Public and private joint ventures
- Environmental and land use
- Construction
- Real estate financing on behalf of lenders and borrowers
- Debt restructuring, loan modifications and workouts
- Purchase and sale of distressed properties and nonperforming loans
- Low-income housing
- Energy project development
- State, federal and international real estate tax considerations
- Community development districts and redevelopment agencies
- Property rights and eminent domain
- Real estate litigation
Gunster’s mission is to make our clients’ vision a reality. The firm’s goal is to offer legal representation for all types of property through all stages of development: due diligence, entitlement, acquisition, development, operation and disposition. One of the more important facets of any contemplated real estate project is due diligence, and Gunster seeks to provide the experience and capability needed to address the extensive due diligence process. This may involve the evaluation of issues pertaining to title, survey, environmental conditions, land use and zoning, existing leases and contracts, construction agreements, development issues and legal compliance.
Our lawyers seek to provide legal counsel that is broad and dimensional, as well as creative, practical and flexible. Our practice includes a variety of real estate transactions. Our real estate attorneys can draw from experience in one area of the industry to address a problem in another. For example, our legal practice involving development issues complements our ground and build-to-suit leasing capabilities, which usually involves long-term leasing of raw land for the purpose of development. Another example is Gunster real estate attorneys’ experience in construction liability law and homeowner and condominium association documentation, which allows our attorneys to pursue innovative ways to address some of the thornier issues of community development, such as developer liability and turnover.
Gunster real estate attorneys have been advising clients for decades on all phases of construction. Our attorneys can apply the law in a practical manner to resolve issues related to all phases of a real estate project. In addition, our firm has the ability to draw upon the experience of attorneys in other disciplines, such as eminent domain, construction defect liability, land use and property rights, hazardous substance mitigation and removal, environmental permitting, lender liability, landlord/tenant, bankruptcy, foreclosure, receivership, insurance coverage, corporate structuring, asset protection and commercial litigation.
