Goodwin Procter Lawyers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Boston Structure the Most Significant Real Estate Partnership of the Downtown Los Angeles Renaissance
Los Angeles, June 15, 2007 -- Goodwin Procter LLP, one of the nation's leading law firms, today announced the successful completion of its legal representation on behalf of the real estate investment management firm MacFarlane Partners in structuring the historic partnership agreement between MacFarlane and AEG to develop the $900 million Hotel and Residences at L.A. LIVE.
The complex partnership was the last critical step in moving forward the final component of AEG's master plan for L.A. LIVE, a $2.5 billion sports, residential and entertainment district that AEG is developing adjacent to the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention center in downtown Los Angeles. It also led to the recent groundbreaking for the 54-story Hotel and Residences tower that will anchor L.A. LIVE, redefine the South Park skyline and provide downtown Los Angeles and its Convention Center with a landmark hotel location.
"The diligent, expeditious and creative legal service provided by Goodwin Procter made all the difference in reaching the successful agreement for our partnership with AEG at L.A. LIVE," said Peter Houghton, managing director, investments in the Los Angeles office of MacFarlane Partners, which manages $15 billion in real estate assets on behalf of its institutional capital partners. "We would also like to commend the attorneys from Goodwin Procter who played an earlier role in forging the complex tax-credit arrangements with the City of Los Angeles that made this partnership and development possible. The overall structure of the partnership, finance arrangements and public participation for L.A. LIVE will benefit the entire city of Los Angeles."
The Hotel and Residences at L.A. LIVE will consist of an 877-room Marriott Hotel and a 124-room Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the tower's lower floors, and 224 Ritz-Carlton Residences luxury condominiums on the upper-most floors. It also will feature more than 200,000 square feet of ballroom and conference-center space.
The Goodwin Procter legal team representing MacFarlane included Dani Vogt, partner, and Ben Tschann, associate, in Los Angeles; Mark Goldberg, partner, in San Francisco; Christopher Price, partner, Marian George, associate, and Rishi Sehgal, associate, in New York.
"Our entire team is extremely proud to have represented MacFarlane Partners in its successful partnership with AEG for L.A. LIVE," said Pappas. "Our national real estate resources contributed to forge an agreement that builds on our firm's previous work for the project principals and allowed this project to become a reality. More importantly, we helped our clients to achieve their ambitious business goals. I joined Goodwin Procter earlier this year because of the firm's unparalleled capabilities to meet the most complex legal challenges the business and real estate world can offer. This is a fine example of the application of these capabilities."
In recent years, Goodwin Procter has structured and executed Public/Private development financing in excess of $20 billion, has counseled clients on REIT and REIT M&A deals totaling more than $70 billion, has counseled clients on real estate investment transactions valued at more than $20 billion, and has provided advice on the formation of real estate and related funds with private equity capital in excess of $20 billion.
In 2006, Goodwin Procter assisted its clients in two of the biggest real estate acquisitions ever completed in the United States when BlackRock Realty Advisors, Inc. acquired Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York City, which has been lauded as the largest property acquisition in U.S. history, and when Brookfield Properties Corporation and the Blackstone Group acquired Trizec Properties, for $9.3 billion, believed to be the largest U.S. office property acquisition. Goodwin Procter also took part in one of the largest real estate deals ever when Equity Office Properties was acquired by Blackstone Real Estate Partners, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, in a transaction valued at approximately $38.3 billion.
About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation's leading law firms with more than 750 attorneys in offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm was recently ranked in the top 50 firms on the AmLaw 100 and has received recent accolades from Chambers USA, which ranked 76 of the firm's attorneys for excellence across 22 practice areas. The firm's core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property and products liability. Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com.