Yoel Kranz

Yoel Kranz is co-chair of the firm’s nationally recognized REITs and Real Estate M&A practice. He has 25 years of experience in advising public and private companies in corporate mergers and acquisitions, and serves as ongoing corporate and securities counsel for a diverse group of public companies, including numerous REITs. Yoel represents or has recently represented a variety of NYSE-listed and other public companies, such as Medical Properties Trust, Gaming & Leisure Properties, AvalonBay Communities, Mid-America Apartment Communities, Paramount Group Realty and Phillips Edison & Company.

Yoel is listed in the national REIT category in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and is recognized by The Legal 500 US for his work in the REIT industry.

Yoel’s practice is focused on corporate counseling and strategic advice to his clients and he regularly handles a variety of major business transactions, including public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic collaborations, and commercial transactions. Yoel’s activities in recent years include representing:

• The Regents of the University of California in connection with the UC’s $4.0 billion investment in shares of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust and related strategic alliance with Blackstone, Inc.
• Cedar Realty Trust in connection with its $1.2 billion sale of the company and its assets to affiliates of DRA Advisors in a series of all-cash transactions, followed a merger combination with Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust
• Gaming & Leisure Properties on its agreement to acquire the real property assets of Live! Casino & Hotel in Maryland, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh from The Cordish Companies for $1.81 billion
• Counsel to three leading multinational investment banks as lead underwriters in connection with the IPO of Phillips Edison & Company
• Medical Properties Trust in its acquisition of a £1.5 billion portfolio of 30 acute care hospital facilities in the United Kingdom and its €1.6 billion joint venture transaction with Primonial Group, involving a portfolio of German healthcare assets
• Gaming & Leisure Properties in its $1.65 billion acquisition of Tropicana Entertainment from Icahn Enterprises and simultaneous lease of gaming facilities to Eldorado Resorts, Inc.
• Empire State Realty in multiple transactions, including the $620 million acquisition of a 9.9% interest in ESRT by an affiliate of Qatar Investment Authority
• Cedar Realty Trust in multiple matters, including public offerings of common and preferred stock and activist defense
• Phillips Edison & Company in multiple corporate and governance matters, including advice with respect to its $1.9 billion acquisition of Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT II
• AvalonBay Communities in a $685 million public offering of its common stock on a forward basis

Yoel is a member of the adjunct faculty at The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, Columbia Business School and a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School. In 2011 and 2018, Yoel was a guest lecturer at Tel Aviv University Law School, teaching coursework in US mergers and acquisitions practice.

Prior to joining Goodwin, Yoel was a corporate associate in the New York and London offices of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Yoel is recognized by Legal 500 as a “Leading Lawyer” in 2024 and was ranked in 2021-2023 for his work in REITs. He has also been ranked by Chambers USA in 2024, 2023, and 2021 for his work in REITs.

• Co-Author, “REIT Disclosure Requirements When Acquiring or Disposing of Real Estate Operations,” The Real Estate Finance Journal, April 28, 2023
• Co-Author, “Further Trends in REIT M&A: 2019–2021,” Goodwin Insights, March 2021
• Co-Author, “SEC Proposes Amendments to Financial Statement Requirements Applicable to Real Estate Acquisitions and Dispositions,” Goodwin Client Alert, June 2019
• Co-Author, “2019 Update: Corporate Governance Trends in the Public REIT Sector,” Goodwin Insights, February 2019
• Co-Author, “Update: Further Trends In Reit M&A (2018)”, Goodwin Insights, January 2019
• Co-Author, "REITs and the PRIIPs Regulation," Goodwin Client Alert, May 2018
• Co-Author, “Trends in Public REIT M&A: 2012–2017,” Goodwin Insights, January 2018
• Co-Author, “Corporate Governance Trends in the Public REIT Sector: An Evolving Landscape,” Goodwin Client Alert, April 2017
• Co-Author, “Waivers of Ownership Limitation Provisions in REIT Charters,” Goodwin Client Alert, June 2016
• Co-Author, “Why Green Street Should Rethink Its One-Size Fits All Position on Corporate Governance,” JD Supra, June 2015
• Co-Author, “Barbarians at the (REIT) Gates: REITs Should Be Prepared for a New World Order of Shareholder Activists, Hostile Overtures and Proxy Fights,” Goodwin Client Alert, February 2015
• Co-Author, “REITs and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive,” Goodwin Client Alert, November 2014