For over 30 years, Walter has served as counsel and advisor to a broad range of clients, including institutional investors in real estate, private equity investors, municipal and nonprofit institutions, real estate operators and Fortune 500 corporations handling a broad range of real estate investment and real estate related matters across the United States and throughout the world. Walter is a past leader of the firm’s real estate investments & transactions practice.
Walter focuses his practice on representing investors in all types of real estate investments and financings. Simply put, such activity involves “putting money to work” in real estate. Walter handles acquisitions, sales, financings, leases, fund formations, co-investments, club deals, joint venture investments and other hybrid arrangements. As part of his practice, Walter acts as a relationship partner and provides high-level counsel to several investment funds and asset managers. Walter also represents a number of institutional clients and public entities in connection with development, design and construction-related projects.
Walter regularly represents Foundation Medicine, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, Abrams Capital, Sixth Street Partners, Nuveen Real Estate, Cain International, Grosvenor Capital Management, Starwood Capital, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, Strategic Value Partners, Hexagon Properties LLC and the TJX Companies (and other clients precluded from being listed here) in real estate related investments.
Experience
- Represented a major fund sponsor in a joint venture to acquire and refinance 5 Times Square in New York City for approximately $1.5 billion and in subsequent recapitalizations and financings.
- Represented a global investment bank in a $2 billion redevelopment of TSX Broadway, located at 1568 Broadway (Times Square) in New York City.
- Represented a leading US-based real estate investment management company in establishing and expanding the client’s life sciences and technology office strategy in properties in Cambridge, San Francisco and San Diego in eight separate joint ventures involving in excess of $1 billion of equity.
- Represented a leading US-based hospital and affiliated medical group in a $1.5 billion-plus sale-and-leaseback financing transaction with Medical Properties Trust, for real estate assets located in California, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
- Represents the credit and distressed investment business of one of the largest private equity firms in a series of acquisitions of individual and pooled non-performing loans and foreclosed commercial property. The transactions include both FDIC auctions and private purchases from a number of troubled banks. Most recently represented this client in (i) the acquisition of interests in the matured debt secured by the Zona Rosa retail, office, and residential project in Kansas City, Missouri; and (ii) in financing for the $1 billion development of Sunseeker Resorts Charlotte Harbor.
- Represents one of the world’s largest retailers on all major real estate matters over the past 25+ years including review, evaluation and strategic advice and assistance. Matters include the acquisition of the main corporate headquarters, secondary corporate campuses and other corporate offices, the handling, acquisition, closure, repurposing and disposition of stores, and the acquisition and sale of warehouse locations.
- Represented the leading US division of a worldwide pharmaceutical company in the $1 billion structuring, negotiation and execution of a build-to-suit lease transaction and construction for a 17 story 600,000 square-foot office and lab building to be built at 400 Summer Street, Boston.
- Represented Netrality Properties in (i) the acquisition and financing in multiple transactions of eight network data centers involving millions of square feet and costing in excess of $500 million; (ii) the acquisition of a colocation business from 365 Data Centers; (iii) arranging a partially secured $325 million Private Note Offering for such client; and (iv) the recapitalization and sale of such business by the lead investor.
- Represented a leading UK-based privately-held real estate investment firm operating in Europe and the US in a joint venture for the controlling interest of a project set to become the first Raffles Hotels & Resorts project in North America located in Boston’s Back Bay.
- Represented a real estate private equity fund in the acquisition of the Network Drive office park in Burlington, which consists of a 155-acre campus and roughly one million square feet of premier office space, as well as other properties.
- Represents a multinational pharmaceutical company on select real estate matters including acquisitions and dispositions and on the development and operation of innovation centers.
- Represented Martignetti Companies in connection with the acquisition, financing, design and construction of the development of an approximately 725,000 square-foot automated warehouse and corporate headquarters in Taunton, Massachusetts.
- Represented Waters Technologies Corporation in connection with the $215,000,000 expansion of its manufacturing plant, located in Taunton, Massachusetts.