In joining Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Chicago office, Jeff Friedman brings his skills as a versatile real estate attorney to clients who need advice on acquisitions, dispositions, debt and equity finance, developments, property management, and leasing in markets throughout North America. He joins the firm as a partner in the real estate practice.
Mr. Friedman has more than 20 years of experience handling deals for developers, institutional investors and owners. His experience includes retail, office, industrial and multi-family assets, as well as mixed-use developments and cannabis industry projects. He also advises on transactions involving distressed properties and workouts, IRC Section 1031 like-kind exchanges and opportunity zone investments.
Mr. Friedman’s capabilities include handling sophisticated, multi-party joint ventures and negotiating agreements which are typical in such deals. He also negotiates complex land use agreements, like construction agreements, development agreements, and cross-easement and use agreements. Mr. Friedman also advises borrowers on debt and equity financing for both stabilized real estate assets and construction projects.
Some of the notable deals that Mr. Friedman handled prior to his move to the firm include:
- A $344 million sale of a Helmut Jahn-designed one million square foot office building in Chicago.
- The IRC Section 1031 like-kind exchange structuring for the sale of $500 million in franchised fast food locations around the country.
- A tenant in an office lease deal for two full floors of space in a newly constructed building in Denver’s Belleview Station, the single largest new lease in the City of Denver since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Mr. Friedman earned his J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology and his B.A. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
