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Real Estate & Land Use
From contract negotiation and financing to zoning, redevelopment, and development approvals, we represent every segment of the real estate community, guiding developers, investors, owners, and public entities from the ground up.
HILL WALLACK LLP
Every great development starts with the ground it stands on. And the team standing behind it.
Hill Wallack LLP represents every segment of the real estate community, including developers, investors, landlords, tenants, lenders, borrowers, and individual buyers and sellers. Our attorneys have vast experience across real estate development, redevelopment, investment, leasing, and lending, paired with one of the premier land use practices in both New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania. We consider each client’s business needs and objectives, then recommend the legal strategy that accomplishes those goals most efficiently.
We provide effective representation across every aspect of a real estate transaction, from contract review and negotiation to financing, acquisition, leasing, environmental review, zoning, construction, and disposition. We closely monitor related market conditions and trends, and our clients benefit from our work on title issues, permitting and land use approvals, condemnation, redevelopment, utility approvals, planned unit developments, environmental concerns, property management, tax appeals, and construction industry matters.
Our land use attorneys are known for their successful pursuit of planning board approvals and development permits, enabling construction of some of the largest developments in New Jersey, and, where necessary, litigation to obtain permits and approvals wrongfully denied by the government. We prepare, analyze, and critique “area in need of redevelopment” designations along with redevelopment plans, studies, and agreements, and we advise banks and other financial institutions on the zoning and regulatory issues affecting properties in which they hold an interest. We also counsel clients on a range of green building issues, including compliance with green building requirements.
Our active residential real estate practice represents individuals, banks, mortgage servicers, investors, and business owners in all aspects of purchases, sales, and refinancing. We regularly work with corporations and universities in connection with relocating employees into and out of New Jersey.
Where we can, we work to avoid litigation. But when litigation is our clients’ only or best alternative, we provide aggressive, cost-effective advocacy at both the trial and appellate levels, in state and federal courts.
We represent private and public sector clients in all facets of real estate and land development. Our clients include some of the nation’s leading homebuilders, office and commercial developers, redevelopers, financial institutions, state and local redevelopment authorities, public transportation authorities, municipalities and local boards, along with individuals, banks, mortgage servicers, investors, and business owners.
We are also proud to serve as Land Use Counsel to the New Jersey Builders Association, representing the NJBA on a variety of legislative, regulatory, and litigation matters affecting the industry.
Our Land Use Team attorneys collectively bring decades of experience to the table, from the regulatory analysis of land at the outset, to the acquisition of all necessary permits and approvals, along with the litigation that often becomes necessary in today’s anti-growth atmosphere. The team includes former state officials and other recognized leaders in land use law, among them two former chairs of the Land Use Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association and others who have served on its Board of Directors.
The Land Use Team is the legacy of firm founder Henry Hill, who pioneered work in the Mount Laurel doctrine, an area of law that has affected development throughout much of New Jersey for more than a quarter of a century. We have represented clients in nearly every landmark land use case issued by New Jersey courts over the last few decades, including the Mount Laurel opinions striking down exclusionary zoning, the regulations of the Council on Affordable Housing, redevelopment cases such as Gallenthin v. Paulsboro, and cases evaluating development fees, other exactions, and the Residential Site Improvement Standards. Over the years, our team has built a reputation for uncommon devotion to the land use causes of our clients.
Our Pennsylvania Land Use Practice Group has deep and diverse experience in land use and municipal law, giving developers and property owners the guidance and support they need to work their way through the system. Because we have written and enforced zoning ordinances, subdivision and land development ordinances, and other municipal codes, we understand how those ordinances work, how they should be interpreted, and how they should be applied.
We also understand that most development projects involve more than the application of zoning and land development ordinances. Because these projects affect neighborhoods and entire communities, public reaction and political realities are often just as important as the strict wording of an ordinance. We recognize the value of community outreach and consensus-building, and we tailor our strategy to each project’s priorities, whether that means moving quickly, protecting a particular design or capacity, or achieving a specific end result. Our attorneys regularly appear before the Boards of Supervisors, Borough Councils, and Zoning Hearing Boards of dozens of municipalities throughout Bucks County and Eastern Montgomery County, and our relationships with municipal staff and professionals allow us to engage constructively on our clients’ behalf.
Our Real Estate and Land Use teams operate within a diversified firm that is well-equipped to deliver comprehensive, cross-disciplinary solutions. We work in an interdisciplinary fashion with colleagues across related practice areas to provide integrated representation, including:
- Affordable Housing / COAH Proceedings
- Commercial Leasing & Property Management
- Community Associations
- Construction Industry
- Eminent Domain
- Real Estate Tax Appeals
- Redevelopment
- Corporate Law
The Real Estate and Land Use Practice Groups at Hill Wallack LLP are proud of their reputation for responsiveness and efficiency, and for handling every matter with the skill and sophistication needed to achieve the desired result.
representative matters
- Pursuit of development application approvals for single-family and multi-family communities throughout New Jersey, both large and small
- Drafting and execution of redevelopment plans, ordinances, and agreements for residential and nonresidential projects
- New Jersey Supreme Court proceedings involving redevelopment law, the Mount Laurel doctrine, and other land use issues
- Pursuit of client rezoning objectives before the courts
- Legal advice to the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) in preparing and adopting the Atlantic City Tourism District Master Plan
- Land development approvals and zoning relief for an 8+ acre mixed-use traditional neighborhood development, including residential and mixed-use retail, office, restaurant, parking garage, and public piazza
- Zoning approvals for new radio communications towers and facilities as part of a county-wide emergency communications upgrade
- Land development approvals and zoning relief for three new regional elementary schools replacing nine aging schools
- Land use appeals, variances, and special exceptions for local and regional business owners seeking to grow and better serve their communities
Hill Wallack LLP