Real Estate Litigation
Benesch’s Real Estate Litigation team handles complex disputes involving the ownership, use and value of real property. We counsel lenders, developers, owners, operators and investors in high-stakes matters that influence how projects move forward, how portfolios are protected and how assets are valued and preserved. Our work spans condemnations, zoning and land use challenges, commercial lease disputes, restrictive covenants, environmental issues, title and easement questions, and litigation tied to distressed assets and financing.
Comprehensive Dispute Resolution Across the Real Estate Lifecycle
Real estate conflicts often arise at pivotal moments, including during development, redevelopment, financing, refinancing or distress. Our team anticipates these inflection points and helps clients navigate them with a mix of courtroom experience, industry knowledge and business practicality.
We represent clients in matters involving governmental condemnations, regulatory takings, large-tract zoning issues, inverse condemnation, environmental liability and cleanup, building code enforcement, tax disputes and condominium regulation. We also handle all forms of title, ownership and use rights, easements, restrictive covenants, leasehold issues and administrative hearings.
Distressed Assets, Lender Representation and Receiverships
A significant portion of our work involves distressed real estate and credit litigation. We regularly advise senior secured lenders, special servicers and trustees on multimillion-dollar disputes involving mixed-use properties, affordable housing, historic sites and large real estate portfolios.
Our experience includes receivership appointments, foreclosure proceedings, guarantor litigation, refinancing negotiations and sale processes that resolve defaulted or contested loans. We understand the operational and financial pressures facing lenders and borrowers and work to protect collateral value while moving matters toward resolution.
High-Value Commercial Disputes and Portfolio Conflicts
Our team also handles disputes arising within real estate investment structures, joint ventures and complex ownership arrangements. We provide strategic counsel on valuation disagreements, management issues and fiduciary obligations tied to significant real estate holdings.
Examples include serving as lead counsel to the trustee of a large family office in confidential mediation involving management and valuation disputes for a multibillion-dollar real estate portfolio, and representing clients in breach of contract claims against developers, including a $15 million arbitration.
We also help resolve conflicts between competing developers, securing outcomes that allow projects to move ahead and protect long-term asset value.
Commercial Lease Litigation
Commercial leasing disputes remain a central part of our practice, and our track record spans some of the most notable continuous use and occupancy cases in Ohio. Our work includes enforcing lease obligations, interpreting restrictive covenants and defending claims involving operating requirements in retail centers and mixed-use developments.
Our attorneys have prevailed in numerous published decisions addressing continuous operation clauses, indemnity issues and commercial lease enforcement.
Land Use, Easements and Property Rights
We advise clients on disputes tied to zoning, property development and land use rights, including challenges to governmental actions, site-planning conflicts and easement and encroachment issues. These matters often require close coordination with planning authorities, appraisers, environmental consultants and engineers, and we guide clients through the regulatory and litigation landscape to protect project timelines.
Our work includes negotiating and drafting new easement terms after encroachment issues were identified during site preparation for a new hotel development.
Our Work in Action – Representative Examples
- Guiding a senior secured lender through receivership and litigation involving approximately $30 million in loans secured by affordable housing assets in Pittsburgh, which required close coordination with local courts and property managers.
- Representing a lender in litigation and foreclosure of a historic Philadelphia property tied to more than $100 million in loans and navigating preservation and valuation considerations during the process.
- Representing a special servicer in litigation and refinancing of an approximately $25 million loan secured by a Philadelphia and Delaware County portfolio.
- Securing the sale of collateral and full loan satisfaction for a lender in litigation in Pennsylvania and New York.
- Litigating and refinancing approximately $55 million in loans secured by multiple Delaware assets in state and federal courts.
- Achieving a successful collateral sale and loan satisfaction in a Lehigh County dispute involving a mixed-use property and a $5 million credit facility.
Experience
- Representation of a senior secured lender in the receivership and litigation of approximately $30 million in loans secured by multiple affordable housing assets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Representation of a senior secured lender in the litigation and foreclosure of a significant historical property in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania involving more than $100 million in loans.
- Representation of a special servicer in litigation and in the refinancing of an approximately $25 million loan secured by a real estate portfolio in Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
- Representation of a senior secured lender in Pennsylvania and New York state court litigation against a borrower and guarantors, resulting in the sale of collateral to a third party and full satisfaction of the loan.
- Representation of a senior secured lender in litigation before state and federal courts in Delaware, as well as in the refinancing of approximately $55 million in loans secured by multiple assets located in New Castle County, Delaware.
- Representation of a senior secured lender in litigation in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, resulting in the sale of a mixed-use property to a third party and satisfaction of an approximately $5 million loan.
- Lead counsel to the trustee of a large family office in connection with confidential management and valuation disputes concerning a multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio (Mediation).
- Lead counsel in 15 M breach of contract arbitration claim against real estate developer and management.*
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Successful defense of suit between real estate developers, securing a favorable resolution which allowed client to develop and sell valuable property.*
- Louis Fodor, Trustee v. First National Supermarkets, Inc., 1990 WL 93210 (Ohio App.) Commercial lease and occupancy issues regarding continuous use clause.
- Negotiated and drafted documents to amend easements following an encroachment during site preparation for new hotel development.
- U.S.A. Parking Systems, Inc. v. Penn-Lillis Corp., 1995 WL 601186 (Ohio App. 8th Dist.) Won summary judgment in commercial lease dispute.
- First National Supermarkets, Inc. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., et al., 661 N.E.2d 1121 (Ohio App. 8 Dist.) Stock brokerage indemnity issues.
- Fodor, Trustee of Biddulph Plaza Shopping Center v. First National Supermarkets, Inc., 589 N.E.2d 17 (Ohio Supreme Court) Commercial lease issues regarding continuous operations clause.
- GMS Management Company, Inc., et al. v. Pick-N-Pay Supermarkets, Inc., et al., 601 N.E.2d 72 (Ohio App. 11 Dist.) Affirming summary judgment on continuous use issues in commercial lease.
- Louis Fodor v. First National Supermarkets, Inc., 1993 WL 526660 (Ohio App. 8 Dist.) Commercial lease issues regarding continuous operation clause.