Overview

Geoff Howell concentrates his practice on real estate development, finance, and leasing.

He has represented regional and national owners and developers in a broad variety of complex commercial real estate transactions, including the development, financing, leasing and operation of mixed-use office and laboratory parks, hotels, green buildings, multi-tenant and build-to-suit office buildings, and telecommunications facilities; like-kind exchanges; the development of a national rooftop leasing program; the permitting of one of the largest residential developments in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; the redevelopment of an urban renewal project into one of Massachusetts’ largest bio-medical laboratory facilities; and the acquisition of a horse-racing track.

Mr. Howell has made several appearances in front of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston Zoning Board of Appeals, and other permitting bodies in Boston and the surrounding area on behalf of project proponents. He is leasing counsel for numerous office and laboratory tenants, including two national consulting firms. He also represents landlords at major laboratory complexes throughout the country.

Mr. Howell’s pro bono work includes acting as counsel to a nonprofit affordable housing and consumer advisory group in its efforts to acquire and develop a new headquarters building.

Mr. Howell serves on the executive committee of the board of directors of Greater Boston Legal Services. Mr. Howell is a member of the Boston Bar Association. Prior to attending law school, he was a staff writer for the Trenton Times.

The respected English research firm Chambers & Partners has listed Mr. Howell in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the country's leading real estate lawyers, quoting clients who praise him for his handling of leasing matters and his "fantastic grip on the commercial reality of transactions.” He has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer "Rising Star" in commercial real estate by Law & Politics magazine.

Representative Matters

• Borrower’s counsel for approximately $260 million in construction and permanent financing for approximately 900,000 square feet of new and redeveloped office and laboratory space in a suburban mixed use project;
• Borrower’s counsel for an approximately $250 million construction loan for approximately 400,000 square feet of new office and laboratory space in an urban mixed use project;
• Landlord’s counsel in the negotiation of a build-to-suite lease for approximately 325,000 square feet of office space in a suburban office park;
• Landlord’s counsel in the negotiation of a lease for approximately 350,000 square feet of medical office and laboratory space in a multi-tenant environment;
• Purchaser’s counsel in the acquisition of select single-tenant properties throughout New England as part of a new investment portfolio;
• Owner’s and developer’s counsel for a state agency constructing a state-of-the-art clean energy testing facility in Boston;
• Owner and developer’s counsel in the acquisition, construction, leasing and disposition of an approximately 225,000 square foot office building constructed in suburban Boston;
• Owner’s counsel for the leasing and disposition of an approximately 419,000 square foot Class B office building converted to telecommunications use;
• Owner’s counsel for the acquisition, permitting, re-development and leasing of a 55,000 square foot downtown Boston office and light manufacturing building;
• Tenant’s counsel for a national management consulting firm in its lease negotiations in New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta;
• Tenant’s counsel for numerous technology-based clients in the greater Boston area;
• Tenant’s and owner’s counsel for a publicly traded Fortune 500 investment bank with respect to numerous portfolio properties, including headquarters buildings in Boston and Quincy, Massachusetts;
• Owner and developer’s counsel in the construction and mezzanine debt financing and development of a 300 room hotel in the City of Boston;
• Lender’s counsel to a Massachusetts-based real estate development and investment firm in the roll-out of a national leasehold financing mechanism;
• Acquisition counsel for a state employees pension fund in the purchase of a regional shopping center;
• Investor’s counsel in the formation of a joint venture to control the six acre site of a proposed mixed use project in a suburb of Washington, D.C., including the negotiation of a 60-year ground lease for the project site;
• Leasing counsel for several major office and/or laboratory buildings and parks in Andover, Boston, Cambridge and Waltham, Massachusetts, suburban Chicago, Baltimore and southern Connecticut.

ZULASSUNGEN

• Massachusetts

Mitgliedschaften

• Co-chair, Real Estate of the Boston Bar Association's Real Estate Section; National Association of Industrial and Office Properties; Real Estate Finance Association; Massachusetts Association for Economic Development.

Publikationen

• Author of 2004 supplement to the chapter entitled “Parties and Powers to Lease”, in Lease Drafting in Massachusetts, published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education
• Co-chair, "Commercial Real Estate Leasing: Risky Business? Lease Drafting for Allocation of Risk in Massachusetts," Boston Bar Association, April 10, 2003
• "Tenants, Landlords Must Perfect Lab Arrangements to a Science," Banker & Tradesman, September 30, 2002

Seminars

• Moderator, “Changing Times, Changing Strategies: Meeting the Challenge of the Downturn,” Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development Annual Conference, June 13, 2008
• Co-presenter of educational sessions on the use of alternative dispute resolution in commercial leasing and commercial leasing basics; sole presenter on cutting-edge leasing issues under the US Patriot Act, each to the Boston Bar Association Real Estate Section's leasing committee.

Ehrenamtliche und gemeinnützige Tätigkeiten

• Serves as the firm's representative to, and on the Marketing Massachusetts Committee for, the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development, a private, non-profit partnership of business, industry leaders, and government dedicated to the economic growth of Massachusetts.
• Serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for Greater Boston Legal Services, the leading provider of civil legal services to low income residents of the Greater Boston area.