DLA Piper Served as Special REIT and Tax Counsel to Vivmark Residential in its combination with AvalonBay Communities

DLA Piper served as special REIT and tax counsel to Vivmark Residential, formerly known as Equity Residential, in its combination with AvalonBay Communities, Inc. – an all-stock merger of equals that will create a company with a pro forma equity market capitalization of approximately US$52 billion and a total enterprise value of approximately US$69 billion. The combined company is expected to own more than 180,000 rental apartments.

The DLA Piper team was led by Partners Jesse Criz, who co-leads the firm’s Global Investment Funds practice (Chicago), and Shiukay Hung, who co-leads the US REIT Tax practice (New York), and included Partners Allen Ashley, Brooke Kerendian, Tonya Gauff (all Chicago), Michael Makhotin (New York), and Penny Minna (Baltimore).

DLA Piper’s global Real Estate Investment Trust team has significant experience in public and private capital markets offerings, corporate finance, securities regulation, real estate, real estate finance, joint ventures, REITs, Up-C Corporation structuring, taxation, and employee benefits and ERISA. Our clients also benefit from the collective experience of our Global Real Estate practice, our Global Investment Funds practice, and our Global Tax practice. The firm represents many of the world’s largest and most sophisticated real estate investors, owners, developers, and lenders in their most important matters.