Jeffrey Drew Butt
Real Estate
Clients who demand broad legal acumen and innovative thinking to guide their real estate projects from start to finish find those talents in the lawyers at Squire Sanders. Our real estate practice group has structured and finalized real estate transactions for clients around the globe – hotels from Miami's South Beach to Palau, golf courses from Phoenix to Scotland, airports, multifamily developments, mixed use facilities and power plants from the Midwestern US to Venezuela.
We represent such varied clients as engineers and developers, contractors and commercial landlords, foreign and domestic investors, banks, bond companies, underwriters and public bodies. Our work involves the full spectrum of issues encountered in successfully closing a transaction – negotiating, completing due diligence, documenting and inking contracts.
Our clients in the hospitality industry have needs as diverse as the properties they represent. From acquisition, development and financing, to management, operations and loan workouts, industry clients demand broadminded legal counsel to meet the variety of issues facing them in an expanding hospitality market.
We have a long history of representing hospitality industry clients worldwide – developers, owners, operators, franchisers, franchisees and financial institutions – involving hundreds of properties including hotels, resorts and spas, performing arts theaters, sports stadiums and museums, snow skiing sites, golf courses, golf and tennis clubs, and fractional ownership projects. Additionally, we counsel our golf course clientele on land development and use issues, creation of private golf and country club documents, purchasing and selling courses, management and access agreements and trademark protection, among a host of other issues. Our clients have come to regard our lawyers as leading dealmakers who know how to analyze and complete transactions successfully, consistent with their goals and objectives.
We are technically skilled in all areas of real estate transactions, from tax exempt and variable-rate financing to equity participations and REITs, from construction lending to convertible and contingent-interest mortgages, from synthetic leases to syndications. One of our most significant functions is to develop the financing and ownership structures of a project to provide the client maximum benefits while limiting its vulnerability to tax and other liabilities.
We often direct due diligence for an acquisition and negotiate management and franchise agreements. We advise clients on how to deal with or acquire troubled projects and have extensive experience as debtor's counsel, creditors' counsel and creditors committee's counsel.
Our real estate practice group manages complex transactions worldwide. By opening offices, for instance, in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Poland and the Slovak Republic, Squire Sanders became one of the first law firms to address the growing need for lawyers to provide real estate services to enterprises and institutions in rapidly developing markets outside the US and Western Europe.
The extensive experience of our real estate team encompasses:
* Acquisitions and disposition
* Affordable housing and development
* Bankruptcy, workouts and foreclosures
* Construction
* Financing
* Hotel, resort and leisure properties
* Loan work
* Management agreements
* Multifamily housing
* Private equity
* Public-private partnerships
Real Estate Certified Attorney - Florida Bar
Jeffrey Drew Butt
Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLC
201 N Franklin St #2100
Tampa FL 33602-5813
Tel: 813 202-1300
Fax: 813 202-1313
E-mail: jdbutt@ssd.com
Practices
* Real Estate
* Community Development & Affordable Housing
Industries
* Construction & Engineering
* Banking & Debt Finance
Originally admitted to practice in Texas in 1984 and Massachusetts in 1986, Jeffrey Drew Butt has 25 years of experience representing clients in all aspects of complex transactions. Mr. Butt focuses his practice in the areas of real estate, leasing, business law, affordable housing and commercial transactions including the purchase and sale of businesses and assets. He also represents lenders and borrowers in real estate, asset-based and affordable housing financings as well as in workouts, restructurings and foreclosures.
In 2006, Mr. Butt received the Golden Achievement Award from the United Way of Tampa Bay. The recognition, the organization’s most prestigious volunteer honor, was for his 16 years of service as pro bono legal counsel to the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. For his work with the Crisis Center, Mr. Butt was also awarded the Daily Point of Light Award, a national honor given to recognize individuals whose service has greatly benefited their community. Similarly, in August 2007 he was honored by Florida Governor Charlie Crist with the Governor's Points of Light Award. In 2009, he was selected by his peers as a Florida Super Lawyer – the top five percent of lawyers in the state – for his work in real estate. He is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2009.
Mr. Butt is experienced in the acquisition, sale, financing and development of shopping centers, office buildings, hotels, nursing homes, restaurants, condominiums and apartment complexes. He has performed complex leasing transactions including long-term ground leases, for landlords and tenants.
Mr. Butt is a frequent lecturer on title insurance and related topics. In addition, he is a board certified real estate lawyer by the Florida Bar’s board of legal specialization and education.
Mr. Butt is a member of the Real Property Sections of the American Bar Association and The Florida Bar. Active in the community, he is the chair ex-officio of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay’s board of directors as well as a participant in Leadership Tampa and the Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Butt also served for many years on the construction oversight committee of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.
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