Lorenzo Balzano
Partner
Real Estate – Construction – Urban Planning
We advise all types of operators, including developers, investors, property companies, funds, industrialists, hotel and catering groups, users, renewable energy operators and public entities.
We offer a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary range of real estate law services, both in its public and private law components. We combine expertise in urban planning, development, real estate development and construction, and real estate operations and investments.
We also offer to assist you in the management of your real estate project during all phases of the planned operation.
Our support covers, of course, all environmental issues, which can be major in certain large-scale projects or those located in emblematic sites. We regularly work in close collaboration with our team specialising in real estate financing and the creation of regulated funds.
Finally, we have proven experience in technical appraisals and real estate and urban planning litigation.
Our solutions
Urban planning authorisations
- Audit of authorisation application files
- Commercial planning
- Pre-emptive rights
Development
- Implementation of development operations
- Review of ZAC (joint development zone) files
- Concession agreements
- Financing of public facilities
Promotion-construction
- Works contracts
- Constructor liability and insurance
- Project structuring
- AMO (Assistance to the contracting authority) and MOD (delegated project management)
- Turnkey contracts, general contractor, CPI (real estate development contracts) and VEFA (sales before completion)
Real estate transactions
- Property audits
- Pre-contracts and partnerships
- Structuring of acquisitions and disposals (asset and share deals)
- Real estate M&A
- Structuring of investment vehicles
- BEFA (lease before completion), commercial leases, short- and long-term leases
- Sustainable real estate (labels, energy performance, green leases, tertiary decree, etc.)
Real estate and environment
- Health regulations applicable to real estate assets
- Disposals, acquisitions, leases, liability guarantees, etc.
- Management of risks related to logistics assets
- Anticipation of constraints related to the treatment of brownfields and potentially polluted sites, both in terms of advice and (pre-)litigation
- Assessment of environmental risks relating to real estate projects
- Environmental assessment and authorisation
Project management
- Support during development
- Legal security of the project
- Prevention of conflicts
Litigation
- Expertise management and monitoring
- Building and real estate litigation
- Rental litigation
- Urban planning litigation (permits, expropriation, etc.)
The team Real Estate – Construction – Urban Planning
Jocelyn Duval
Partner
Noemie Lenormand
Lawyer
Oriane Fievet
Lawyer
Chloé Dahéron
Lawyer
Elie Chamak
Lawyer
Awards
« Recommended firm »
References
- Representation of an investment fund owner of photovoltaic roof-top plants in several legal actions against construction operators and insurance companies in connection with disturbances affecting the said plants.
- Advising an institutional investor in a co-investment project in a real estate company whose commercial purpose is the construction and subsequent marketing of a warehouse in Brive (business lease, off-plan (BEFA), green schedule, turnkey construction contract (CPI).
- Advising a French investment fund in (i) the completion of audits related to the acquisition of an office building in Montreuil, (ii) the negotiation of a turnkey construction contract and a sale off-plan related to a new building to be built on site; and assisting in (i) the monitoring of the acceptance/delivery operations of the building, (ii) a pre-litigation with a lessor and with the investor in future state of completion.
- Advising French institutional investors in (i) analysing the risks associated with a delay in the delivery of an office building to be built and leased in the PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), (ii) carrying out pre-litigation with the real estate developer (real estate development contract), and (iii) managing issues related to the lifting of reservations and a geothermal energy facility supplying the building.
- Advising an automobile distribution group when carrying out a transaction to sell a plot of land with a grant for payment in a future state of completion.
- Advising a luxury catering group in the negotiation of an off-plan lease relating to the opening of a prestigious establishment on the Côte d’Azur (real estate and corporate aspects).
- Counsel to a non-profit association in the context of the restructuring of a building complex in Paris, dedicated to the care of children in difficulty: preventive injunction relating to the building site, management of relations with local residents, pre-litigation and judicial conciliation in the context of a disagreement with an architect, and urban planning issues.
- Advising a prestigious public institution in the management of contractual and pre-litigation issues with landlords and business operators relating to the conduct of a restructuring and rehabilitation operation prevented by the health constraints resulting from COVID-19.
- Advising a Luxembourg investment fund in connection with the structuring of a professional OPCI (undertaking for collective real estate investment) dedicated to the leasing of office buildings located in Paris.
- Advising a French investment fund in connection with investigations relating to the acquisition of a property complex located in PACA, intended to be restructured for the creation of a business center and co-working space (rental and land audit, urban planning issues).
- Advising a French real estate development company in the negotiation of a delegated project management contract with a Middle Eastern project owner relating to a restructuring operation of a real estate complex for use as a high-end hotel in the Paris central business district.
- Advising a French investment fund in connection with a renovation/construction operation linked to an innovative and qualitative concept of business centre and co-working space and its implementation with a view to the renovation of a prestigious office building located in Paris.
- Counsel to a French real estate development company in the preparation of a partnership and a delegated project management contract relating to the construction of a real estate complex for laboratories and offices in the Île-de-France region.
- Advising a major telecommunications operator in determining risks and negotiating the terms of return of an industrial site in the regions; and assistance in the context of various rental disputes.
- Counsel to a real estate company in the context of the determination of the judicial strategy and in the context of a dispute relating to the cancellation of promises of sale concerning a real estate complex used as a hotel and offices in the Paris region.
- Representation of a French investment fund in the context of appeals (on the merits and in summary proceedings) brought by neighbours against building permits and authorisations for the renovation of an office building with the creation of a hotel residence and a co-working space, located in Paris.
- Representation of a developer in the development of a litigation strategy to challenge a refusal of instruction and then a building permit relating to residential buildings located in the Île-de-France.
- Advising developers of renewable energy projects in the drafting of lease agreements and leases relating to the securing of land for wind and photovoltaic projects (including rooftop projects).
