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Overview

Paul Bauer, Practice Area Leader, Real Estate, Finance & Corporate, represents businesses, individuals and institutions in sophisticated transactions with an emphasis on large real estate projects and challenging commercial law issues. Paul regularly advises developers, mortgage lenders, tenants and property owners across various industry sectors in complex development, acquisition, financing, business planning and leasing transactions – both public and private – including the biggest lease in the history of Boston at the time.

Much of Paul’s real estate experience falls into three areas:

  • Leasing for both landlords and tenants, including a substantial life science leasing practice.
  • Higher education real estate development, often for major, iconic institutions. Paul also serves as general counsel to the Massachusetts State College Building Authority.
  • Privately-held real estate projects, representing developers and owners. “It is a great feeling to identify the major issues that could impact the parties to a deal and find creative solutions to make the transaction work,” Paul says.

Developers, investors and property end-users turn to Paul to plan, negotiate and structure real estate-based projects. He has guided a number of clients through major, multi-party sale leaseback transactions. Included in this portfolio are several long-term ground lease transactions that required solving unique issues to achieve client goals. As Paul notes, “I also help a number of real estate companies in a variety of commercial sectors – including office, industrial and retail – in the sale, acquisition, financing, management and leasing of their real property investments.”

While Paul represents property end-users in most commercial segments, he has significant experience representing entrepreneurs and life science companies of all sizes with respect to their property leasing needs. Paul’s experience includes representing a life science company in one of the largest lease transactions ever to occur in the city of Boston. In addition, Paul represents a number of craft brewers and their brewery facilities. This representation includes leasing, financing and permitting services. “Both the life science and brewery segments have specialized user requirements that must be addressed at the lease negotiation stage in order to ensure that the client experiences no surprises as it works with the landlord to bring the space online,” Paul says.

In addition, Paul represents privately-held companies for their structural, financing, and contractual needs.  He often works with early-stage companies to provide them the counsel necessary to protect their interests in obtaining contracts, investors and lending facilities. Paul is also a co-editor of the Commercial Real Estate Insight & News blog.

In the community, Paul is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Entrepreneurial Innovation Center at Framingham State University, where he advises the Center on its program helping entrepreneurs develop their ideas and small businesses.

Affiliations

Previous

Honors

  • Named to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s inaugural list of top 22 Massachusetts Go To Commercial Real Estate Lawyers
  • Best Lawyers in America, selected by his peers for inclusion in the field of Real Estate since 2016

Articles + Talks

Articles

Talks

  • Mixed-Use: Building Community Around Office & Life Science,” Bisnow Cambridge State of the Market, Cambridge, MA, November 30, 2022 (Moderator)
  • Spotlight Series: Greater Boston Region Spotlight,” MassEcon, June 29, 2022 (Moderator)
  • Why Worcester – Building and Supporting a Life Sciences Cluster,” The Reactory Summit, April 6, 2022 (Moderator)
  • Finding More Space: Navigating Repositioning – Targeting Conversions & Vacant Buildings,” Bisnow Boston Life Sciences Summit, March 31, 2022
  • “Lab/Life Science Leasing: What Commercial Leasing Lawyers Must Know,” Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts, July 23, 2021
  • Consumerization Of Life Science: What Tenants Want – And Need,” Bisnow’s Boston Life Sciences Forum, March 30, 2021
  • The Great Conversion: The Science of Repurposing,” Bisnow’s Boston Life Sciences Digital Summit, November 17, 2020 (Moderator)
  • Re-Opening Commercial Operations: Considerations for Property Owners and Business Tenants as Massachusetts Restarts in a COVID-19 World,” MassEcon, May 7, 2020
  • Life Science Clusters: Seaport, South End & Beyond” panel moderator, Boston Life Science Summit, March 26, 2019
  • Innovative Entrepreneurship or Entrepreneurial Innovation?, November 21, 2014
  • Planning Regionally, Failing Parochially, November 17, 2014
  • New Concerns for Real Estate Brokers and Attorneys in Making Representations, April 26, 2013
  • Ambiguous Environmental Indemnification Fails to Protect Seller from Claims for Cleanup Costs, July 14, 2011
  • Revisions to the Massachusetts Building Code, December 15, 2010
  • Implications of the Permit Extension Act, November 11, 2010
  • Renewable Energy Resource Integration Target of FERC’s Most Recent Notice of Inquiry (“NOI”), February 16, 2010
  • Siting Wind Projects in Massachusetts, November 9, 2009
  • State Department of Energy makes available funds for Renewable Energy Projects: Billions could be deployed, October 14, 2009
  • New U.S. Department of Energy and Massachusetts Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Funding Opportunities, September 21, 2009
  • Green Energy Law and Market Update, August 27, 2009
  • Surviving the Storm: A Guide for Non-Profits, May 11, 2009
  • Energy Tax Provisions Under Federal Law, April 27, 2009
  • The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and Renewable Energy, February 18, 2009
  • Clean Technology Initiatives Update, January 16, 2009
  • Boston University Certificate Program in Real Estate, Semiannual Guest Lecturer, 2004 – Present
  • “Strategies and Structures to Reshape the Corporate Portfolio,” CoreNet Global New England Chapter Program, June 19, 2003
  • “Commercial Real Estate Financing in Massachusetts,” Lorman Seminar, October 18, 2001
  • “Structuring Ownership Entities,” Lender’s Underwriting Seminar, July 16, 2001
  • “Real Estate Financing: Advanced Topics,” Boston Bar Association seminar (Program Chair), April 27, 2001
  • “Real Estate Financing: Representing Lenders and Borrowers,” Boston Bar Association seminar (Program Chair), May 19, 2000

Bar Admissions

  • Massachusetts

Education

  • J.D., with honors, George Washington University
  • B.A., cum laude, Clark University
Experience

Meeting a major deadline and protecting a deposit

Paul represented a large, regional real estate management company in the acquisition of a shopping center in New England. The client made a $1 million deposit as part of a bidding process and, if the deal didn’t close by a certain date and time, the deposit was forfeited. “We put a member of our team on the site of the project – three states away – and jumped through a lot of hoops, with people fanning out and getting what we needed to close. Our team did whatever it took.”

Lots of coordination keeps a major public utility project on track

A utility company client had a proposed project in western Massachusetts, when Paul got a call one afternoon that there was a key public hearing on the project at 6pm that evening…two hours from his office Boston. He immediately deployed a lawyer to handle the filing that afternoon. “Meanwhile, I got stuck in Boston traffic on my way to the hearing,” Paul explained. “So, one of our lawyers in Worcester said that he’d go since he was closer. I sent him talking points, the hearing went smoothly and the project moved forward.”

Other experience

Clients with real estate and other interests throughout Massachusetts and the U.S. rely on Paul’s candor, loyalty, business acumen and whatever-it-takes-to-close attitude. Here’s a brief list:

Life Sciences

  • Publicly-traded global pharmaceutical company with leases in Boston, London and San Diego (170,000 sq. ft., 10-year lease for a building in an office park)
  • Represents publicly traded global pharmaceutical companies with respect to leases and acquisitions for lab and office space in Boston, Cambridge and throughout the U.S., including:
    • one of the largest lease transactions in Boston’s history at 1.1 million square feet
    • facility acquisition with a nine figure purchase price
    • several long-term, total building leases of 100,000-250,000 square feet each
  • Represents global nonprofit that focuses on tissue and organ transplantation, most recently with lease, purchase option and credit facility
  • Represents seller of Seaport ground leased property
  • Represents a medical school with respect to life science leases and real estate transactions totaling several hundred thousand square feet
  • Represents a regional hospital with respect to leases, subleases, sales and acquisitions ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to 75,000 square feet
  • Represents dozens of small and mid-sized life sciences companies throughout Massachusetts in complex leases for research and development, lab and office space ranging from 3,000 to 60,000 sq. ft.

Housing Development

  • Closing of Multi-Lender Financing, including Affordable Housing Tax Credits Related to a 42-Unit Affordable Housing Development Project

Real Estate and General Corporate Transactions

  • Equity management firm in the acquisition of membership interest in an out-of-state hotel
  • Acquisition, sale and structuring related to Reverse 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange
  • Large private nonprofit association in the development of its headquarters facility
  • Hydroelectric company in restructuring a multi-use facility with a complex cross-easement agreement
  • Represents one of Massachusetts top breweries (according to Beer Advocate) with acquisitions and expansions in three locations totaling more than 30,000 sq. ft. (and counting)
  • Over the past three years, on behalf of a real estate investment firm, Paul has closed multiple complex multi-million-dollar acquisitions for mixed-use and industrial properties with a total valuation of approximately $60 million and a total size of approximately 500,000 square feet

Higher Education

  • UMass and its affiliates in a variety of real estate matters related primarily to its Worcester campus and adjacent life science buildings
  • Affiliates of a public university in real estate transactions
  • Private university in telecom and other technology agreements related to its campus
  • Leasing transactions for another higher education institution
  • Public entity for its higher education facilities – financing, development, construction and management activities – in coordination with a team of Bowditch attorneys
  • General Counsel to Massachusetts State College Building Authority as to all corporate matters and real estate transactions
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