With experience, expertise and depth, the real estate attorneys at Pierce Atwood LLP will guide you through every phase of your real estate projects, from complex multi-use developments and defeasance financings to land use, environmental and title due diligence.

Our attorneys represent clients for projects along the east coast from Florida to Maine and New Hampshire and across the country to Illinois, Colorado, Utah and California. Among the firm's real estate clients are multinational corporations, regional and national development companies, and individual property owners. On the asset management side, we represent numerous businesses in lease negotiations, disputes and refinancing. We often serve as local counsel as the go-to firm for national and international firms in need of focused expertise in Maine and Massachusetts real estate law.

Pierce Atwood attorneys provide soup-to-nuts representation for local and national commercial lenders. We prepare loan documents, review title, prepare title insurance policies, draft commercial loans documentation, perform lease reviews, identify real estate tax issues, and conduct closings.

Areas of Expertise

We are involved in many different industry trade areas: industrial real estate, office and warehouse construction and expansion, condominium, planned unit and resort and hospitality development. We represent multiple franchisees of national and regional food franchises with stores in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

Our attorneys advise both landlords and tenants, regionally and nationally, on commercial leases, including ground, retail, office, warehouse and industrial leases.

We have experience in the range of issues concerning condominium developments, including permits, structure and financing.

We assist clients on the acquisition and sale of real property, including undeveloped, residential and commercial real estate. Our services include:

  • Project feasibility analyses
  • Environmental assessment analyses (Phase I & Phase II)
  • Wetland and vernal pool analyses
  • Structure and formation of the ownership entities
  • Tax analyses (income tax as well as state and local taxes)
  • Tax increment financings
  • Brokerage agreements
  • AIA agreements with architects and contractors
  • Easements
  • Land use and permitting

We help our clients turn their renderings and plans into profitable, tangible development projects by providing guidance at every stage in the process through permitting, construction, and occupancy. Each development project presents a unique set of challenges and potential solutions, and many “land use” issues are not confined to traditional planning and zoning considerations. Visit our Land Use practice page to learn more about how we guide our clients through land use issues relating to property acquisition, zoning, development permitting and site planning, government relations and rulemaking, project development public relations, and administrative and judicial appeals.

We have assisted independent power plant owners and developers in virtually all aspects of the purchase and sale of power plants and transmission line corridors, including financing and due diligence. Attorneys in the Real Estate Practice Group have managed the real estate aspects of significant, complex, multi-site projects in New England and along the eastern seaboard. We have also represented parties in both the acquisition and sale of projects for which separation of functions is required, involving complex property divisions with reciprocal easements and agreements and interpretation of survey plans (e.g., separation of hydroelectric generation assets from a paper mill after more than a century of integration, allowing the distinct businesses to function successfully, including meeting requirements of lenders).

With a comprehensive understanding of all types of real estate financings, our Real Estate Practice Group helps clients with financing transactions including construction, permanent, public finance, economic development and tax increment financing. We also act as local counsel in large multi-state financings, providing assistance with title, local law and the provision of local opinions.

Our experience with resort and hospitality developments includes acquisition, permits, financing, registration and subsequent sales.

Tax credits are often an important piece of financing a project, whether that project involves renewable energy, historic rehabilitation, manufacturing facilities, or commercial and residential real estate. Pierce Atwood’s attorneys have substantial experience with tax credit financing, including both state and federal new markets tax credits, historic rehabilitation tax credits, and renewable energy tax credits.  We also have substantial experience with the relatively new federal opportunity zone. We regularly work with businesses and developers to utilize these programs in a variety of ways. Because Pierce Atwood is a multi-service law firm, our tax credit attorneys draw on the knowledge and experience of our other practice groups (e.g., Business, Real Estate, Environmental, and Energy) to successfully bring projects to a financial closing. We pride ourselves on working collaboratively with our clients to find practical, efficient, and creative ways to achieve our client’s goals.

The attorneys in our Real Estate Practice Group advise clients on title and conveyancing issues, including title insurance, boundary line disputes, quiet title actions, partitions, easements and deeds. As part of our service we are title insurance commitment- and policy-writing agents and approved attorneys for all of the major title insurance underwriters.