The firm's principals have handled the acquisition and sale of all forms of real property ranging from vacant land to urban skyscrapers containing a million square feet plus. The Firm has developed tools for sellers to document the stream of income and general leasing operations of office buildings, industrial parks and shopping centers to facilitate prompt and successful due diligence. Similar tools have been developed for use by buyers, including extensive due diligence lists necessary to review sources of income and analyze the leasing profiles of major tenants.

The Firm handles traditional institutional financing arrangements for clients, as well as private funding, equity transactions, seller carrybacks and other financing structures.  The Firm's work in this area also includes government funding and low-income housing tax credit transactions, like-kind exchanges, tenant-in-common transactions and multiple party joint ventures.

The Firm's principals have worked on a variety of real property developments including shopping centers, office buildings, industrial parks, planned unit developments, continuing care retirement communities and vertical and horizontal property regimes.  Blair was part of the team that created a new city in Northern Illinois, which is now known as Vernon Hills.  Development work includes analysis of title issues, establishing restrictive covenants, and the development of required plats and surveys. The more complex developments may require reciprocal easement agreements and other forms of joint operating arrangements. Blair has used air rights and ground leases as the method of tying together different parts of complex developments.

The firm represents architects, builders, and owners in the construction phase of real property development and negotiates contracts in all areas. The Firm works with the AIA developed forms as well as more custom documents that may be required for specific transactions.

The principals' experience in real property and equipment leasing is extensive.  In addition to working with all forms of the commercial lease, Blair also works with long term ground leases and air rights leases. The Firm views a lease as a roadmap document that enables clients on either side of the transaction to set out a knowing allocation of risk that will govern their transaction for years to come. Blair Friederich has developed and published an extensive set of checklists and analysis tools for use in commercial leasing that permit clients to evaluate specific areas of risk and to utilize their business judgment in addressing solutions to such risks. Management and operational questions are a normal part of commercial property ownership and the Firm assists clients with third-party management agreements and a variety of frequently occurring operational issues including lease compliance. You can get more information by viewing Blair's publications page.

A number of liability limiting entity forms are available and the firm counsels clients and works with their accountants to choose the arrangement that meets the client's tax needs while limiting the owner's liability to the extent possible.  The firm creates and works with corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, general partnerships, and joint ventures. 

In its tax-exempt work, the firm has been an early developer of single-member limited liability companies whose sole member is a tax-exempt organization and which are entitled to be treated as tax-exempt organizations without the time and expense of filing the lengthy applications for tax-exempt recognition.  Such entities are routinely used to isolate the most risk prone aspect of a business plan into separate entities. Similar arrangements are used in the for-profit area.

The use of multiple entities can be helpful to knowingly allocate risk where appropriate.  The firm assists clients in their operation of affiliated and related entities to provide guidance on their operation as independent and separate entities. Failure to comply with applicable standards in the day-to-day operation of such entities can result in the loss of limited liability. Entity governance in all forms of limited liability structures is important to allow for smooth and consistent operations.

The Firm works with clients to establish non-profit entities under Arizona law and to seek recognition of exemption from income taxation from the Internal Revenue Service.  The Firm provides advice on an increasingly complex set of requirements adopted by the Internal Revenue Service including potential excess benefits transactions, governance procedures and policies, and general corporate transactions.