Leasing

Blank Rome’s team of nationally recognized leasing attorneys handle a wide range of complex commercial leasing transactions and are often involved in deals cited as among the “highest profile” in various industry sectors.

They ensure that the wide-ranging business and legal issues related to leasing transactions, such as indemnification, tax treatment of allowances and benefits, tenant improvement construction allowances, and environmental concerns, among others, are addressed and accounted for in every leasing agreement.

In many instances, lawyers in the Real Estate Group are able to approach leasing transactions with a team mentality allowing Blank Rome to achieve cost efficiencies widely sought by consumers of leasing legal services. Our clients include:

Owners, including:
- Large cap private equity funds
- REITS and other portfolio owners of Class A office buildings
- National universities
- Globally active investment banking institutions
- Ground lessors and lessees
- Owners of regional shopping centers, suburban office parks, warehouses and mixed-use facilities
Tenants
National and regional retail operators in “rolling out” their initial or expanding leasing programs in a broad range of sectors, including banking, food and beverage, health and leisure, and more conventional retail operations
Tenants and operators in off balance sheet financing transactions through “absolute NNN” and sale-leaseback arrangements

How We Can Help

Our team works to negotiate every lease we handle so that the provisions are fair, adds value to the transaction, and affords stability and cost-effective occupancy. We work with all type of leases, including:

Office
Headquarters
Build-to-suit
Retail and shopping center
Industrial
Ground leases
Sale-leaseback

We also perform leasing program review and analysis, leasing form preparation, leasing portfolio due diligence, and lease abstracting services.

Additionally, we advise companies, including those ranked in the Fortune 500, with creative space management strategies through compliance with municipal and state tax incentive programs.

What Sets Us Apart

Ranked Tier 1 in 2025 U.S. News & World Report–Best Lawyers^® “Best Law Firms” (Woodward/White, Inc.) for Real Estate Law nationally and in Philadelphia and New York City; regionally recognized in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
Chambers USA 2023 recognized our practice for Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania. Chambers researchers have stated Blank Rome:
- “Acts for an impressive list of leading financial institutions, as well as owners, developers and REITs.”
- “Possesses strong capabilities in zoning and land use issues and is also regularly called upon for its expertise in restructuring work and tax assessment matters”
- Is “…regularly called upon for its expertise in restructuring work…”
- “...is ‘very, very strong in representing real estate developers.’”

Key Contacts

Samuel M. Walker

Related Industries

A leading independent oil refiner and marketer in its lease of 221,000 square feet at Mellon Bank Center, a premier city office complex in Philadelphia, PA, for its new world corporate headquarters. The deal was selected by the Philadelphia Business Journal as the “Urban Office Lease Winner” of its Best Real Estate Deals.
A Mid-Atlantic NYSE-listed regional bank in the lease of its New York headquarters in midtown Manhattan, consisting of approximately 60,000 square feet of retail and office space. The transaction was hailed by New York’s Real Estate Weekly as a “major midtown real estate transaction” and awarded “Leasing Deal of the Year” by a New York REIT.
A landlord in the lease of five contiguous floors at 199 Water Street in New York City to an international insurance company. Since each floor was under lease to others, the transaction required sub-subleases of three of the floors and surrender agreements for the other two floors, plus arranging for non-disturbance protection from all intervening estates.
A NYSE-listed landlord in the leasing of more than 2,000,000 square feet of Class-A office space in Bryant Park/Rockefeller Center districts in numerous single and multiple-floor transactions.
A landlord of a New York City Midtown office tower in the consolidation of a 43,000 square foot space leased and subleased by a major international insurance company into a single, direct lease.
A landlord in a 16-year lease of two floors of Worldwide Plaza, a 47-story Class-A building in New York City. The space consists of 95,000 square feet on the first two floors and 7,000 square feet on the concourse level.
A Fortune 100 Company landlord in connection with the leasing of a newly constructed mixed-use, retail project in Lower Manhattan.
A global communications company in its subleasing of four floors in the United Nations District, containing approximately 80,000 rentable square feet, to the United Nations.
Three major companies, in their separate headquarters lease transactions in Philadelphia, aggregating in excess of 900,000 square feet, as well as a major law firm in connection with its 220,000 square foot lease.
The amendment and restatement of a major long-term lease of a waterfront pier and adjacent facilities for the processing of imported automobiles and trucks prior to dealer delivery. The agreement between the parties and the consummation of this transaction occurred after five years of multi-party litigation and negotiation over the rights to the demised premises, which were also handled on behalf of the client.
A $67 million aggregate NNN sale-leaseback transaction relating to 15 properties in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire providing approximately $55 million of off-balance sheet financing for the acquisition of land and $12 million for the construction of improvements.