Land Use and Development

Recent representations include:

• Oakland A’s Athletics Investment Group, LLC (Oakland A’s): Advising the Oakland A’s in the effort to entitle a new baseball stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, and previously advised in their efforts to build a new ballpark and a mixed-use development, including negotiating and documenting transactional agreements in Oakland, California.
• Brookfield Properties: Advised Brookfield Properties in its redevelopment of the Stonestown Galleria shopping center in San Francisco into a new mixed-use development with over 3,000 new housing units.
• Bay Meadows Land Company: Advised Bay Meadows Land Company, the developer of the Bay Meadows Racetrack, valued in excess of $1.4 billion.
• Murphy’s Bowl: Advised Murphy’s Bowl, the developer of the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, proposed as the new home for the Los Angeles Clippers.
• The Kroenke Group: Advised the Kroenke Group, owner of the former St. Louis Rams football franchise, in leading the development team implementing the multi-billion dollar sports and entertainment complex on 298 acres in Inglewood, including SoFi Stadium and the YouTube Theatre.
• The Golden State Warriors: Advised the Golden State Warriors in their successful entitlement of a new event center and mixed-use development in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco.
• The Developers: Advised the developers in the successful entitlement of the redevelopment of the former U.S. Naval Base at Treasure Island in San Francisco.
• Build, Inc.: Advised Build, Inc. on a complex 4-party boundary settlement and trust exchange agreement between Build, the City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Port Commission and the State Lands Commission to settle disputed trust claims and rationalize the configuration of the public trust on a 26-acre waterfront development site.
• Deca Co.: Advised Deca Co., the prospective purchaser of an industrial waterfront site with a complex title history, with the negotiating, drafting and implementation of a 4-party boundary settlement and trust exchange agreement between the property owner, the City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Port Commission and the State Lands Commission.
• The Developer: Advised the developer, as lead counsel in its proposed redevelopment of San Francisco’s Parkmerced, the largest residential project in San Francisco. The project involves a $1.2 billion plan to transform the sprawling Parkmerced area to a state-of-the-art sustainable neighborhood with 7,200 new energy-efficient units over the next 20 to 30 years.
• Confidential Clients: Advised clients on the development of all or portions of master planned communities in multiple cities within Orange County. This involved securing ongoing entitlements and subdivision approvals for the Orange County Great Park Neighborhoods, a more-than-10,000-home community on the 2,000-acre former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, as well as additional non-residential development, including health care, office, and industrial improvements.
• Pabst Brewing Company, LLC: Advised Pabst Brewing Company, LLC in its successful re-entitlement of the Irwindale Brew Yard (the former Miller Coors iconic brewery in Irwindale, California).
• Delta Air Lines: Advised Delta Air Lines’ renovation and capital investment in Terminals 2 and 3 at Los Angeles International Airport and as part of the project, provided advice on a strategy to secure successful environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act and public agency concurrence with the expansion plans.
• JP Morgan: Advised JP Morgan in the multi-faceted redevelopment of the Sunnyvale Town Center, a former shopping mall in Northern California.

Recent representations include:

• Golden State Warriors: Successfully defended the Golden State Warriors, with CEQA co-counsel, on the environmental review of the Chase Center Event Center Mixed-Use project (home of the Golden State Warriors).
• Oakland A’s Athletics Investment Group, LLC (Oakland A’s): Successfully defended the Governor of California’s certification of the Oakland A’s Howard Terminal Project under AB 734, a CEQA judicial expediting statute.
• General Growth Properties: Representing General Growth Properties in the defense of an eminent domain action filed by the Santa Clara Valley Condemnation Authority involving the Eastridge Shopping Center in San Jose. The condemnation would take a substantial number of parking spaces and create the potential for significant severance damages.
• Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC: Representing Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC in the defense of a threatened eminent domain action filed by the Los Angeles MTA involving off-airport maintenance facilities and overflow parking lots operated in conjunction with Avis’s on-airport facilities. The condemnation creates the potential for significant severance damages and loss of business goodwill.
• Owners of the Warner Hollywood Studios: Represented wners of the Warner Hollywood Studios (a.k.a. “the lot”) in challenge of an EIR for the La Brea Gateway redevelopment project. The litigation involved enforcement of an existing development agreement with the City of West Hollywood and defense of an eminent domain proceeding to the portion of the development property slated for future parking. The litigation led to a favorable settlement, allowing the redevelopment project to proceed while honoring the preexisting development agreement and securing alternative parking.
• California Farm Bureau Federation: Successfully represented the California Farm Bureau in this matter in Colusa County, California, regarding the State’s acquisition of prime agricultural land for conversion to habitat without any environmental review under CEQA or any compliance with the Williamson Act, a California statute designed to promote the preservation of agricultural land.
• Warland Investments Company: Successfully defended Warland Investments Company’s mitigated negative declaration prepared for its 500,000-square-foot carpet warehouse in the City of Cypress.
• Hacienda La Puente Unified School District: Represented Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in successful challenge of the EIR for the expansion of the Puente Hills Landfill.
• Owner of Golden Gate Fields Racetrack in Albany: Representing the owner of Golden Gate Fields Racetrack in Albany, California, in development of a card club facility. Defended CEQA and constitutional legal challenges to project entitlements.
• The Petitioner: Represented the petitioner, along with co-counsel Jan Chatten-Brown, in a challenge to the County of Riverside’s certification of an EIR and approval of a Conditional Use Permit for the Eagle Mountain landfill proposed by Mine Reclamation Corp., a Kaiser entity. The litigation resulted in a judgment overturning the County’s approvals and recovery of attorneys’ fees.
• An International Stereo Speaker and Television Manufacturer: Represented an international stereo speaker and television manufacturer in challenge of the City of Pomona’s approval of a mitigated negative declaration and related land use approvals for a 1,000-ton-per-day trash transfer facility. The litigation resulted in the City’s withdrawal of all approvals.
• Real Party: Represented Real Party in Interest United Parcel Service in successful defense of a mitigated negative declaration prepared for UPS’ major new truck distribution hub on Los Angeles’ North Main Street.