McNair Lawyers Get Projects Done Throughout the Region

Some of the largest home builders and developers in the country depend on McNair to handle all of their real estate needs throughout the Carolinas. No matter what your real estate goals are, we are here to help you achieve them. We are transactional counsel of choice for commercial property owners and developers, large landlords and tenants, and commercial lenders.

Our legal team will provide you with focused advice and experience, giving both sides a smooth closing to realize the benefits of the project. That’s because we excel at anticipating and resolving due diligence issues, environmental liability, title, deed and other problems during negotiation, and use the full resources of our firm (including the professional credibility necessary for speedy regulatory approval) to provide all the services you’ll need for completion.

The McNair advantage to our real estate clients includes not only a comprehensive array of services, but lawyers who are respected for their market knowledge and long-time relationships with lenders and regulators. For many national builders and developers, we serve as their “institutional memory” that provides stability and strength to new generations of managers.

Developing Your Project

Our lawyers will get your shopping center, office, manufacturing, hotel and resort, health care, mixed-use or residential development project done right. Using the experience we’ve gained from working with the key players in the development process, we’ll do whatever you need to make your next project work:

• Get regulatory and land use approvals
• Write the development agreement
• Manage environmental due diligence
• Negotiate and close loans and development incentives

How we Get Things Done
McNair handled all the legal work for a significant 100-acre mixed use project in the greater Charleston, South Carolina area. The project involved a mix of retail, office and service operations, including a number of national companies, and the full resources of our firm helped our client over a period of two years with everything from land acquisition to zoning approval, and from financing to leasing. Much of the land for the project had restrictive covenants that required negotiation, and there were also significant environmental and water management issues involved. The project came in on time, and we are now helping with leasing and tenanting of the facilities.

Providing Full Service

McNair works with builders of single-family homes, residential subdivisions, townhouses, planned communities, mixed-use developments and affordable housing projects on all aspects of taking projects from conception to completion. We use our extensive regional contacts to help national builders be successful in the Carolinas by introducing them to developers and lenders, then work with them through the entire development process.

In addition to handling the acquisition and lot sales transactions, our lawyers oversee the requisite engineering and governmental approvals. Once the land is acquired, we take care of any necessary details involving title insurance, use and development covenants, environmental issues and reciprocal easement arrangements. And after project completion, we often advise homeowner and condominium associations on their ongoing responsibilities.

How we Get Things Done
Our national home building and development client ran into significant environmental problems with a 700-acre, 4,000 unit residential project. After the project had already begun, the Army Corps of Engineers determined that some of the land had been used as practice bombing target areas during World War II, and that the developer had to stop work and handle the environmental remediation.

McNair’s real estate and environmental lawyers secured the services of one of only six companies in the country that were qualified by the Corps to do the necessary cleanup, and our fast action in getting the work underway saved our client two years-worth of delay – and potentially millions of dollars in extra cost that an extended holdup would have caused.

Handling the Approvals

Our thorough knowledge of and extensive working relationships with development authorities throughout the Carolinas are the keys to our effective land use and zoning practice. McNair lawyers are skilled at the political process that makes zoning regulation one of the biggest challenges facing residential property developers. We often secure the crucial municipal approval of permits and zoning applications (including appeals) on a time sensitive basis.

We work with the municipal or county departments of development and planning boards that regulate the entire residential development process, as well as the county councils and zoning boards that enforce zoning restrictions on land use, and regularly go before zoning boards and political authorities to demonstrate the change of use prerequisites necessary for rezoning. Our lawyers are adept at advising clients on the complex political issues (including those posed by the public hearing process and by neighborhood groups) involving a zoning change.

How we Get Things Done
Throughout the coastal areas of the Carolinas, developers of golf course, marina and resort properties rely on McNair’s excellent track record before local zoning and planning boards to secure project approvals. Local regulators respect our reputation for honesty and integrity, and local brokers often send us their most complex closings knowing that we will get the transaction completed. Our lawyers were instrumental in securing the land use approvals for the original development of both Hilton Head and Kiawah Islands, and continue to play a lead role in advising developers on completing new projects there.

Securing the Loan

McNair’s strong ties to the Carolina banking community play a vital role in helping our developer clients secure real estate and mortgage loans to finance their projects. We work with many commercial banks and mortgage brokers, in all types of construction and permanent loans secured by real property. This includes such financing vehicles as convertible loans, multiple loan syndication, and loans backed by credit leases, ground leases and tax-exempt bonds. As our client, we’ll help you with all aspects of structuring and negotiating your loan, including commitment letters, loan agreements, notes, deeds of trust, environmental indemnity agreements and other collateral documents. We also design and carry out appropriate due diligence investigation before loan closing.

How we Get Things Done
A regional bank had a very good developer client who, with three concurrent projects underway, had gotten ahead of his ability to pay fully on his loans. The bank asked McNair’s lawyers to redocument the loans in such a way that they could continue their business relationship with the developer. Our effective loan restructuring work allowed the bank to give the developer the necessary financing for completion of all the projects.

Getting to Closing

McNair does thousands of real estate closings a year, and is the market leader throughout the high-activity coastal resort areas. We have a wholly owned subsidiary that provides statewide title insurance through all major title insurance companies. That includes work with residential and commercial closings, underwriting title insurance commitments and policies for transactions, and coordinating title exams throughout the state. We are licensed title insurance agencies for all major title insurance companies, and provide exams, commitments, closings and policies for those companies.