Pacific Northwest real estate faces the unique challenges of a booming regional market—affordability, evolving regulations, conservation issues, and simply finding land available to develop. Schwabe’s one-stop industry team helps you meet these challenges with integrated, efficient counsel for every facet of your business.

How we serve real estate leaders

In one place, with one call, lawyers who know the Pacific Northwest real estate market can advise you on everything from entity formation, equity raising, and tax strategies to land use entitlements and leasing. We serve participants across the industry, including owners, developers, investors, lenders, and lessors of commercial, industrial, hospitality, and office properties.

Our clients reach new heights and push boundaries across the region. Because time is the enemy of all deals, we fast-track negotiations and create novel, practical solutions.

Lofty goals, realized

For more than 100 years, we have assisted clients with signature projects throughout the region. Our ‎experience covers new and historic asset classes, from waterfronts and bare land to Class-A office ‎towers, industrial campuses, mixed-use buildings, and residential skyscrapers. ‎

The Pacific Northwest’s transformation into a world-class real estate market has upped already high ‎stakes. Real estate visionaries rely on our industry focus to position them ahead of new competitive ‎pressures. ‎

Boots on your ground

Real estate has always been a profoundly local business. Schwabe’s deep roots in the Pacific Northwest help you anticipate market cycles and plan for the future. Wherever real estate ambitions encounter an obstacle, our team covers all the angles.

We prepare solutions to regulatory and government demands. Immersion in the real estate community informs our guidance on corporate concerns and identification of risks you and your organization face. To position you for where the market is headed, we act at the first sign of conflict—from disputes in partnership agreements and employment claims to obligations for environmental liability and more.

Schwabe’s experience and connection with local agencies and decision makers spans decades. And we connect clients through our leadership and participation in key industry groups, such as:

• American College of Real Estate Attorneys
• American Planning Association of Oregon (OAPA)
• City of Bellevue Planning Commission
• Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW)
• Downtown Seattle Association (DSA)
• Hearing Examiners Association of Washington
• International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
• National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP)
• Urban Land Institute (ULI)

• Represent numerous Fortune 500 companies that own and lease Class-A office space across the Pacific ‎Northwest.‎
• Handled leasing for the Exchange Building in downtown Seattle and ‎represented the owner in the ‎eventual sale of the property.‎
• Represented the purchaser of a portfolio of six Portland central business district office buildings, ‎assisted in the management and leasing of these buildings, and handled the resale of the portfolio ‎to two separate institutional purchasers.‎
• Represented the seller in the negotiation and sale of a 122,000 square foot medical office building in ‎Springfield, Oregon.‎
• Assisted with the financing and construction of new and rehabilitated office buildings throughout the region.‎
• Handled leasing of office space in Pacific Northwest business parks for a publicly traded company ‎with a national property management and leasing portfolio of 160 million square feet.‎
• Represent a large state pension fund in connection with leasing a medical office building in Seattle.
• Represented a Canadian developer in all aspects of the development of a mixed-use project located in downtown Seattle consisting of two 48-story towers with a total of over 1000 residential units.
• Represented a Canadian developer in all aspects of the development of a residential project located in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood consisting of twin 33-story towers with a total of 488 residential units.
• Represented a Canadian developer in all aspects of the development of a residential condominium project in downtown Seattle consisting of a single 47-story tower with 459 residential condominium units.
• Represented a Canadian developer in the structuring, financing and acquisition of six sites for redevelopment located in downtown San Jose, CA.
• Advised the nation’s leading online real estate marketplace on compliance with Washington and Oregon laws governing conveyancing and construction involving residential real estate.
• Represented a large national mobile home park owner and operator with respect to the acquisition of an approximately 127 unit site, including acting as local counsel on financing, in Mount Vernon, WA.  

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