What is the Role of the Attorney for a Real Estate Developer?

What do the construction of a $250,000 house and a $250,000,000 hospital have in common? Both of them require the development of land and the involvement of a lawyer experienced in real estate development. These two examples of land development and construction are very different – in cost, of course, but also in terms of complexity and time for completion of the project. However, these two seemingly different projects have more in common than not.

There isn’t enough space for this article to allow for detail, but, very generally, both projects require:

• the acquisition of rights to the land (purchase or lease);
• obtaining land use approvals (rezoning or BZA approval);
• receiving necessary approvals for the development plan (Plan Commission, BZA, department reviews);
• construction of infrastructure (roads and utilities); and
• construction of improvements (house/hospital).

The development process required for a house typically comes in the form of approval for a subdivision, where most of the above elements occur, well before construction of all the houses in the subdivision. Whereas, in the case of a hospital, office building, retail center, or industrial complex, all of the steps in the development process lead to the construction of the specific building(s).

One of the common threads in all development projects is the involvement of an attorney who represents the developer and who participates in, and very often leads, every step of the process. The developer’s attorney is merely one member of the development team that typically includes a surveyor, civil engineer, and architect or other designers, a banker, and, of course, the owner/developer and its representatives. With so many people being on the development team, the owner/developer very often relies on its attorney to pull all the pieces together and to make sure the process is moving forward properly and at an appropriate pace.

The development team can turn unimproved land or a dilapidated building into new residential units, a new hospital, or new or redeveloped buildings that will make good use of land and serve the community.