Jay focuses his practice on commercial real estate, land development, and finance matters including acquisition, due diligence, financing, entitlements and zoning, construction, establishment of community associations, related private restrictions and governance, leasing, and sales.
Jay has served many types of clients, from Global 100 companies to small, family businesses and individual investors. He has worked with various types of real estate assets across many states and regions, including industrial, retail, office, multi-use, large scale single family and attached housing, multifamily, healthcare and senior housing, student housing, common interest communities, and agricultural properties.
While Jay represents many real estate focused businesses, he regularly assists the firm’s diverse non-real estate business clientele in managing their corporate real estate needs, whether it be expanding or reducing existing facilities or acquiring additional business sites. This includes, among other things, transactions involving manufacturing sites, warehousing, vehicle dealerships, corporate headquarters and satellite offices.
Jay regularly represents one of the nation’s largest public homebuilders in its acquisition and development of large-scale residential sites throughout the Chicagoland area. He also represents several developers of multifamily investment-grade properties, with experience in both acquiring development sites and managing the disposition of those properties.
Additionally, Jay regularly represents several local and mid-market banks in their traditional real estate and construction lending transactions as well as commercial and industrial asset-backed loan. He also assists numerous corporate and high net worth individual borrowers regarding financing for commercial real estate acquisitions, developments, and refinancings. He has also worked closely with corporate transaction colleagues in managing the real estate components on numerous stock and asset sales and acquisitions across a variety of industries, ranging from small business sales to large, multi-billion dollar transactions.
Prior to joining MPS, Jay served as in-house counsel to a publicly-traded REIT, and as an associate with two Am Law 200 law firms. Jay also blends his extensive legal experience with practical business experience, having worked in business and strategy roles in a Fortune 500 industrial company, with particular focus on the U.S. manufacturing market, including food and beverage manufacturing and metals industries. In his business roles, he worked closely with colleagues in finance, supply chain, human resources, product management, e-commerce, sales, pricing, and analytics — among others — to develop strategic plans for gaining market share and growing profitability.
Clients appreciate Jay’s practical, balanced approach to providing valuable legal counsel and managing risk without losing sight of achieving the key business objectives.