Services Real Estate

Kean Miller provides comprehensive real estate advice and services to local businesses, investors, lenders, and Fortune 50 companies in the acquisition and divestiture of commercial and industrial real estate. We are lead real estate counsel for numerous large, high-profile industrial projects, including LNG export facilities, petrochemical refineries, utility scale solar energy facilities, carbon capture, utilization and sequestration projects, plant-in-plant ventures, data centers, and other economic development projects. We also assist clients with all aspects of high-profile commercial real estate projects including office buildings, retail centers, apartment projects, hotels, condominiums, restaurants, and residential lot developments.

Kean Miller negotiates and drafts contracts, leases, and other real estate instruments with architects and contractors, property managers and leasing agents, buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants, and investors. Our real estate experience includes acquisitions and sales, title insurance, tax, real estate finance, zoning, annexation, environmental matters, land use and property rights, expropriation and condemnation, subdivision and development ordinances, zoning statutes, administrative proceedings, and public improvement districts. We also represent landlords and tenants in disputes and eviction proceedings.

We act as title counsel on numerous types of commercial and industrial transactions. In Louisiana, we act as title agents for First American Title Insurance Company, Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, AM Trust Title, and Stewart Title Guaranty Company. Because of our robust title experience, we have developed expertise with respect to acquisitions, dispositions, and real estate examinations. We also frequently provide opinion letters on complex real estate issues for some of the world’s largest lenders and project developers. Our representation of industrial clients and commercial real estate developers and investors often includes conducting mineral diligence facilitate the issuance of mineral endorsements in title insurance policies and helping to manage and mitigate risks associated with outstanding mineral rights covering the project area. In projects where surface and mineral rights are divided, we negotiate and secure surface waivers and accommodation agreements with mineral rights holders to protect surface use and project viability.

Additionally, we deliver full-service legal support for carbon capture and sequestration projects, guiding clients through the regulatory, property, and contractual complexities of this growing sector. Our deep industry knowledge and practical approach make us a trusted partner for clients operating in traditional and next-generation energy sectors.

Representative Experience

• Representation of a global energy company as outside counsel in its $590 million acquisition of a refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana. We reviewed the title binder and negotiated the affirmative insurance coverage and exceptions to the title and curative work with respect to the acquisition, which involved one of the oldest industrial sites in Louisiana.
• Project local counsel for multiple Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals in Louisiana that each exceed more than $10 billion in capital expenditures. Kean Miller represented the owners in the transaction as Louisiana real estate and title counsel, Louisiana energy regulatory counsel, Louisiana tax counsel, Louisiana economic incentives counsel and Louisiana and federal environmental counsel. Kean Miller has also represented lenders in LNG projects.
• Representation of a leading online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays with respect to its New Orleans-area operations. Services include acquisitions, zoning matters, property management, and litigation and dispute resolutions.
• Representation of one of the largest shopping center developers in the United States in hundreds of acquisitions, mortgages, and sales of shopping center properties located in five states and Puerto Rico.
• Representation of a global methanol supplier as real estate counsel in a deal to acquire an indirect minority equity interest in a $1.85 billion methanol production facility in Louisiana.
• Representation of purchasers and sellers of multi-family housing acquisitions.
• Representation of a global chemical concern in the due diligence on real estate acquired in numerous acquisitions and other joint ventures in Louisiana. We examined title for a co-generation facility on the oldest industrial site in Baton Rouge crossed by mazes of railroads, pipelines, and electric lines.
• Real estate acquisition counsel for a $4 billion ethylene cracking and derivatives complex and an adjacent gas-to liquids complex in Calcasieu Parish.
• Representation of a real estate development company in its acquisition and development of more than four city blocks near downtown Baton Rouge. The company acquires distressed or abandoned properties throughout the United States for renovation to office, warehouse, or industrial use.
• Representation of national department store development company as Louisiana counsel in the acquisition of all the stock of a Louisiana-based department store as well as related parcels of Louisiana real estate. The acquisition involved a total price of approximately $300 million. Our representation included preparation and review of documentation, review of title binders for the eight Louisiana stores, and assisting in due diligence efforts.
• Representation of one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies in hundreds of acquisitions in 46 states, with most including complex real estate issues and transactions.
• Representation of a chemical company in contract drafting and examination of title to acquired plants in Lake Charles, Louisiana which involved a price of $540 million.
• Representation of an energy company as its sole outside counsel in the complete documentation of the formation of a joint venture for a Chalmette refinery and in the course of that work examined title and issued a title policy supporting the transaction.
• Representation of a multi-national chemical company in the examination of title, rendering of title opinions, and issuance of title policies for all property in Louisiana.
• Representation of a world-wide chemical company in its acquisition of certain facilities from an aluminum and chemical company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and in its acquisition of other facilities from another chemical company. We also acted as Louisiana counsel and reviewed all real estate aspects of the acquisition of certain facilities in Shreveport, Louisiana.
• Representation of a national grocery store chain in commercial litigation involving the sale of land, contracts to sell land, and long-term lease obligations.
• Representation of a restaurant chain in connection with their $35 million acquisition of a Louisiana-based seafood restaurant chain. We examined title and issued the title policies on the real estate involved in that transaction.
• Representation of a national fast-food chain in connection with site acquisitions and permitting issues.
• Representation of landowners in joint venture with developer of a planned community.