Paul S. Rutter is Of Counsel for Gilchrist & Rutter. His practice focuses on the areas of commercial real estate and business transactions, including development, financing, leasing, acquisition and disposition of commercial and industrial properties.

Mr. Rutter's practice includes negotiating, structuring and documenting limited partnership and limited liability company operating agreements, joint venture agreements, ground leases, development and management agreements, and consulting agreements; senior and mezzanine real estate loans, including securitized debt; construction and permanent loans; reciprocal easement agreements and CC&Rs for mixed-use and multiphase projects; construction, architectural and engineering services agreements for retail, office and hotel projects; development agreements and owner participation agreements with governmental agencies; loan workouts; and restructurings.

Representative clients include Maguire Properties, LP; Thomas Properties Group, Inc.; CommonWealth Partners, LLC; Buchanan Street Partners; J.P. Morgan Investment Management, Inc.; McCarthy Cook Company; and Archon Group LP.

Mr. Rutter is the author of Intersections Between Real Estate and Telecommunications: Turning Copper Into Gold.

Mr. Rutter received his J.D. degree (Order of the Coif) from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where he served as Topic and Comment Editor for the University of California at Los Angeles Law Review. He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned Dean's List honors, and was Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Beta Kappa.

Representative Experience

Leasing. Negotiated and documented office, industrial and retail leases for major urban and suburban projects in California, Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania with many Fortune 500 companies, national law and accounting firms, motion picture studios, advertising firms, financial services companies, restaurants and retail stores. Several office lease transactions involved more than 500,000 square feet of headquarters space; some lease transactions involved more than 750,000 square feet of space. Negotiated several long-term ground leases for commercial projects on behalf of both lessors and lessees.

Real Estate Ventures. Structure and document limited liability companies, limited partnerships and joint ventures to acquire, develop and own real estate projects. Deals have included equity investments by Fortune 500 companies in build-to-suit projects, equity ventures between pension funds and developers, formation of real estate investment funds between individual and institutional investors, and joint ventures for multi-state portfolios.

Financings. Regularly represent borrowers in pre-development, construction and permanent financing for projects ranging from small commercial centers to multiphase high-rise and suburban campus office developments and hotels. These deals include over $2 billion of financings, including securitized loans. Loans over the past few years have included revolving loans, asset-based financings, acquisition and construction loans, and both senior and mezzanine loans on projects in Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizon, Texas, Utah and Pennsylvania. Practice includes representation of lenders in senior and mezzanine debt financing on real estate in California.

Acquisitions and Dispositions. Negotiated and documented the acquisition and disposition of office, retail, hotel, multi-family and industrial properties and development sites in California, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Complex Commercial Projects. Handled all legal aspects of site acquisition, entitlement, development, financing and leasing of large mixed-use complexes with office, retail and, in some cases, hotel facilities, including preparation of development agreements, reciprocal easement agreements, CC&Rs, hotel management agreements and ground leases.

Build-To-Suit Deals. Represent developers of build-to-suit projects with large users, and negotiate and document all aspects of such projects, including development agreements, space leases, financing and partnership agreements with investors, and construction and design agreements.

Operating Company Acquisitions. Handle acquisitions of operating companies through both stock and asset purchases; advise clients regarding entity structures and general corporate matters.