Ballard Spahr announced that Heather S. Swan, a real estate attorney known for her experience with significant transactions involving multifamily properties, has joined Ballard Spahr as of counsel in the Baltimore office and Laura B. Redstone, a real estate attorney with more than 20 years’ experience with commercial property transactions, has joined the firm in the Denver office.
Ms. Swan represents institutional and private lenders as well as borrowers nationwide on all aspects of housing finance transactions. She has particular experience with multifamily property financing insured by the Federal Housing Administration and as lender’s counsel for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan closings. She has structured and negotiated a variety of sophisticated transactions involving financing programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), including transactions involving nursing homes and assisted living facilities, financed through HUD’s “Lean” program. She has also handled HUD loan closings and servicing matters, such as transfers of physical assets and changes in management entities.
Ms. Swan joins Ballard Spahr from Cassin & Cassin, LLP, in Washington, D.C. At Ballard Spahr, she will be a member of the Real Estate Department and the Housing Group.
Ms. Redstone handles all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, including drafting and negotiation of retail, office, and ground leases. She also handles purchase and sale contracts, title insurance matters, construction contracts, easements, and documentation for the creation of condominium and common-interest communities.
Ms. Redstone helps clients create and maintain business entities in connection with commercial transactions, and drafts operating agreements, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and independent contractor agreements. She negotiates and closes complex financing transactions, including portfolio, mezzanine, acquisition, construction, and permanent mortgage loans, as well as loan workouts.
Ms. Redstone has handled large, complex transactions involving a variety of property types, ranging from retail, office, and industrial to multifamily residential and single-family residential developments. She represents lenders and borrowers in financing transactions nationwide. She also has experience with multistate registrations of vacation ownership projects and the acquisition of land for development of wind tower and turbine manufacturing facilities.
Ballard Spahr’s nationally recognized Real Estate Department provides strategic representation through every phase of project finance and development. Its attorneys offer a full range of real estate-related legal services, including issues related to site acquisition, land use, tax structuring, construction, leasing, financing, restructuring, and property disposition. The addition of Ms. Redstone in Denver further strengthens the firm’s real estate capabilities in the West, where Ballard Spahr attorneys have guided major commercial, residential, and industrial projects, including large renewable energy facilities.
