Commercial Real Estate Transactions

Commercial Real Estate Transactions: A Project and Skills Oriented Approach is devoted to the complexities of the commercial development process. Breaking tradition of other real estate casebooks that focus primarily on residential transactions and financing, this book brings to life the business and legal issues underlying commercial real estate development and transactions by focusing on an actual commercial real estate project throughout the book.

The materials focus on the legal work by the law firm of Kaplan & Miller that represents the developer of the actual real estate project, the Fox Valley Auto Care Center in Aurora, Illinois. The life cycle of this project gradually unfolds in each chapter through problems, questions, assignments, and drafting exercises. Students follow the course of a new associate called upon to review or draft the legal documents proposed for a transaction, and to research the thornier legal rules underlying some of the developer's business decisions. This unique project-oriented approach gives students a fun, challenging and engaging means to acquire and develop the fundamental transactional skills—skills in communicating with clients, problem spotting, problem solving, negotiation, and drafting—which they will need in practice.

The accompanying Document Supplement includes all of the principal documents used in connection with the Auto Care Center project. These include the limited partnership agreement established between the developer and the investors, the agreements to purchase the land, the title policy and survey, the phase I environmental audit, the annexation agreement, the loan documents, the construction documents, and a lease. Students are asked to review these documents in the context of various negotiation and drafting problems throughout the textbook.

A comprehensive Teacher's Manual (available only to professors) provides suggestions on different approaches in teaching the course, as well as the authors' views and suggested answers for each problem, question, and assignment within the text.

This book also is available in a three-hole punched, alternative loose-leaf version printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with wider margins and with the same pagination as the hardbound book.