Joseph Lanzkron’s practice focuses on real estate transactions.

He has a broad range of experience representing lenders and borrowers in various real estate financings across multiple property types, including CMBS, balance sheet loans, and loan on loan facilities. Joe regularly advises high-profile clients, including investment banks, private equity funds, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds, on complex real estate acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures. His experience also includes significant restructurings and workouts, including through bankruptcy.

Joseph joined the firm in 2009 and became a partner in 2019.

Notable Experience

Real Estate Acquisitions, Dispositions, and Joint Ventures

  • Argent Ventures in the acquisition of the mortgage and mezzanine loans as well ancillary property interests under the Crowne Plaza Times Square Hotel and the subsequent bankruptcy and ownership of the property.

  • Monarch Alternative Capital in a joint venture with Madison Capital in connection with the acquisition of bonds issued by All Year Holdings, secured by the William Vale hotel in Brooklyn, New York.

  • Madison Capital in joint venture with equity investors in connection with its acquisition of a manufacturing facility in Fremont, California.

  • ESL Investments in its $5.2 billion acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Sears Holdings, including over 800 properties valued at more than $1.5 billion.

  • One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds in the acquisitions of Class A office buildings across the United States with a joint venture partner.

  • Brookfield Asset Management in multiple acquisitions and financings, including its acquisition of a 49% interest in seven multifamily and mixed-use properties in New York, California, and Hawaii, its formation of a joint venture with Carmel Partners, and its $2.5 billion acquisition of Associated Estates, a publicly traded multifamily REIT.

  • Angelo, Gordon & Co. in subscription line facilities for multiple real estate funds.

  • A significant asset manager in connection with its potential acquisition of an interest in a portfolio of multifamily properties.

  • Goldman Sachs as financial advisor to NorthStar Asset Management Group in its $58 billion combination with Colony Capital, and to NorthStar Realty Finance to create a real estate and investment management platform.

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Real Estate Financings

  • KSL Capital Partners in the origination of a significant preferred equity financing of a historic luxury hotel located in Charleston, South Carolina.

  • A sovereign wealth fund in connection with the ongoing workout of debt on a hotel asset in New York City.

  • The various lending syndicates in the mortgage and mezzanine financing of Blackstone’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, and in a $1.02 billion mortgage loan, secured by the Willis Tower in Chicago.

  • ESL Investments and Transform Holdco, as borrower, in a $800 million mortgage loan secured by a portfolio of 168 properties.

  • The syndicate of lenders in a $675 million CMBS mortgage loan to refinance Independence Plaza in New York City.

  • Goldman Sachs, as lender, in numerous loan originations, including the origination of a $815 million financing package for Veritas Investments to finance a portfolio of 75 multifamily properties, marking the largest transaction of its kind in San Francisco to date.

  • Colony Capital, as borrower, in the financing of its portfolio of Jameson Inn hotels located in the Southeast and Midwest United States.

  • A Mexican bank, as lender, in numerous bridge and mortgage loan financings of luxury multifamily, hotel, and mixed-use projects.

  • H/2 Capital Partners, as lender, in connection with the origination of a $202 million to an affiliate of Spear Street Capital, secured by a portfolio of office properties in Houston.

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Publications

Recent Success in Dismissing Fraudulent Conveyance Claims in Deed-in-Lieu Transaction,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, June 2024

United States,” Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Real Estate M&A 2022, Law Business Research Ltd., November 2020 (Contributing Editor) 

United States,” Lexology Getting the Deal Through: Real Estate M&A 2021, Law Business Research Ltd., November 2020 (Contributing Editor)

Federal Banking Agencies Issue COVID-19 Relief Allowing Deferral of Real Estate Appraisals,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020 

Preparing for a Foreclosure: A Checklist for Commercial Real Estate Lenders,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020

Impact of COVID-19 on US REITs,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020

Retail Co-Tenancy and COVID-19,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020

Impact of ‘Shelter-In-Place’ Orders on Construction Loans,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, April 2020

Highlights of the CARES Act Affecting the Real Estate Industry,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, March 2020

Top Considerations for the Retail Industry – What Mall Owners Should be Thinking About,” Cleary Gottlieb Alert Memo, March 2020

United States,” Getting the Deal Through: Real Estate M&A 2020, Law Business Research Ltd., December 2019 (Contributing Editor)

United States,” Getting the Deal Through: Real Estate M&A 2019, Law Business Research Ltd., November 2018 (Contributing Editor)

United States,” Getting the Deal Through: Real Estate M&A 2018, Law Business Research Ltd., October 2017

Borrower Beware! Selected Silent Issues in CMBS Loan Documents,” CRE Finance World, Vol. 20, Issue 1, Winter 2018

“The Hedge Fund Holdup: The SEC’s Repeated Unnecessary Attacks on the Hedge Fund Industry,” Brooklyn Law Review, 2008

Events