Charlene Schafer

Charlene maintains a comprehensive real estate practice focused on commercial transactions, particularly in the real estate private equity, fund and joint venture spaces. She advises domestic, cross-border and international clients in all real estate sectors, regularly representing pension fund owners, fund sponsors, fund investors, managers, private equity funds, REITs, sovereign wealth funds, developers, local and international institutional investors, universities, major lenders and borrowers, landlords and tenants.

Charlene has extensive experience in the creation, promotion, management of and investment in both open-end and closed-end domestic, national and international real estate private equity funds, limited partnerships, joint ventures and co-ownerships, development-related matters and property and asset management advice. She frequently acts on transactions involving acquisitions and dispositions of single property and portfolio investments, sale/leaseback arrangements, as well as single lender and syndicated construction, servicing, term and take-out financing.

Charlene regularly advises clients on the real estate components of their mergers and acquisitions transactions, in addition to her advice relating to industrial and office leasing negotiations, construction-related mandates, regulatory, compliance matters and land transfer tax advice. Her transactional, tax and regulatory experience helps clients efficiently and strategically structure and negotiate complex agreements, such as purchase and sale, limited partnership and co-ownership, credit, management services, development and construction management, reciprocal easement and operating, limiting distance, and tieback and crane swing agreements, as well as ground, major office and industrial leases.

She also works on transit-oriented communities and mixed-use developments, demonstrating her ability to support large-scale, complex projects with multiple stakeholders.