Karla Rogers

Practice Areas

Real Estate Law

Construction Law

Corporate and Finance

Mergers, Acquisitions, Divestitures and Sales

Commercial Lending

Private Equity

Environmental Law

Public/Private Partnership Law

Career

As Co-Chair of Calfee’s Real Estate group, Karla Rogers counsels publicly and privately held clients on all aspects of real estate and commercial finance law. She represents clients in property development, acquisitions, mergers, leasing and dispositions involving real property holdings.

Karla enjoys getting to know her clients and their businesses in order to provide practical and creative solutions to their real estate, commercial, finance and corporate law needs.

She counsels clients in all aspects of real estate acquisitions and divestitures, including structuring transactions, land assemblage, land use, zoning and permitting compliance. Karla works extensively on all real estate components of corporate acquisitions, mergers and divestitures. She counsels clients on purchase and sale agreements title, survey and other real estate matters in connection with individual and multi-site acquisitions and sales.

Karla is experienced in negotiating and drafting commercial, industrial and retail leases on behalf of both landlords and tenants.

She also represents institutional lenders and public and privately held borrowers in connection with structuring, negotiating and drafting real estate financing agreements and facilitating secured financing transactions.

Karla joined Calfee in 1998 and was elected Partner in 2009. She began serving as Vice Chair of the Real Estate practice group in 2020 and Co-Chair in 2024. Karla is involved in Calfee’s mentoring program.

Previously serving as the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Building Industry Association of Cleveland & Suburban Counties, Karla also served as an Associate with Taft, Stettinius & Hollister.

Professional Memberships

Ohio State Bar Association, Member

Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Member

Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Volunteer Mentor

Shoes and Clothes For Kids, Former Board Member

Chicago Title Insurance Company Advisory Board, Former Member

Publications

Karla is often a featured speaker at various legal seminars.

Panelist at Commercial Real Estate Women Cleveland and Greater Akron event "Live. Work. Enjoy. Explore!"

Featured speaker at National Business Institute seminars "Handling Real Estate Transactions from Start to Finish."

Speaker at numerous Ohio State Bar Association seminars involving commercial real estate law topics.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Ohio

Experience

Provide legal counsel in an ongoing representation of affiliated joint ventures and development projects throughout Ohio for a privately owned development and construction company and its affiliated companies that currently manage nearly 50 active projects across the country. Calfee provides legal counsel involving the development of a former governmental facility and adjoining property to a nearly 200-acre, mixed-use development in the Midwest. The client is relocating its corporate headquarters, and we represented the client with construction loan financing to facilitate such development while continuing to assist the client on overall site matters, including the drafting and negotiation of the development agreement amendment, drafting and negotiation of financing documents, public finance documents and other site assemblage matters. Calfee was also instrumental in assisting this client in obtaining Transformational Mixed-Use Development (TMUD) tax credits for the development. Additionally, our firm’s ongoing representation for this client includes overall site development work and coordination with a publicly traded, Fortune 500 company that acquired property from the joint venture client to develop its state-of-the-art national research and development in 2020. Calfee assisted the client in purchasing vacant land for an industrial development, which included the negotiation and preparation of the definitive purchase agreement, deed, and due diligence review (title, survey, zoning, and environmental). (2023-2025)

Represented a publicly traded, Fortune 500 multinational manufacturing company and its affiliated companies on the real estate aspects of various corporate and real estate acquisitions, divestitures and leasing matters. Calfee’s work includes due diligence review, title, survey, property condition evaluations, easement agreements, zoning analysis for owned real properties located in the Southwestern U.S., and lease analysis involving properties throughout the United States. We recently finalized the terms of a long-term lease of a large industrial facility in the Midwest for a planned expansion of operations there. We also are negotiating new lease agreements and lease amendments for other related facilities as well as stock purchase agreements, membership interest agreements, and asset purchase agreements. We have represented the client and its subsidiaries in connection with several corporate transactions involving negotiating new leases and assignments of leases. We have represented a subsidiary and their affiliated entities in various lease amendments, lease reviews, and other corporate real estate counsel in the United States and Canada. (2025)

Represent a leading mining and mineral provider and its various subsidiaries on all aspects of real estate transactions throughout the United States, serving as their go-to “in-house” counsel on a variety of transactions. This ongoing representation includes advising the client on strategic business matters as well as drafting and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, lease agreements, easements, licenses, access agreements, transloading agreements, occupancy agreements, non-disclosure agreements, brokerage listing agreements, due diligence reviews, real estate title and survey reviews, zoning and permitting analyses, and drafting closing documents. (2025)

Assisted with the negotiation of a critical and long-term lease agreement in the Midwest as part of an overall corporate acquisition of a beverage group manufacturing client. This acquisition was critical in the client’s overall growth plan in the country and added a critical operations facility to its portfolio of existing locations. (2024)

Represented a privately owned, multibillion-dollar company in connection with an asset acquisition that included significant real estate holdings in the Southeastern U.S. Our real estate team negotiated a definitive asset purchase agreement and ancillary documents as well as title, survey, environmental, property condition, and zoning review. (2024)

Served as lead counsel for a New York City-based real estate developer client on the acquisition and financing of three industrial tenant-occupied facilities in the Midwest and Southeastern U.S. Our role included the negotiation of definitive purchase agreements, lease agreements, deeds, loan agreements, deeds of trust, mortgages and other ancillary documents, as well as all diligence material reviews (title, survey, zoning, environmental and property condition reports). This client was concluding a 1031 exchange and used such funding proceeds to purchase two industrial tenant-occupied facilities in the Midwest and one industrial tenant-occupied facility in the Southeast. (2024)

Represented a realty group in connection with its high-profile sale of over 75 acres of land in the Midwest to a county in connection with the purchasing county’s proposed jail complex development. Calfee represented the seller in all aspects of the sale of this property, including the negotiation of the purchase agreement, deed, easements agreements, and other ancillary documents as well as assisting with lot split and other permitting matters. (2024)

Represented a leading mining and mineral provider and its various subsidiaries in connection with the acquisition of over 1,600 acres of land and sand mining operations in the U.S. This transaction was a competitive bid process and our real estate team led all aspects of the significant real estate components of this transaction, including the negotiation of the definitive asset purchase agreement, leases, licenses, tri-party agreements, and other ancillary agreements. Our team also represented the client at the Board of Zoning Appeals to obtain a conditional use permit for its mining operations as well as complicated and numerous lot split plats matters. (2024)

Represented a leading mining and mineral provider and its various subsidiaries on an important laboratory space lease in the Southeastern U.S. that is integral to its continued expansion plans. Our representation included lease negotiations and permitting matters. (2024)

Represented a privately owned development and construction company and its affiliated companies in the purchase of vacant land in the Southeastern U.S. for an industrial development project that included negotiation of the purchase agreement, deed, ancillary documents, and due diligence review (title, survey, zoning, and environmental). (2024)

Represented a privately owned development and construction company and its affiliated companies in connection with its corporate divestiture involving seven demolition recycling facilities located in Southeastern U.S. This representation included drafting definitive asset sale agreements, deeds, licenses, and other ancillary documents. (2023)

In 2023, Calfee’s Real Estate Group assisted a professional services agency client with five locations in the USA with the review, diligence, and Landlord consents for seven leased properties located on the East Coast and West Coast of the U.S. The client acquired the equity interests of a manufacturer, which leases large warehouse facilities in four states.

Represented a family wealth management firm’s 2022 sale of the equity interest in an operating limited liability company, finalization of the construction of a manufacturing facility, and a sale/leaseback involving a third-party institutional real estate corporation. Calfee’s work included the negotiation and drafting of real property purchase agreements, a membership interest purchase agreement, and various closing documents on both the corporate divestiture and sale/leaseback as well as navigating the finalization of the construction of the manufacturing facility.

Education