Michael X. McBride

Practice Areas

Real Estate and Land Use

Construction

Career

Michael McBride, Co-chair of Connell Foley LLP’s Construction Practice Group, has a family background in construction and real estate that dates back more than a century, providing him with an intimate knowledge of the industry and the legal issues faced by his clients. He regularly represents owners, developers, contractors and vendors in all aspects of real estate development and construction. Under Mike’s leadership as Connell Foley’s Managing Partner from 2010 through 2015, the firm grew by more than 20 percent.

Mike effectively resolves a wide array of disputes that often arise during the development process, from approvals to construction defects and delays, leasing matters and hazardous waste issues. He is especially adept at devising creative, cost-effective solutions to problems, especially involving governmental authorities, that can threaten to delay or derail a project.

Mike’s projects include large-scale development of data centers, a runway construction dispute with the Air Force, casinos, offshore wind projects, lead pipe infrastructure replacement projects, industrial tract and office developments, power plants, residential apartment and condominium projects, shopping center developments, and utility relocation agreements in connection with the replacement of an existing bridge. Although he is primarily focused on New York and New Jersey — including major projects in Atlantic City, Hoboken, Newark, Manhattan and Brooklyn — his practice also includes work throughout the United States and internationally in India and China.

Sought after as a speaker on construction, financing and development issues, Mike has presented for the Annual Construction SuperConference in San Francisco, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) Annual Public Policy Forum, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, NJBIZ, the New Jersey Alliance for Action, the Utility Contractors Association, and various other trade groups.

Mike also represents a private equity fund that purchases, develops, leases and sells large industrial tracts in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest. In addition, he successfully negotiated the merger of McBride Enterprises, Hudson Bay, a private real estate fund capitalized by Crescent Real Estate Equities (a REIT trading on the NYSE) and Penn Square Properties Inc. into an entity called Keystone Property Trust, a REIT trading on the NYSE that was sold to Prologis.

Mike is passionate about community service and maintains an active pro bono practice. He helped start Covenant House New Jersey in 1990 and was instrumental in expanding the number of cities and sites where CHNJ serves homeless street children. He also started the Girl's Junior Lacrosse Program in Ridgewood, NJ in 1993 (The Program has over 450 girls playing lacrosse).

Professional Memberships

Fellow, American Bar Foundation (2011-present)

Board Member, Atlantic Legal Foundation (2010-present)

American Bar Association

New Jersey State Bar Association

Expert in these Jurisdictions

New Jersey

New York

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

United States Supreme Court

Experience

Represent a contractor who installed a 30-mile gas pipeline from Western Pennsylvania to Northeastern Ohio, seeking unpaid contract balances and unpaid change orders

Represent a joint venture against a construction manager in connection with a large residential project located in East Brunswick, NJ

Represent a utility contractor in connection with a large lead pipe replacement project, successfully resolving the Township’s claims that certain related electrical work was within the contractor’s scope of work

Represent a major international company in connection with the build-out of its headquarters in NJ, which included terminating the contractor for default and negotiating the completion contract with a replacement contractor

Represent a nursing home operator in successfully removing the managing member of the LLC from all operations

Represent a large international developer in connection with the completion of a 79 story residential building in New Jersey, including resolution of all construction issues

Represent a contractor in successfully resolving a runway dispute at Patrick Air Force base in Florida

Represent an infrastructure contractor in connection with a RFP proposal for an offshore wind project in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Represent a prospective bidder in a bid dispute over a $100m municipal contract to replace lead pipe citywide

Represent an infrastructure contract in a bid dispute to obtain a county highway procurement contract

Represent an infrastructure contractor in connection with a dispute over utility relocation agreements in connection with the replacement of a 90-year-old bridge

Renew an RFP for a complex battery storage project

Review an RFP for an infrastructure contract in connection with a high-speed rail line in Maryland

Renew and negotiate design-build agreements for three cannabis projects in the Midwest

Represent a large developer in connection with the completion of a large residential project in Long Branch, New Jersey including resolution of construction issues

Represent a national homebuilder in connection with the recent construction of projects in New York City, including negotiating all access agreements with various adjacent property owners

Represent a cannabis owner in connection with the negotiation of a separate design-build agreement with contractor for projects located in Ohio, Missouri and Utah

Represent an international developer in connection with its architectural contract and resolution of certain ADA issues in a large residential project in New Jersey

Represent a joint venture in connection with a large residential project in East Brunswick, New Jersey

Represent a pet food manufacturer in Wisconsin in a build-to-suit project

Represent a major engineering firm in connection with a 30-mile pipeline project

Represent a major home builder in a dispute with a terminated construction manager

Represent a major utility in negotiating over 100 right-of-way easements for a pipeline project

Represent a major utility in connection with its lease and build-out of The Bell Labs, building in Holmdel, New Jersey

Represent a developer in connection with its proposed Town Centre development in Bridgewater, New Jersey

Represent a developer in connection with its purchase of a former coal-fired plant for demolition and development into a residential/retail site in Cape May County, New Jersey

Represent a developer in successfully resolving numerous disputes with a construction manager over a condominium project in Hoboken, New Jersey

Represent a seller in connection with a sale of a large storage center with significant environmental issues

Represented the seller in the sale of 37 industrial buildings in Clark, New Jersey

Represented a public company developer on numerous residential real estate projects located in Hoboken, New Jersey (Maxwell Place), Brooklyn (The Brooklyn Pier), Queens (The Long Island City Project), Manhattan (Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Third Avenue and First Avenue projects), Washington D.C. (a joint venture with Prudential), Pennsylvania (Plymouth Meeting) and Maryland (Bethesda)

Represented a public company developer in resolving significant property disputes with adjacent property owners and general contractors in connection with the client's residential projects

Represented the developer in the construction of a large residential project for Marymount College in New York City; successfully resolved numerous construction disputes with various contractors and payment issues with the college

Represented the developer in a joint venture in merging the ground lease and fee interest, and with leasing a large industrial building located in Totowa, New Jersey, to a national tenant

Represented a public REIT in the purchase of eight industrial parks (over 45 buildings) in Greenville, South Carolina

Represented the developer of a large shopping center in Mt. Olive, New Jersey, in dispute with site contractor; matter proceeded to arbitration; successful resolution of claims against design professionals; and the site contractor

Represented a major media company in a dispute with an architect/engineer and contractor regarding building defects in the curtain wall system at its corporate headquarters facility in Princeton, New Jersey; dispute ended successfully after a 10-day trial

Represented a large financial conglomerate in dispute with window manufacturer and curtain wall contractor regarding windows spontaneously combusting at the Gateway 3 & 4 buildings in Newark, New Jersey

Represented a large regional utility in a major construction dispute with the Tosco refinery over project delays; matter settled successfully during arbitration

Represented the developer in connection with the approval, land sale and construction of UPS’ worldwide data center in Mahwah, New Jersey

Represented the seller in sale of 18 industrial and office properties to a public REIT

Education

Awards