| Biography:
Peter Fass, partner in the New York office, co-heads the Firm's Real Estate Securities and Finance Group, which handles all aspects of the disciplines involved in the execution of a real estate securities transaction (corporate, partnership, tax, ERISA, securities and real estate law). He is uniquely qualified to assist issuers, underwriters, lenders and investors (both taxable and tax-exempt) in evaluating a real estate securities transaction, structuring such transaction and then executing the transaction from start to finish. Chambers USA 2008 recently recognized Peter as a leader in his field.
He has over 35 years of experience in every type of real estate securities and syndication transaction. He has been counsel on many of the largest private and publicly offered real estate securities transactions during that period of time, representing many financial service organizations in connection with privately and publicly offered non-traded limited partnerships, publicly offered traded limited partnerships and real estate investment trusts. Included in Peter's extensive experience is substantial activity in the fields of partnership law, limited partnership tender offers, real estate investment trusts, joint ventures, privately offered limited partnerships and publicly offered limited partnerships. These syndicated limited partnerships raised equity of over $6 billion from more than 500,000 investors in over 750 syndications involving real estate debt and equity, oil and gas exploration, motion pictures, cable TV, equipment leasing and other assets. Peter has handled real estate limited partnership transactions for many of the largest syndication firms and investment banking firms in the country. He recently represented The Lightstone Group in connection with its $8 billion acquisition of Extended Stay America from the Blackstone Group. Peter has been involved in the initial public offering of several real estate investment trusts, including American General Hospitality Corporation, a lodging company; Tower Realty Trust, Inc., an office company; and American Mortgage Acceptance Corp., a mortgage REIT.
Peter is currently representing The Lightstone Group in connection with its two non-traded publicly offered REITs, Lightstone Value Plus Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. Lightstone Value Plus Real Estate Investments Trust, II, Inc.; and American Realty Capital in connection with its non-traded REIT, American Realty Capital Trust, Inc. He represented Related Capital Company in connection with its consolidation of seven of its publicly offered real estate partnerships, three into a New York Stock Exchange-listed Delaware business trust (currently named Centerline Capital Group), and four into an American Stock Exchange-listed REIT (Aegis Realty, Inc.). Peter represented RPS Realty Trust (currently Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust) in connection with its roll-up of three REITs and one limited partnership into a self-managed New York Stock Exchange-listed REIT. He represented CGS Real Estate Company in connection with a consolidation of eight public and over 20 private limited partnerships into American Spectrum Realty Inc., an exchange-listed REIT.
Peter received his BS Degree (with honors) in Economics and Finance from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School), his JD Degree (cum laude) from Harvard Law School and an LL.M. in Taxation (with honors) from New York University. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma (the national honorary business society) and of Beta Alpha Psi (the national honorary accounting society). He is a member of the New York Bar, is a CPA and is a recipient of the Haskins Award for outstanding achievement on the CPA exam.
He has written and lectured on a wide range of investment topics including real estate investment trusts, real estate syndication, partnership structuring, tax shelters and movie finance. Peter's publications include (please click on any of the highlighted book titles to be directed to the Thomson Reuters/West Web site where Peter's books are available) a seven-volume treatise on Tax-Advantaged
Securities, Tax-Advantaged Securities Law Report, Tax-Advantaged
Securities Handbook, Real Estate Investment Trusts Handbook, The
Blue Sky Handbook for Public and Private Direct Participation Offerings,
The S Corporation Handbook, and a two-volume treatise on Tax
Aspects of Real Estate Investments all published by Thomson Reuters/West. Peter
also writes a bi-monthly column for the New York Law Journal on real
estate securities.
Peter has served on the NASD Direct Participation Committee and a subcommittee thereof which drafted the NASD's roll-up rules that were eventually adopted. Those rules, along with the Federal and California Acts (on which Peter, through industry lobbying efforts, had significant input), currently set the basic structure for the roll up of limited partnerships.
Peter has served as a Supervising Council member of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Division and was Chairman of the Real Estate Investment Committee of the Real Property Probate and Trust Division of the American Bar Association, and a member of the Special Tax Shelter Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association.
|
