Residents of the Philadelphia area may be aware of the recent sale of the Latham Hotel located at 17th and Walnut Streets. In conjunction with the sale, hotel operations ceased. The new owners plan to convert the building, completed in 1915, back to what it was originally used as—an apartment building. The numerous hotels located in the area played a role in the sale. According to a senior vice president at PKF Consulting/CBRE Hotels, because of the rents in the area, it made more economic sense to convert the building back to residential use.
In any purchase or sale of real estate there are multiple matters that need to be addressed. Many of them benefit from the assistance of an attorney. Such matters include drafting letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, securing financing, reviewing and analyzing title and surveys and due diligence review of environmental zoning compliance. In dealing with matters like these, the best course of action is to work with a lawyer who has experience handling these types of issues. This can make the real estate transaction go as smoothly as possible and could prevent other problems from occurring in the future.
In this particular situation, a lawyer will likely be of assistance working with construction contracts as well. In addition to creating 144 rental units, the ground floor and mezzanine levels could house retail businesses including a financial services business, a restaurant and shopping. Real estate attorneys could also be of help with landlord tenant matters including drafting lease agreements.
