Monthly Archives: May 2014

Investors, business, and private individuals all take part in the development process. From planning, construction, to occupancy, there are many steps involved to build a successful structure. Developing a piece of land can be exciting, stressful, and worrisome all at the same time, but sound legal advice and planning may ease some of a developer’s concerns and help him or her avoid unwanted legal contests.

Zoning laws exist to regulate land use in a way that is efficient and uniform. However, in reality, these laws often seek to preserve the look and feel of a community by restricting the types of new developments that can be built in the area. Therefore, it is imperative those considering constructing a new building or initiating the use a piece of land understand local zoning laws and how they may affect their plans, or trouble may arise.

We are wrapping up our discussion of a case involving payments in lieu of taxes. The original agreement was between a developer whose property straddled the border between two towns and one of those towns. The developer agreed to the PILOTs in return for having access to the town’s public sewer system.

We are still discussing the decision in a federal court case about payments in lieu of taxes. The dispute is in Massachusetts, so the situation is a little different from what we would see here in Philadelphia or across the river in New Jersey. The facts are interesting, though, and there is, perhaps, a lesson for us all as well.

In 1987, a developer decided to build on a parcel that straddled the border between two towns in Massachusetts. One town had a public sewer system, and the other did not. In a commercial development, access to a sewer system can be critical, so the developer and the city with the sewer system — the city of Marlborough — negotiated an agreement that would give the developer the services he needed.

A case from Massachusetts caught our attention recently. The issue is payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, and the confusion that can result from long-term PILOT agreements. Our readers may be familiar with the term, but they may not realize that PILOTs in Pennsylvania differ from PILOTs in other states.

Some industries require professionals to undergo years of rigorous training before they may interact with clients. However, other industries are more flexible. They allow interested individuals to pursue opportunities and to be creative about their approach. Arguably, real estate is one of the most varied, interesting and flexible industries that one can venture into.

Refinancing of 15 brownstones in Philadelphia was completed at $15.5 million in refinancing. Funding for the refinancing was orchestrated by a private commercial real estate brokerage as a 3.5 percent interest rate was set for seven years.

The life of a neighborhood and the life of a broader community are often not unlike the lives of individuals. Both communities and individuals tend to weather ups and downs, tend to resist change, tend to ultimately undergo changes and then refocus and redefine themselves.

Not so long ago, if an individual wished to purchase either a home or a piece of commercial real estate, he or she was compelled to do research in local newspapers, through word-of-mouth and/or by simply roaming through interesting neighborhoods and peeking around to see which properties might be available. Now that so much real estate data is available online, many individuals now choose to conduct the vast majority of their research through resources available on the Internet.