Suzanne Bessette-Smith

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Partner

TEL: (312) 984-3122
FAX: (312) 984-3150

Suzanne concentrates her practice on commercial real estate and related corporate, securities and business planning matters. Her practice includes a particular emphasis on publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs). She also has significant experience in both (a) the formation of joint ventures that combine developers and other real estate professionals with institutional financial partners and (b) commercial development, including build-to-suit projects and related financing activities. Additionally, Suzanne’s practice includes experience with Shari’ah-compliant financings, multi-jurisdictional portfolio financings, tax-deferred exchanges, leasing, acquisitions and dispositions. Suzanne is also a member of the boards of several not-for-profit organizations and works with those organizations on a pro bono basis.

In 2011, clients raved to Chambers USA that Suzanne has "a seemingly endless depth of knowledge." She was also selected for inclusion in the 2012 edition of Best Lawyers in America.

Representative Clients

First Industrial Realty Trust
Pacific Office Properties Trust

Representative Matters

First Industrial Forms Net Lease Joint Venture
Represented First Industrial in the formation of a $425 million joint venture with the Kuwait Finance House, a publicly-traded financial institution and global investor. The joint venture acquired net leased industrial properties throughout the US, and each acquisition was consummated utilizing Shari’ah-compliant institutional, and generally securitized, financing.
First Industrial Realty Trust
Recent projects include: negotiation of the sale of First Industrial’s interests in several North American joint ventures to its joint venture partner; the significant restructuring of the operations of this REIT’s taxable REIT subsidiary and its receipt of a private letter ruling from the IRS that resulted in the REIT’s recognition in excess of $100 million of tax losses from the restructuring transaction; and restructuring of the REIT’s and its operating partnership’s $500 million primary credit facility with JPMorgan Chase, as the Administrative Agent.
First Industrial Realty Trust Forms Net Lease Co-Investment Program
Represented First Industrial in the formation of a $900 million net lease co-investment program with UBS Wealth Management-North American Property Fund Limited, investing in long-term single tenant net lease industrial properties throughout the US. Each such acquisition was financed with institutional, and typically securitized, financing.
First Industrial Realty Trust Joint Ventures with CalSTRS
Represented First Industrial in the formation of four joint ventures with CalSTRS, including three joint ventures for an aggregate investment of $1.8 billion in U.S. real estate and a $285 million joint venture for real estate investment in Canada; and in the negotiation of several subscription debt facilities with WestLB AG, New York branch, including two multicurrency facilities totaling $950 million.
The Shidler Group/Pacific Office Properties Trust Reverse Merger
Represented The Shidler Group in connection with the formation of a new public west coast-focused office properties REIT in a "reverse merger" transaction involving the contribution of The Shidler Group's western U.S. office building portfolio to a newly created operating partnership subsidiary of Pacific Office Properties Trust and the assumption of indebtedness in excess of $750 million.
U.S. Federal Properties Trust
Serve as primary counsel to the founders of this newly formed REIT, in preparation for its $350 million initial public offering and negotiated contribution agreements through which certain of the founders will contribute their respective interests in certain real properties to the entity's "operating partnership."

Professional Activities and Honors

Member, American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL)
Instructor, Advanced Real Estate Transactions, Northwestern University School of Law, 2001 - 2008
Member, International Association of Attorneys and Executives in Corporate Real Estate (AECRE)

Practice Areas

Education

Bar & Court Admissions

Suzanne Bessette-Smith

Representative Clients

Representative Matters

Professional Activities and Honors

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