Meredith J. Kane

Co-chair of the Real Estate Department and a member of the firm’s Management Committee, Meredith J. Kane regularly represents developers, equity investors, institutional and entrepreneurial owners and government agencies in all aspects of development, finance, acquisitions and sales, equity joint ventures, restructuring, leasing and securitization of real estate.

Experience

Ms. Kane's experience includes all aspects of the finance and development of complex public/private joint venture projects including:

• the long-term lease acquisition of New York's World Trade Center complex;
• the development of MTA's 26-acre Hudson Yards on Manhattan's far west side for over six million square feet of office space and 5,000 residential units; and of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn for a sports arena and up to 16 residential and commercial buildings;
• the representation of the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association in the ownership and debt restructuring of the 11,000-unit residential complex;
• the transaction between the City of New York and Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to develop a world-class Engineering and Applied Sciences graduate school in New York City;
• the development and financing of New York Wheel, a 630-foot high observation wheel to overlook New York Harbor and the New York skyline on land leased from the City of New York in St. George, Staten Island;
• the representation of Time Warner, Inc. in its program to relocate up to four million square feet of corporate office space in the New York area;
• the retail redevelopment and historic restoration of Grand Central Terminal;
• the development and securitized financing of Brooklyn Renaissance Plaza and the Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, a 1.2 million square foot office and hotel complex in downtown Brooklyn;
• the development and financing of Avalon Chrystie Place, a 5-building, 720-unit housing, retail and community facility development in Manhattan's Cooper Square area;
• the development and financing of the 76-story Trump World Tower luxury condominium;
• the development and financing of over 5 million square feet of major mixed-use retail and residential projects in Flushing, Queens;
• the development of multiple new facilities for City University of New York, including a new headquarters, new building for Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, and new academic facilities for CUNY senior colleges;
• the acquisition, development and financing of multiple new facilities for North Shore-LIJ Health System, including medical offices, hospital facilities, and administrative headquarters;
• the development and financing of major proposed new and expanded cultural venues, including the Park Avenue Armory, New York City Opera, New York Public Library, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Poets House, and Little Shubert Theatre;
• the redevelopment of nine historic theaters in the 42nd Street Development Project;
• the development and financing of a new arena for the Miami Heat basketball team; and
• the development and financing of numerous office, residential and mixed-use complexes throughout all boroughs of New York City and the New York region.

She has represented Avalon Bay Communities, The Lefrak Organization, Vornado Realty Trust, Time Warner, Inc., Muss Development Company, Daewoo Corporation, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Rockefeller Group Development Corporation, Carnival Corporation, City University of New York, and others in major real property acquisitions, sales, financings and developments.

Ms. Kane has received numerous honors and awards for her work. She was honored as the 2009 Woman of the Year by WX - New York Women Executives in Real Estate, and was named one of the Top 50 Women in Real Estate and one of 25 Current Leaders in the Industry by Real Estate Weekly and The Association of Real Estate Women. Euromoney Legal Media Group named her Best in Real Estate at the 2012 inaugural Americas Women in Business Law Awards and Grid Magazine named her one of the top 10 American women in real estate development. Most recently, Commercial Observer profiled Ms. Kane as part of New York's Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys, an accompaniment to its 2015 Power 100 list.

Ms. Kane is also cited by multiple legal directories as one of the leading real estate lawyers in the United States. In Chambers USA 2015, sources describe her as "terrific" and a "problem solver." She is recognized for advising Rockefeller Group Development Corporation on the financing and development of the Flushing Commons Project. Ms. Kane is also recognized in Who's Who Legal USA, The Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America and numerous other peer-review publications. She is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

Ms. Kane served as a commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1995 to 2004. She was a member of the World Trade Center Memorial Center Advisory Committee. She was a lead official from 1985-87 of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development in charge of the planning and development of 8,000 new housing units, and a City Planning official for the City of New Haven from 1977-79 in charge of mixed-use retail and commercial districts. She is a regular speaker at professional forums on real estate development and finance. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Avenue of the Americas Association (Chair, 1999-2007), and is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, WX-Women Executives in Real Estate, the New York Women's Forum, the ULI-Urban Land Institute, the Forum for Urban Design and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (former Chair, Economic Development Subcommittee). She serves on the boards of several civic and not-for-profit organizations.

Practices

• Real Estate
  

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1982
  cum laude
• B.A., Yale College, 1976
  magna cum laude

Bar Admissions

• New York

See Library Tab for articles, publications and presentations by Meredith Kane