Senior Counsel - Real Estate

Quality Technology Services•Ashburn, VA

About The Position

The Senior Counsel, Real Estate is a member of QTS’s Legal team and reports to the Associate General Counsel, Real Estate. The attorney supports the company’s real estate and development activities and operations, including acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, zoning and land use, real estate finance, tax and development incentives, and economic development arrangements with state and local governments, economic development authorities and community stakeholders. The role provides direct support to the acquisition and development team and business units, and helps maintain compliance with relevant documents as needed. The role is intended for an attorney with significant, hands-on experience drafting and negotiating economic development documents, including community benefit agreements and development agreements, and real estate development documents, including transaction documents, easements and access agreements, along with related title and survey review and assessment.

Requirements

Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing; in-house counsel registration where applicable.
At least 5 years practicing law, with a substantial portion in real estate development and economic development transactions, at a law firm, in-house, or both.
Demonstrated experience drafting and negotiating community benefit agreements, development agreements, incentive agreements and similar economic development documents, representing developers, public bodies or both.
Demonstrated experience drafting and negotiating real estate development documents, including purchase and sale agreements, leases, easements, access agreements and related transaction documents.
Substantial experience reviewing and assessing title commitments, exceptions and surveys, and resolving title and survey issues to protect the client’s development objectives.
Working knowledge of zoning, land use, entitlement and real estate finance concepts.
Ability to manage multiple complex matters simultaneously and meet tight deal timelines.
Excellent drafting, negotiation, analytical and communication skills, with judgment to translate legal risk into practical business advice.
Ability to drive transactions from term sheet to closing with minimal supervision.
Ability to balance business objectives and risk with public and community stakeholders and counterparties.
Attention to detail, including the ability to identify issues in title, survey and complex agreement language.
Ability to collaborate effectively with development, economic development, community engagement, finance, tax, government affairs and operations teams.
Business judgment, adaptability and a strong sense of ownership.

Nice To Haves

Experience with large-scale, infrastructure-intensive or mission-critical development projects, such as data centers, energy or industrial facilities.
Experience with tax abatements and incentives, public financing tools, public approval processes, and government and community stakeholder engagement.
Experience with real estate finance, joint ventures and construction-related agreements.
Experience working in a multi-jurisdictional practice and managing outside counsel and budgets.

Responsibilities

Lead the drafting and negotiation of community benefit, community engagement and host community agreements; development agreements; economic development and incentive agreements; memoranda of understanding; performance and clawback agreements; and similar documents with municipalities, counties, economic development authorities, utilities and community groups.
Advise on zoning, entitlements, land use, permitting, tax abatements, property and sales tax incentives, grants, tax increment financing, special service areas, payment-in-lieu-of-taxes arrangements, infrastructure commitments and other development incentives in coordination with outside counsel and relevant internal teams.
Advise the business on public-private deal structures, public approval processes, community engagement and investment commitments, and related risk allocation.
Coordinate with development, tax, government affairs and real estate investment teams, and manage outside counsel and local special counsel on incentive and public-approval matters.
Help build and formalize the company’s approach to community benefit and community engagement agreements, including internal review, approval and tracking processes.
Lead the drafting and negotiation of real estate purchase and sale agreements, options, ground and other non-customer leases, and related transaction documents for acquisitions and development of data center campuses.
Draft and negotiate easements, access agreements, licenses, utility and infrastructure agreements, restrictive covenants, reciprocal easement agreements and similar documents.
Review and assess title commitments, title exceptions, surveys (including ALTA/NSPS surveys), zoning and land use reports, and related due diligence; negotiate title endorsements and resolve objections with title companies, surveyors and counterparties.
Manage multiple concurrent deals and deal flow from diligence through closing, working with internal development and due diligence teams and managing outside counsel, counterparties, insurers and other third parties.
Handle non-real-estate legal and general business matters, including commercial contracts, as company needs require.
Provide legal and business judgment on loans, equity raises, joint ventures, acquisitions, construction, reporting and compliance, and tax abatement-related disputes.
Develop and maintain templates, playbooks and processes to improve efficiency and consistency across real estate and incentive transactions.
Perform other duties as assigned.