Biography
Throughout his career, Pej has worked with leading international institutions on their US real estate investments and has significant experience in structuring cross-border investments in both the debt and equity setting. Having started his career as a tax attorney, he routinely counsels both domestic and international clients on transactions where complex tax planning or structuring and investment in real estate intersect, including transactions involving domestically controlled REIT structures, complexities arising as a result of fractions rule compliance, structuring around unrelated business taxable income (i.e., UBTI), special allocation scenarios for clients with brownfield tax credits who are invested in multi-tier joint venture arrangements with multiple stakeholders who hold different tax positions, real estate operating companies with historical assets triggering built-in gain, profit participation planning in single-asset real estate transactions as well as in connection with fund-level employee incentives issued to employees of an asset manager, and opportunity zone transactions involving parallel opportunity zone fund structures and/or where properties were previously held by affiliated entities thereby potentially implicating certain opportunity zone structuring limitations, to name a few. Pej also has significant experience in the area of both in-court and out-of-court restructurings and workouts, and he was integrally involved as a member of the real estate team at Weil that was purposed with the implementation and resolution of the real estate assets in Lehman Brothers’ $600 billion multi-year bankruptcy.
Pej routinely advises clients in connection with the formation, structuring and recapitalization of real estate operating companies/platforms (including private REITs), programmatic joint venture arrangements and real estate investment funds and other investment vehicles, including sponsor capital and GP-capital funds.
In addition, Pej has significant experience in preferred equity transactions, construction financing (both from the borrower and lender side) with a particular emphasis on New York construction loans, mortgage- and mezzanine-financing arrangements, intercreditor arrangements, ground leases, and the acquisition and disposition of real property (including entity level sales).
Representative clients over the course of his career have included Almanac Realty Investors, Angelo Gordon, Apollo Capital Management, Atalaya Capital Management, ATCO Properties and Management, Cantor Fitzgerald, Colony NorthStar, Harridge Development Group, Innovo Property Group Holdings, The Integral Group, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, Lehman Brothers, Madison International, Monday Properties, Silverpeak Capital, Starwood Capital, Surya Capital Partners, Sydell Group, among others.
EXPERIENCE*
- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. in definitive agreements with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. and its institutional partners, Cyxtera Technologies and Digital Core REIT, that successfully resolve the relationships with Cyxtera, including its (i) $459 million sale of four data centers located in California and New Jersey, (ii) $44 million purchase and termination of three of Cyxtera’s leases in Germany and Singapore, (iii) assignment to Brookfield of three leases in Los Angeles and New Jersey and (iv) purchase option to acquire from Brookfield one colocation center outside of London
- An institutional fund in connection with the acquisition of an interest, the structuring of a joint venture and the ultimate senior mortgage and mezzanine debt negotiations with respect to a project in Hollywood, Los Angeles with a total debt and equity capitalization in excess of $600 million
- An institutional fund, as co-general partner, with respect to a development in Southern California for an initial project pre-development project capitalization of approximately $70 million and a going-forward proposed development capitalization of $250 million or more
- A sponsor, as manager and sponsor of a joint venture in connection with construction financing to fund the construction and completion of a multifamily development as well as related joint venture structuring as a qualified opportunity zone business for a total equity and debt equity capitalization of approximately $100 million
- A sponsor, as co-general partner, in connection with its investment in and subsequent related construction loan debt negotiations with respect to a project in Austin, Texas with a total debt and equity recapitalization of $200 million
- A sponsor, as co-general partner, in connection with its investment in and subsequent related construction loan debt negotiations with respect to a project in Austin, Texas with a total debt and equity recapitalization of $250 million
- A resort operator in connection with a debt and equity capital restructure for a resort hotel with a total debt and equity capitalization of more than $600 million
- An institutional fund in connection with a mortgage and mezzanine financing of a New York City building with a total equity and debt capitalization of approximately $300 million
- An institutional fund in connection with the making of a capital commitment in excess of $100 million in a multi-billion dollar European real estate platform through a dedicated fund vehicle managed by a third-party asset manager
- Eli Lilly & Company in its acquisition of a manufacturing facility located in Pleasant Prairie, WI
- A NYC sponsor in connection with a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure and related negotiations with respect to a Manhattan office building
- Representation of a client in connection with the structuring of a debt and equity platform with an institutional capital partner to provide anticipated capital commitments of $1.5 billion
- An international asset manager in connection with an equity and debt investment in connection with a marquis Manhattan property with a total equity and debt capitalization of more than $1 billion
- An international asset manager in connection with equity side-car investment in and restructure of debt and equity with respect to property with a total debt and equity capitalization of more than $500 million in Manhattan
- A sponsor in connection with the negotiation of a multi-tier equity joint venture structure and related loan negotiations with respect to a to-be-constructed industrial facility in Queens, NY with a total capitalization in excess of $500 million
- A sponsor in connection with a $400 million recapitalization of a mortgage and mezzanine loan with respect to industrial space in New York City
- ATCO Properties, as borrower, in $83 million mortgage loan refinancing of 40 Central Park South, a residential and retail building located in New York, NY
- TruArc Partners (f/k/a Snow Phipps Group) in its acquisition of Trademark Cosmetics, Inc.
- The formation of an operating company arrangement between the former head of The Carlyle Group’s New York real estate transactions group and an institutional international multibillion dollar conglomerate
- Innovo Property Group on a variety of real estate transactions including acquisitions, dispositions, mortgage and mezzanine financing, and various property-level and up-tier joint ventures transactions and other equity arrangements for various property investments in the NYC area totaling over $3 billion in transactions over the past 5 years
- ATCO Properties in the formation and operation of a sponsor capital platform for the making of GP-capital investments in select strategic markets in the U.S.
- A client in a discretionary programmatic capital allocation from an institutional fund for the funding of so-called “sponsor capital” for the acquisition of properties throughout the NYC area
- An institutional client in various debt and equity investments in a variety of real estate operating company platforms through multi-tiered joint venture structures and through the formation of real estate funds totaling over $2 billion in transactions
- ATCO Properties in the formation and operation of an equity platform formed to develop a multi-phase 70-acre planned community in Charlotte and subsequent joint venture arrangements from property-level institutional capital providers for the phased development of the community
- Colony NorthStar, Inc. in the acquisition of an ownership interest in RXR Realty’s portfolio of New York City properties having a value exceeding $6.5 billion and consisting of 108 properties, and the launch of a new non-traded REIT platform
- Colony NorthStar, Inc. in various strategic investments in real estate operating company platforms including a European AIFMD-approved asset manager and a select-service hotel operator and property manager
- An institutional client in various debt, preferred equity and common equity investments made in connection with the formation of various private REITs including a mortgage REIT with a multibillion dollar equity capitalization and a senior-housing health care REIT
- ATCO Properties in the acquisition, subsequent equity capitalizations and disposition of various properties in NYC including the recapitalization of 240 West 35th Street through a 49 percent equity investment by an Israeli insurance company and a GP co-investment in and the ultimate disposition of 850 Third Avenue
- A client in the acquisition of an assemblage of properties in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan in connection with the development of a mixed-use condominium as well as various property-level, co-GP and other up-tier equity capitalization transactions, mortgage and mezzanine pre-development financing, construction financing, and EB-5 mezzanine financing for the vertical development
Pej is recommended for Real Estate by Legal 500 US in 2024 and has been recognized as a “Notable Practitioner” for Real Estate in the U.S. by IFLR1000 2024. Additionally, Pej was named to Lawdragon’s 2024 list of the “500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers,” was recognized for Real Estate in New York by Super Lawyers for the last four years, and was selected by Connect CRE for their “Lawyers in Real Estate” award in 2022. He is also regularly asked to speak on panels regarding joint ventures and has served as an instructor for several Stafford Continuing Legal Education Seminars in the area of joint venture transactions and structuring.
Pej received his J.D., magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law and his A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College.
*Includes matters handled prior to joining Weil.