Michael assists clients in all areas of commercial real estate, including acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, joint ventures, and development. Through his involvement with each phase of the asset lifecycle, Michael has the foresight to help clients structure transactions on the front end to minimize potential issues that might otherwise arise when a project is sold. He takes a forward-thinking and collaborative approach to every engagement.

Michael has significant experience with capitalizing Class A multifamily, office, and hotel developments, and with negotiating leases on behalf of landlords and tenants for office, industrial, and retail space. Among his most notable leasing matters are two build-to-suit leases for sister office towers comprising approximately 600,000 square feet with an institutional-grade credit tenant on behalf of an Atlanta-based developer, a five-floor corporate headquarters office lease for a national retailer tenant, and five full-building industrial leases on behalf of large-scale owners of real estate based in the mountain west and on the west coast. Michael has negotiated numerous declarations and easement agreements for mixed-use developments (including vertical mixed-use). He also has experience negotiating hotel management agreements and hotel franchise agreements with national brands on behalf of owners. For the past six years, Michael has co-led a team of 14 attorneys who handle the bulk of the real estate development work nationally for a restaurant franchise with annual gross sales of more than $11 billion.

Multifamily

• Counsel to developer in capitalizing an approximately 250-unit apartment complex with approximately 10,000 square feet of retail space located in metropolitan Atlanta having a total project cost of approximately $46 million. The development consisted of an assemblage of parcels, one of which was sub-subleased from a governmental entity.
• Counsel to developer in capitalizing a series of rental townhome projects in north Georgia (including in metropolitan Atlanta). The projects currently under construction have an aggregate cost of $72 million.
• Counsel to developer in capitalizing an approximately 290-unit apartment complex located in metropolitan Atlanta having a total project cost of approximately $45 million.
• Counsel to developer in capitalizing an approximately 200-unit “active adult” (age 55+) apartment complex located in metropolitan Atlanta having a total project cost of approximately $41 million.
• Counsel to owner in the sale of five apartment complexes in Atlanta and Savannah over the last three years with an aggregate price of approximately $200 million.

Industrial

• Counsel to a buyer in the acquisition of an approximately 800,000-square-foot industrial warehouse building in metropolitan Atlanta for $60 million. The property was leased to a national credit tenant and subject to a bonds-for-title ownership structure to achieve a property tax abatement.
• Counsel to a national quick service restaurant company in developing a distribution center network consisting of fee and leased facilities with an aggregate value of approximately $1.5 billion.
• Counsel to an institutional owner in the sale of 35 industrial properties in metropolitan Atlanta for approximately $128 million.
• Counsel to an institutional landlord in connection with an approximately 400,000-square-foot lease to a national manufacturer of HVAC equipment for an industrial warehouse building in Atlanta.
• Leasing and asset management counsel to owners of approximately 15 million square feet of industrial space in Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee, Charlotte, south Florida, and the Inland Empire in southern California.
• Counsel to a national developer in the acquisition of industrial development sites along the east coast of the U.S., including multiple sites in the northeast involving the negotiation of lease termination agreements with tenants in to-be-demolished office buildings.
• Counsel to a national developer in capitalizing eight buildings in the northeast U.S. comprising approximately four million square feet.
• Counsel to a landlord in the negotiation of a build-to-suit lease for an aluminum materials forging facility in Georgia comprising approximately 82,000 square feet.

Office

• Counsel to developer in capitalizing adjacent office towers in midtown Atlanta with an aggregate project cost of approximately $300 million. The development involved the imposition of a bonds-for-title ownership structure as well as the negotiation of two build-to-suit leases with a credit tenant in the insurance industry.
• Counsel to developer in the acquisition of a 27-story office tower in downtown Atlanta (and subsequent partial conversion into a hotel) with a total project cost of approximately $100 million.
• Counsel to national retailer in the negotiation of a 5-floor office lease for its corporate headquarters in Atlanta with a total value of approximately $57 million.
• Leasing and asset management counsel to owners of approximately 2 million square feet of Class A office space in the southeastern United States.

Hospitality

• Counsel to joint venture in the negotiation of a long-term management agreement with an international brand for a luxury hotel in downtown San Diego with a total project cost of approximately $215 million.
• Counsel to developer in capitalizing a 700-room convention center hotel in an opportunity zone in Salt Lake City with a total project cost of approximately $375 million.
• Counsel to developer in the negotiation of a franchise agreement for a 180-room full-service hotel with an international brand in downtown Denver.
• Counsel to owner in the negotiation of two franchise agreements with an international brand for 200-room hotels in Los Angeles and metropolitan Chicago.

Retail

• Counsel to national quick service restaurant company in the acquisition and ground leasing of more than 200 sites in more than 35 states with an aggregate transaction value of more than $500 million.
• Counsel to owner in the sale of a shopping center in Kansas City for $53 million.
• Counsel to owner in the sale of a shopping center in metropolitan Nashville for $55 million.
• Counsel to landlord in the negotiation of a lease with a local brewery tenant anchoring the ground floor retail component of an office building in Charlotte.

Pro Bono

• Part of a team of attorneys for plaintiff in a high-profile wrongful deportation lawsuit for which the ACLU of Georgia presented Troutman Sanders LLP with the 2013 Georgia Pro Bono Award.
• Counsel for plaintiff in connection with a partition-related dispute amongst family members that jointly owned property.

• Chambers USA: Real Estate, Georgia (2024-2025)
• Best Lawyers in America®: Real Estate Law (2021-2026)
• On the Rise honoree, The Daily Report, 2016