Kimberly A. Wachen
Kimberly Wachen
Washington
Washington D.C. (DC)
Real Estate
Business/Corporate
Profile
Kimberly Wachen is co-chair of Arent Fox's Real Estate Department and chair of the Hospitality Industry Practice Group. She handles a wide variety of commercial real estate and corporate transactions on a national and local level and is known as the "go-to" attorney for particularly large and/or complex deals. Ms. Wachen has lead numerous commercial real estate transactions ranging from the purchase and sale of individual properties (e.g., hotels, senior living facilities, office buildings, apartment buildings, and shopping centers) to multi-state portfolio purchases and sales of real estate and loan portfolios. She represents real estate investors, developers and managers of large commercial real estate projects. She has particular experience in the negotiation of purchase, sale, development, management and financing agreements for hotel and resort properties and senior living facilities. Since 2004, Ms. Wachen has handled some of the largest hotel and senior living transactions in the country. She also has extensive experience in ground leasing and other leasing transactions including large headquarter leases, office space leases, restaurant leases, industrial/flex leases (including refrigerated warehouse space) and retail leases. Ms. Wachen's corporate experience, for both public and privately held companies, includes the structuring and negotiation of acquisitions, mergers, reorganizations and international joint ventures ranging in size from $30 million to $810 million. She has significant experience in equity participations and debt financing arrangements for large real estate projects, including construction loans, mezzanine loans, take-out financing, sale-leaseback transactions, preferred equity, joint ventures and other equity infusion structures.
Selected To
2012 Washington DC Super Lawyers
Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers 2011
About Kimberly Wachen
Admitted: 1993, Washington D.C.
Professional Webpage: www.arentfox.com/people/index.cfm?fa=profile&id=270
Honors and Awards:
- Recognized as one of Washington DC's "Best Lawyers" by Washingonian magazine (2011)
- Selected as the “Leading Real Estate Lawyer” in Washington, DC by the readers of the Legal Times (December 2008)
- Rated as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer in Washington, DC by Legal 500 USA (2011)
- Rated as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer in Washington, DC by Chambers USA (2010-2011)
- Recognized as a “Woman of Influence” by the Real Estate Forum (September 2008)
Special Licenses/Certifications:
- Certified Public Accountant, 1989
Bar/Professional Activity:
- Ms. Wachen is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Maryland and New York. Ms. Wachen is also a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) serving as a member of ULI's Mixed Use Council (Red Flight), and Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW).
Transactions:
- Ms. Wachen has overseen legal work for over $1.5 billion in assets owned and managed by Sunrise Senior Living, Inc. Ms. Wachen has represented Sunrise in negotiating joint venture, development, management, acquisition/disposition and financing agreements, consisting of over 100 properties valued at a total of more than $1 billion, with seven separate joint venture partners and several different lenders. In addition to the Sunrise work, she has handled some of the largest senior living transactions over the past years including the $562 million sale/lease and manage-back of 20 Horizon Bay Senior Communities senior living facilities and the $255 million sale of Marriott Senior Living Services health care real estate holdings to a real estate investment company. Ms. Wachen has handled numerous large scale development projects for Marriott International. She represents Marriott in the development of its Edition brand hotels in Manhattan (Clock Tower Building) and the Seville Beach Hotel in Miami Beach. She also represented Marriott in the development of its 1,000-room JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa, a multi-hundred-million-dollar project, which Real Estate Forum selected as a "Deal of the Year" for 2007. In an earlier transaction, Ms. Wachen represented Marriott in developing its flagship Grande Lakes Resort & Spa in Orlando, which consisted of a 1,000-room JW Marriott hotel, 584-room Ritz-Carlton hotel, a 40,000-square-foot spa and a Greg Norman Championship golf course. Ms. Wachen also advises borrowers, investors, developers, and managers in complex workouts, dispositions and acquisitions of distressed loans, real property and other assets. She has successfully negotiated many different types of workout and remedy/enforcement arrangements, including: loan modifications; deferral and other forbearance arrangements; foreclosures; deed-in-lieu agreements; release agreements; lease modifications; entity restructuring; recapitalizations; takeovers and subordination agreements. She has worked with many different types of distressed properties located throughout the United States and has worked with numerous institutional lenders such as Barclays Capital Real Estate, Capmark Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., KeyBank National Association, Manufacturers & Traders Trust Company, Millennium Bank, The PrivateBank and Trust Company, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Sovereign Bank and Wells Fargo Bank.
Educational Background:
- Ms. Wachen graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1992 and Duke University in 1988. She earned her certified public accountant license in 1989.
Kimberly A. Wachen:
Link this page to your website with a SuperLawyers.com personalized badge.
Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.
