Richard E. Strauss has been a partner with Moses & Singer since 1979 and is Co-Chair of its Real Estate practice. Mr. Strauss’ practice covers a broad range of real estate transactions, with an emphasis on representation of financial institutions in their internal real estate transactions.

Noteworthy leasing transactions include the lease up of a number of major office buildings in Manhattan on behalf of their institutional owners. These included an anchor tenant lease for 400,000 square feet with complex expansion options and the takeover of a 200,000 square foot lease obligation, and disposition through sublet and surrender. Tenant representations range from 200,000+ square feet of new construction to be anchored or for exclusive occupancy; specialty leases, such as a data center (which expanded to over 300,000 square feet of office space in the project); disaster recovery centers and businesses affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

Sale and purchase transactions include the acquisition of a 1,600,000 square foot Wall Street office tower, followed by a sale leaseback (which represented the largest single building sale in Lower Manhattan history); the buy-out of the other partners and the sale by the general partner of a 30-story multi-tenant office tower in the Rockefeller Center area in New York City; the assemblage of ownership interests in a major Park Avenue office building, including the exercise of purchase options, and arbitration to determine its fair market value, and the ultimate disposition of the building in a tax-free exchange; and the sale (in lieu of eminent domain) of an environmentally compromised, 40-story office building.

Mr. Strauss’ real estate background includes financing transactions as well, with some major projects such as the construction financing for the World Financial Center office complex in lower Manhattan; and the permanent refinancing of the multi-tenanted portion of a new Times Square office building developed as a commercial condominium for the headquarters for a major newspaper publisher. He has also represented lenders in numerous hotel financings across the country. In addition, he has represented developers and lenders in rated, securitized financings backed by credit leases and tax exempt bond financings for industrial facilities, housing projects, and other public purpose projects.

In the 1990s, he represented lenders in the renegotiation and workout of, or ultimately the foreclosure or taking of title to, numerous projects in default. These included mixed-use projects in development and hotel properties.

Mr. Strauss has lectured and published on such subjects as real estate workouts, lending to REITs, corporate real estate disaster contingency planning, construction loans and lease issues. He was also honored by Law & Politics in their 2007 listing of “New York Super Lawyers.”