Overview
Michael Bradford is of counsel in the Global Hospitality & Leisure practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Orange County office. For the past seventeen years, Michael’s practice has been dedicated to representing real estate development companies, owners and operators in connection with the development of luxury hotel, resort, mixed-use resort, condo-hotel, fractional interest, timeshare, condominium, club, and other similar projects throughout the world. He also focuses his practice in structuring large, complex, mixed-use, and multi-component projects including creation of the legal structure, subdivision, governing bodies and associations, budgets, rental programs, and legal documentation.
He has been instrumental in creating numerous projects using vertical, airspace subdivisions to efficiently subdivide the projects to maximize flexibility and project value, optimize developer control, and provide for the best operational environment.
When residential products are involved, Michael has created structures that accomplish all of the foregoing while balancing the interest of residential owners. In fact, in California, he has spent extensive time discussing and working with the heads of the subdivision departments from the Sacramento and Los Angeles offices of the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) to create structures and documents that are optimal for developers and commercial owners but also are sufficient and acceptable to the DRE from a residential perspective. Michael also has extensive experience in all residential aspects of the mixed-use projects including timeshare, fractional, club, condominium, and condo-hotel. He has worked on the sale of major national timeshare companies as well as single site timeshare and condominium projects. Michael also has extensive experience in the registration of timeshare, fractional interest, condominium, and other common interest development projects with federal and state regulatory agencies, registering extensively in California and in every other major state that has registration requirements.
Education
- Loyola Law School, J.D. (cum laude), 1999. In law school he was in the Order of the Coif and a member of the St. Thomas More Honor Society.
- University of California at Los Angeles, B.S. (1985)
Representations
- SHVO in the creation of an ultra-luxury Mandarin Oriental branded residential condominium project with a commercial component in Beverly Hills, California.
- Nahla Capital in the creation of an ultra-luxury Rosewood branded residential condominium project with commercial and public parking components in Beverly Hills, California.
- Impossible Ventures in the negotiation of marketing, licensing and operating agreements for an ultra-luxury Four Seasons residential project including various recreational amenities on Lake Austin, Texas.
- Aspen Hospitality in the creation of the overall project structure for a mixed-use luxury resort hotel and residential condominium project located in Mammoth Lakes, California, to be branded with the luxury “Limelight” brand.
- The Related Group as master developer in The Grand LA. The project is a large horizontal and vertical mixed-use development that includes a Hilton Conrad hotel, retail, multi-family housing, residential condominium, public spaces, and subterranean garage.
- Sterling Bay as master developer of Mica Labs in the creation of the overall project structure for a large horizontal and vertical mixed-use office and life-science campus in San Diego, California.
- Sterling Bay as master developer of Lincoln Yards Chicago including the creation of the overall project structure for a large horizontal and vertical mixed-use development with components on both sides of the Chicago River.
- The Developer in the creation of the overall project structure for a 23,000 acre, horizontal, luxury, mixed-use wine and farm-themed development spanning Napa and Lake Counties.
- Wetherly Portfolio, LLC in the development of Four Seasons Residences in Los Angeles California including the creation of the project structure and drafting the condominium declaration and all other project and residential documentation as well as all residential sales documentation and DRE registration materials.
- The Witkoff Group in the creation of the overall project structure for a mixed-use luxury resort hotel and residential condominium project located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, to be branded with Marriott’s luxury “Edition” brand.
- Combined Properties in the creation of the overall project structure for a mixed-use luxury resort hotel and residential condominium project located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, branded with Montage’s luxury “Pendry” brand. This project – a 300,000-square-foot development encompassing a full city block along the famed Sunset Strip – uses a vertical subdivision, creating airspace parcels to maintain control over and separation of the residential, affordable housing, hotel, retail, and parking components.
- The Developer for LinkedIn’s SyWest Mountain View Joint Development in the creation of the overall structure for Linkedin’s main campus, which includes several office buildings, hotel, theater, athletic fitness center, parking, retail, central plant, and various common areas. This property is owned in a very complicated structure involving one or more ground leases and several sub-leases, all subject to a leasehold reciprocal easement Agreement.
- The Developer of the Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas and in the creation of the master project structure for the complex project, which includes several luxury hotels, several luxury residential condominium regimes, a major convention center, a large casino, retail, golf and various other components. This project uses both a horizontal and vertical subdivision scheme to create separate parcels for each of the hotels and other major components and, within the hotel parcels, to create airspace parcels to separate the hotel, casino, convention, and retail operations from the residential components.
- Deutsche Bank after it took title to the partially completed Cosmopolitan Hotel Las Vegas project and act as developer finishing the project. This project has a multi-story podium base that houses the casino, subterranean parking, retail, restaurants, spa, theaters, and other components.
- Luis Dreyfus, the developer of Four Seasons Jackson Hole, a large mixed-use resort project including a hotel, residential condominium, and fractional components all in the same building. This project is the first master declaration ever drafted for all three of these components under the same roof. Drafted the master declaration tying all the components together and governing the project as well as separate condominium and timeshare sub-declarations and all other project and residential documentation and residential and timeshare registrations.
- Korean Airlines in several aspects of the Wilshire Grand Los Angeles development, one of the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, including an Intercontinental Hotel, large meeting space, restaurant, office, retail, and other components. This project is designed and set up to be subdivided into vertical airspace parcels. Provided forms, advice, and review for the drafting of the reciprocal easement agreement governing the entire project.
- Represent dozens of buyers of mixed-use projects every year with respect to reviewing, analyzing, and spotting issues with respect to pre-existing mixed-use subdivision, condominium, and other common interest developments. This work provides great context and is invaluable in spotting pitfalls and issues to avoid and also in discovering new techniques to utilize when preparing original documents and structures for new developments.