Overview
Matthew Sommer is an associate in the real estate practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm's New York office. Mr. Sommer has broad-based experience in all types of real estate transactions, including financing, acquisitions and dispositions, joint venture formation and preferred equity investments. In particular, his practice focuses on representing lenders in a wide variety of transaction types, advising on mortgage and mezzanine debt and preferred equity structures for acquisition, refinancing and construction. He has considerable experience across all asset types, including data, office, multi-family, mixed-use and hospitality. His experience also includes workouts, restructurings, and distressed and performing loan sales.
Mr. Sommer is actively involved in pro bono and community service initiatives. He has provided pro bono counsel to nonprofit organizations and schools, including Success Academy, a public charter school in New York City, Girls Global Academy, a public charter high school in Washington, D.C. and the Capital Village School, a public charter school in Washington, DC in negotiation of school building leases and landlord disputes.
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., 2015
- University of Pennsylvania, College of Arts and Sciences, B.A. (cum laude), 2012
Representations
- Represented an institutional lender in a US$75 million single asset single borrower loan origination secured by an office building in Westwood, MA for its conversion into life science laboratories, including a subordinate mezzanine loan.
- Represented a Japanese bank in its construction lending platform for various ground up developments throughout the US, including, most recently, a US$232 million New York construction loan for the ground up construction of a luxury residential rental building in Brooklyn with an affordable housing component.
- Represented a leading global alternative investment manager in amending the terms of its balance sheet loans to change the interest rate benchmark from LIBOR to SOFR.
- Represented Katara Hospitality in the highly complex sale of the iconic Plaza hotel in Manhattan, which involved navigating requirements of the India courts, multiple financing amendments and obstacles, and the filing of a lis pendens by a third party claiming rights to the asset prior to the closing.