Situation
As part of its international operations, our client Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. maintains an active presence in Houston, Texas. When a building it leases on the Houston campus was being acquired by a third party, our client turned to the experienced corporate real estate team at Husch Blackwell for counsel. An existing synthetic lease that was maintained by the property owner made this a unique transaction.
Result
In connection with the closing, the original lender/owner was paid to release the existing synthetic lease in the amount of $52 million. A third-party owner/lender acquired the building and improvements for $76.95 million. Because of lower interest rates, the lease payments for our client remained flat, even though the building had significantly appreciated. Husch Blackwell drafted, negotiated and reviewed all of the required documents, issued a legal opinion and successfully closed the transaction for this time-sensitive matter.