Services

Below is a listing of relevant project experience that demonstrates the breadth and depth of our Infrastructure Group.

• We have served as project or construction counsel or lead management consultant (for project structure, contracting and risk management) for more than a dozen of the most significant sports facilities constructed in North America during the past 15 years.
  
  These projects include:
• Jacobs Field and Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio
• Golden State Warriors arena renovation project in Oakland, California
• PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Nationwide NHL Hockey Arena in Columbus, Ohio
• Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri
• Minnesota Twins’ new Ballpark project
• Florida Marlins’ retractable roof ballpark project
• Kansas City Royals’ ballpark renovation project
• Charlotte Knights’ baseball park in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Xcel-Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota
• Orlando Magic’s new Orlando Events Center
• Pittsburgh Penguins’ new multipurpose arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Lucas County Arena in Toledo, Ohio
• Soldier Field Adaptive Reuse Project in Chicago, Illinois
• San Francisco 49ers’ Football Stadium project
• We won the largest-ever eminent domain trial in Ohio, enabling the city of Cleveland to expand Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Cleveland owned a 180-acre parcel of land slated for future airport use, and neighboring city Brook Park filed an eminent domain action to try to take the land. Cleveland needed to win the eminent domain battle because the land at issue was the only reasonable location available for airport expansion, including a new runway. Building an entirely new airport was not an option. At stake was billions of dollars in economic development and the future growth of the Northeast Ohio region tied to airport expansion. We prevailed after a four-week trial. The Cleveland Plain Dealer hailed the trial victory as a victory for the entire Northeast Ohio region.
• We served as lead trial counsel for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority in the five-week trial of a consolidated eminent domain proceeding to acquire 14 separate parcels from commercial property owners on the east bank of the Flats in downtown Cleveland for the largest downtown Cleveland real estate redevelopment project in over 30 years, a $400 million mixed-use housing and retail project for redevelopment of property along the Cuyahoga River at the mouth of Lake Erie. The Port Authority was successful in convincing the Court of Common Pleas to grant its motion to consolidate all 14 cases filed to a single proceeding on the Port Authority's right to take the property. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, under the U.S. Constitution, economic development may be used as a purpose for a taking, the Ohio Supreme Court in a subsequent decision in June 2006 unanimously held that economic development cannot be used as the sole basis for the use of eminent domain in Ohio. This litigation was the first significant case following the Ohio Supreme Court decision where the limits of this ruling were tested and where a Port Authority's right of taking for other statutory and Ohio constitutional purposes, independent of economic development, was recognized in the state of Ohio. The court dismissed all of the property owners' counterclaims and denied the property owners' attempts to join the city of Cleveland and the redeveloper in this litigation. After the trial, all property owners agreed to settle their matters, allowing this catalytic Cleveland redevelopment project to proceed.
• We represented a client in the reconstruction of 40 miles of electric transmission lines across vacant land, commercial properties and private residences. The diverse landscape created more than 60 eminent domain cases covering a range of issues, including the impact of electromagnetic fields upon nearby property value, assignment of proceeds from the sale of timber cut for the right-of-way, the usefulness of a severed portion of property and constitutional challenges. Many matters were settled by our successful challenge of property owners’ appraisers and their methodology, while the minimal number of courtroom trials were resolved pre-verdict.
• We serve as technology and regulatory counsel to multiple independent telephone companies, advising on technology deployment and diversification, including Internet access and competitive local services; the development, submission and approval of financing; ratemaking; and corporate matters.
• We are representing a city government that is co-owner with Hamilton County, Ohio and the developer, Riverbanks Renaissance, LLC, in structuring and negotiating a joint master development arrangement and the financing of public roads and garages in connection with the development of approximately 18 acres of prime real estate in downtown Cincinnati on the Ohio River. It is a phased project involving the construction of approximately $80 million worth of roads and parking facilities (to take the project out of the floodplain) with a private, mixed-use development of approximately 2.8 million square feet on top and a premiere five-acre flagship riverfront park.
• We provide extensive trial and ADR experience in a broad range of construction cases involving heavy and highway construction, commercial high-rise construction, design professional standard of care/errors and omissions litigation, structural failures, tunnels, roofs, delay and disruption claims, and construction defect claims.
• We mediated a case to conclusion on behalf of a contractor who had a contract to erect four heat recovery steam generators on a new power plant in southern Indiana. Our client was engaged to erect the HRSGs using materials supplied by a boiler manufacturer who went bankrupt during the course of the project. The claims involved allegations of defective materials and parts shipped from Korea that were months behind schedule. We mediated the case against the program manager for the overall project and the owner, a private utility from New Jersey.
• We litigated a three-week jury trial for a contractor with claims against a municipal wastewater authority involving multimillion dollar claims on a large renovation and replacement project at a 60 mgd wastewater treatment facility.
• We counsel providers of fiber optic networks traversing multiple geographic areas on issues including municipal and rural zoning and right-of-way issues, technology assessment and service-level contracting.
• We assisted a client with the documentation of a multi-party consortium for the development of rural fiber ring, including inter-company contracts, pole attachment and bandwidth arrangements.
• We serve as counsel to broadband service providers, both for-profit and not-for-profit, in the development and negotiation of comprehensive network interconnection and service arrangements.
• We served as project counsel for a new 550-megawatt natural gas–fired cogeneration facility at a chemical plant in South Carolina. We assisted with an interconnection and operating agreement with SCANA, certain corporate guarantees provided by the developer, issues related to the construction of such facilities and transmission lines, tax treatment of interconnection as contributions in aid of construction, transmission issues and certain federal and state regulatory requirements in support of construction loan financing.
• We provided review of the development of a placement memorandum for a private equity venture capital investment of $5 million in a biomass CHP technology company; structuring and review of debt and equity funding; transaction strategy; market review with the board of directors and senior management; and related documentation requirements.
• We provided counsel and documentation assistance regarding a joint LLC investment in 55 megawatts of wind farm projects in the mid-Atlantic region during construction loan and financial closing, LLC operating agreement and membership interests, related risk management and participation in project financing led by informational lender club.
• We have represented a national financial institution in more than $116 million in construction and bridge loans to the developer and operator of medical office buildings on hospital and university campuses in Kentucky, Maine, Virginia, Michigan, California and Florida.
• We provided comprehensive representation for property owners holding three of four quadrants at a $19 million interchange involving bridge, utility and roadway relocation.

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