Profile
Edward S. Hershfield is an experienced, highly regarded, and innovative real estate counselor who takes great pride in getting deals done.
Ed represents clients throughout the United States in all aspects of complex real estate transactions, including acquisitions, air-rights leases, financings, restructurings, zoning and land use matters, development and permitting processes, workouts, and dispositions. His clients include national and regional real estate developers, private equity funds, investment and asset management firms, hedge funds, foreign investors, utilities and energy companies, pension fund advisors, and publicly traded and private corporations.
Ed is regularly involved in all facets of structuring real estate acquisitions, developments, financings and dispositions, including working with clients to create development and investment entities, analyze potential sites and projects, and develop and implement financing structures, including preferred equity and mezzanine loans. Ed is experienced in identifying potential value in real estate assets, developing strategies to give clients competitive advantages to acquire those assets, and then efficiently carrying out development, leasing and sales programs. He has been involved in restructuring troubled debt and has created numerous “shared appreciation” restructurings where investors, lenders and other creditors obtained equity interests and additional payments based on future property performance and sales value.
Concentrations
- Real estate acquisition and development
- Land use and zoning
- Energy facilities
- Sports, gaming and entertainment
- Finance
- Leasing
- Restructuring
Capabilities
Experience
- Representation of an international hotel chain in the development and leasing of an air rights project above the Massachusetts Turnpike; the first air rights project in Boston in nearly forty years.
- Representation of a national investment and asset management firm in the acquisition of a major development site in Downtown Boston, including agreements with preferred equity and equity sources, joint venture agreements and development agreements.
- Representation of one of the five largest Massachusetts real estate companies in the acquisition, financing, leasing, and disposition of multiple multi-family, retain and office sites in Massachusetts.
- Representation of a national real estate development company in the acquisition, permitting, financing, construction and multiple property sales of a former military base in Massachusetts.
- Representation of a national gaming company in the acquisition, rezoning and permitting of a gaming facility in Massachusetts.
- Representation of a national real estate fund in the acquisition and development of real estate sites throughout Massachusetts, including equity investments into joint ventures.
- Representation of a national brokerage and financial advisory firm in leasing and land use matters throughout the United States.
- Representation of a national investment and asset management firm in the acquisition of office buildings, laboratory buildings and development sites throughout Massachusetts.
- Representation of a developer in the conversion of a coal fired power plant into a natural gas-powered facility and the sale of a portion of the land for alternative energy uses
- Representation of a national energy company in the sale of a former power plant, including instituting agreements to enable the energy company to share in future appreciation of the site.
- Representation of a major Chinese investment fund in the acquisition of land and the development of multi-family projects in the Northeastern United States.
- Representation of a national investment and asset management firm in an historic tax credit mezzanine loan for the development of a city-center hotel in the Southeastern United States.
- Representation of a real estate company in the acquisition of multiple pharmacy sites through the United States, which had been subject to securitized debt, including the defeasance of existing financing.
- Representation of a national investment and asset management firm in financing the acquisition and development of a major vacant Downtown Boston site, including structuring the preferred equity and equity investments
- Representation of a developer of a forty-acre mixed use site in structuring an equity investment and related management and development agreements.
- Representation of a gaming company in structuring joint venture operating agreements, preferred equity investments and additional equity investments.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, 2009-2024
- Listed, Chambers USA Guide: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2016-2023
- Listed, Boston Magazine, "Top Lawyers - Real Estate," 2023
- Listed, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, "Go To Lawyers: Commercial Real Estate," 2023
- Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, Massachusetts Super Lawyers, 2004-2015 and 2017-2022
- Team Member, Chambers & Partners USA Real Estate Law Firm of the Year, 2017-2018 and 2022
- Rated, AV Preeminent® 5.0 out of 5.0
- Member, Boston Bar Association
- NAIOP Government Affairs Committee
- Former Chair, Town of Sharon Zoning Board of Appeals
- Board Member, Anti-Defamation League, New England
Credentials
- J.D., Columbia Law School
- B.A., magna cum laude, Brown University
- Massachusetts
- New York