Profile
Alan C. Sheppard, Jr. has wide-ranging experience in commercial real estate development, leasing and finance with a particular emphasis on development of office and industrial buildings, regional shopping centers, and multi-family developments. Alan has deep experience in entitlements and zoning law. Alan also has an LL.M. in Taxation, and therefore, also has broad based experience regarding the tax implications of real estate investments, as well as mortgage and construction financing, lease financing, mezzanine lending, asset-based finance, and working capital loan transactions.
Alan routinely counsels Florida-based developers in the acquisition, development, sale and financing of commercial real property and large tracts of land for retail power centers, distribution and logistics centers, multi-family developments, retail new and used, automotive sales centers, and hotels. He provides advice to out-of-state and foreign investors on Florida law issues in such transactions. He has experience closing numerous asset portfolio transactions for both Fortune 100 and family owned businesses. Alan also conducts land use and entitlement due diligence on various development and energy projects.
Alan has been inducted as a lifetime member of the NAIOP Research Foundation Board of Governors, which supports research into national and international trends and changing social dynamics that drive industrial, office and mixed-use development. He also serves on the Board of Directors of NAIOP Central Florida and is a past president of NAIOP of Florida. Through his work with NAIOP, he actively lobbies on behalf of the commercial development community locally and in both Washington, D.C. and in Tallahassee.
Concentrations
- Commercial real estate development and finance
- Land use and zoning
- Taxation
Capabilities
Experience
- Representation of Fortune 100 publicly traded company in development of a master planned community of office, retail, light industrial, multi-family, medical and other uses.
- Development of a transit oriented entitled area to support a commuter rail station.
- Represented banks and other lending institutions in negotiating, structuring and documenting real estate secured loans, including construction loans, loans for the acquisition and development of residential subdivisions, conventional mortgage loans, working capital lines of credit, and syndicated loan transactions.
- Represented large homebuilder in acquisition and development of numerous residential subdivisions and as lead counsel in a $750 million corporate refinance transaction.
- Representation of joint ventures in power center retail shopping centers.
- Representation of tenant in the lease of a suburban office building for a corporate headquarters and call center.
- Represented a large Florida-based development firm in its office, industrial and retail development work, including structuring joint venture agreements with equity partners; included negotiating purchase and sale contracts, due diligence, financing, and horizontal development work.
- Representation of landowners seeking rezonings, variances, conditional uses, planned developments, and comprehensive plan amendments.
- Negotiated, drafted, and closed a joint venture agreement between a large Florida landholder and a national development firm, as the developer, on a 50-plus-acre, mixed use site in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. The project was a live-work-play development, incorporating many New Urbanist elements.
- Represented buyers and developers of large single tenant warehouse and distribution centers in Florida.
- Closed numerous traditional sale/leaseback transactions with institutional lenders and life insurance companies between $65 million and $400 million for manufacturing and distribution facilities.
- Closed a $500 million revolving line of credit facility for a large grocery supermarket chain.
- Represented the lender as lead agent in a $200 million syndicated revolving line of credit facility to provide capital for the acquisition, construction, and development of office parks by the borrower.
- Represented the developer in the acquisition, construction, and mezzanine financing of $219 million resort condominium development, and representation of hotel owners in obtaining additional entitlements.
- Participated in review of project lease financing documents on various energy and project finance transactions, including a cogeneration facility.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Law, 2013-2024
- Team Member, Chambers & Partners USA Real Estate Law Firm of the Year, 2010, 2013, 2017-2018, and 2022
- Team Member, a U.S. News - Best Lawyers®, "Law Firm of the Year" in Real Estate Law, 2015
- Team Member, The Legal 500 United States, "Top Tier" Firm in Real Estate, 2013 and 2014
- Team Member, a Law360 "Real Estate Practice Group of the Year," 2011-2013, 2015, and 2022
- Recipient, NAIOP "Distinguished Service" Award, 2000
- Member, Board of Directors BusinessForce
- Past Chair of Board, Children's Home Society of Florida Central Florida Division
- Member, Board of Governors, NAIOP Research Foundation, 2018
- Member, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties of Florida (NAIOP)
- Past President, Florida Chapter
- Past President and Board Member, Central Florida Chapter
Credentials
- LL.M., Taxation, magna cum laude, The University of Alabama School of Law
- J.D., with honors, University of Florida Levin College of Law
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B.S., Economics and International Relations, with honors, Texas Christian University
- Junior Year Abroad, Florence, Italy
- Florida
- Italian