Real Estate Environmental Issues

Adeptly addressing environmental issues is a critical part of the services we offer to our real estate clients. Our team is skilled at managing risks that may arise from various environmental hazards and protecting our clients from future problems or further harm.

Overview

Our experienced team of attorneys manages environmental concerns that arise in acquisitions and dispositions, due diligence reviews, development opportunities, office, manufacturing, agricultural, and energy leasing, and post-transaction liability litigation and dispute resolution. We understand that complex federal and state-specific issues related to water, groundwater, soils, contaminated sites, and clean air protection arise in real estate, and our team has specifically tailored their practice to addressing real estate-specific environmental issues.

Matters
  • Represented developers in acquisition of contaminated properties and develop regulatory closure plans to mitigate liability during redevelopment.
  • Represented sellers of contaminated properties within Superfund sites and minimize ongoing liability exposure post-transaction.
  • Represented solar energy company in complex leasing arrangements for brownfields and Superfund sites to redevelop into solar farms.
  • Advised major agricultural conglomerate on contaminated sites issues related to real property assets in due diligence phase of acquisition of orchard and farming entity.
  • Represented developer in cost recovery action against retail gas and petroleum company to recover redevelopment costs incurred remediating contamination.
  • Advised utility company on environmental issues related to complex network of easements and real property assets acquired as part of water utility acquisition.
  • Advised West Coast timber company on tidelands leasing for shellfish farming.
  • Represented developer in negotiations with regulatory agency to secure prospective purchaser consent decree prior to redevelopment of contaminated site to minimize potential prospective environmental liabilities.
  • Advised sellers and purchasers navigating historical insurance coverage issues related to potential environmental liability.
Team
Insights & Presentations
  • “Model Toxics Control Act Case Law Update,” Law Seminars International, Oct. 2019 (Kleeman)
  • Balancing solar development and preservation of agricultural lands in the Midwest” (co-author), pv magazine, Aug. 2019 (Braun)
  • Presenter, “Minnesota Brightfields: Solar Opportunities on Closed Landfills Legal Considerations,” MnSEIA Gateway to Solar Conference, Bloomington, Minnesota, Nov. 2018 (Johnson)
  • “Developing Contaminated and Blighted Properties in Washington,” Case Studies: South Lake Union, Ballard and Fremont, The Seminar Group, Aug. 2018 (Kleeman)
  • “Environmental Transactions and Brownfields” (co-author), 2018 ABA Environment, Energy, and Resources Law: The Year in Review (Braun)
  • Presenter, “Vapor Intrusion: Understanding and Managing the Risk,” Stoel Rives LLP and Bay West LLC presentation, Duluth, Minn., April 2017 (Braun)
  • “Impact of EPA’s New Environmental Justice Regulatory Analysis on Remedies at Sediment Sites,” Ninth International Conference on Remediation and Management of Contaminated Sediments, Battelle Institute, Jan. 2017 (Kleeman)
  • “Ethical Considerations for Multi-Party Representation at Aquatic Cleanup Sites,” 2016 Environmental and Land Use Law Section Midyear Meeting & Conference, Washington State Bar Association, May 2016 (Kleeman)
  • “Wrap Up Case Studies: War Stories With Real Lessons,” Environmental Due Diligence, Law Seminars International, May 2016 (Delaney)
  • Presenter, “Legal Considerations for Renewable Energy on Brownfields,” Minnesota Brownfields, St. Paul, Minnesota, Feb. 3, 2016 (Johnson)
  • “Triggering the Insurer’s Duty to Defend for MTCA Claims: Gull Industries, Inc. v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Company” (co-author), Washington State Bar Association Environmental & Land Use Law Section Newsletter, Volume 41 Number 1, Feb. 2015 (Kleeman)
  • “A Review of EPA’s First Environmental Justice Analysis at a CERCLA Site,” American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Newsletter, Volume 10, Number 1, Nov. 2014 (Kleeman)
  • “A Review of EPA’s First Environmental Justice Analysis in Conjunction with a CERCLA Remediation Plan” (author), American Bar Association, Section of Environmental, Energy and Resources, 43rd Spring Conference, March 2014 (Kleeman)
  • Co-Author, Minnesota Chapter of Brownfields Law and Practice, “The Cleanup and Redevelopment of Contaminated Land,” Lexis Nexis, Publication 438, Release 33-10, 2014 (Johnson)
  • Speaker, “SEPA/NEPA Case Law and Administrative Decisions Relating to Programmatic Impact Statements,” 22nd Annual Conference on Growth Management Act and Land Use: New Developments and Interrelationships Among the GMA, Land Use and Environmental Regulations, Nov. 2013 (Mullaney)
  • Not So Fast: The Supreme Court Allows Pre-Enforcement Review Under the Clean Water Act. Could CERCLA Be Next?” ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Law Newsletter, June 2013 (Braun)
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