Olshan
Olshan Grundman Frome Rosenzweig & Wolosky LLP
THOMAS D. KEARNS
Partner / New York


Thomas D. Kearns has significant experience in both real estate and corporate law. He specializes in representing owners, operators and developers in the acquisition, development, leasing and financing of office, residential and retail properties. He has extensive experience with joint venture, LLC, tenant-in-common and other agreements between co-venturers and with sophisticated condominium or other joint ownership arrangements of both real estate and non-real estate businesses. He is also an expert on the impact of federal and state securities laws on real estate. Mr. Kearns regularly represents professional athletes and sports executives and other high net worth individuals in their residential transactions in New York.

Mr. Kearns has been selected as a Super Lawyer by the publisher of Law and Politics Magazine for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Mr. Kearns was named an Associate Partner by the Partnership for New York City for 2008.

Mr. Kearns' video seminar entitled "Negotiating & Structuring Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions," part of ReedLogic Studio's Video Leadership Seminars, is available on DVD for sale at ReedLogic and Amazon.com.

Mr. Kearns has also served as an instructor with the Continuing Legal Education program at Fordham Law School, teaching courses on Limited Liability Companies and Residential Real Estate and with the Stephen Newman Real Estate Institute of Baruch College, teaching a course on Real Estate Investment Trusts. Mr. Kearns has served in various leadership roles with the Real Property Section of the American Bar Association most recently as Vice Chair of the Specialized Leases Committee of the Leasing Group. He has also served as an Associate Editor of Commercial Leasing News, a publication of the ABA.


REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
• Lead counsel for a joint venture of Boston Properties and Madison Equities for the office building assemblage on Manhattan's 8th Avenue consisting of nine lots, two air rights parcels and three different sellers for more than $200 million. The New York Law Journal story may be viewed here.

• Kaufman Astoria Studios, New York City Economic Development and New York State financings, construction of additional stage, office and stage leasing.

• Lead drafting attorney on a complex tenants-in-common agreement for a major Midtown-West office building after the publication of IRS Rev Proc 2002-22.

• Organized the condominum structure for the TriBeca Film Center.

• Lead drafting attorney representing for landlord of the Surrey Hotel on Manhattan's Upper East Side on ground lease modification to update the ground lease to comply with modern financing techniques.

• Private placement of LLC interests to shareholders of a Manhattan cooperative to acquire valuable retail space in the cooperative.

• Purchase of several retail condominium and cooperative interests in Manhattan apartment buildings including Madison Avenue and 75th Street and the New Museum condominium in SOHO and the related lease-out or sale of the properties.

• Sale of rental apartment building on Central Park South for more than $100,000,000.

• Represented the developer of the W Hotel in Times Square.

• Purchase and subsequent sale at a significant profit of 130 Prince Street in SOHO, an office building with valuable retail space.

• Acquisition of development parcels and construction loans for the Empire Condominium, Vesta 17 (201 West 17th Street) Condominium and Vesta 24 (231 Tenth Avenue).

BAR ADMISSIONS
New York
New Jersey

MEMBER
American Bar Association
New York State Bar Association
Contact Information
Park Avenue Tower
65 East 55th Street
New York, NY 10022
Tel 212.451.2273
Fax 212.451.2222
tkearns@olshanlaw.com
Download vcard
Practice Areas
Real Estate
Joint Ventures
Corporate
Securities
Industries
Residential Development
Office, Retail and
  Industrial Leasing
Film Production Facilities
Education
J.D., Fordham University School of Law, 1984

M.B.A., Fordham University, 1979
B.A., Fordham University, 1976
My News
November 10, 2008
Ross Sells Sun Garage Parcel
October 21, 2008
Kearns and Elmo Join the Mayor at Groundbreaking for Kaufman Astoria Studios Expansion
September 12, 2008
Eleven Olshan "Super Lawyers"
August 3, 2008
Representing Madison on 57 Irving
August 1, 2008
Cooperator Interviews Kearns
June 11, 2008
Times Covers Kaufman Studios Expansion
May 20, 2008
New York Law Journal Features Column by Kearns and Zaytsev
January 17, 2008
New York Post Describes Olshan Deals
January 14, 2008
Kearns issues Client Alert on "Shotgun" Buy/Sell Clauses
October 11, 2007
Kearns Presents Real Estate Workshop for State Bar
September 24, 2007
Ten Olshan "Super Lawyers"
July 18, 2007
$112 Million Sale of SoHo Office Building
March 6, 2007
Post Reports on Olshan Office Building Developments
February 22, 2007
NY Sun Highlights Olshan Real Estate Deals
August 18, 2006
Olshan Handles Lone Star $600 Million Sale
Read all of my news.
Weblog
Mr. Kearns regularly blogs on developments in the real estate industry.
Read the blog

Blog Index
My Articles
"Specific Disclosures for Auctions," Outside Counsel, New York Law Journal, Volume 239 — No .97, May 20, 2008

"Contracts of Sale and Exchange and Related Actions," Chapter 1 of Bergerman and Roth's New York Real Property Forms Annotated, Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., 669 pages, October 1994.

"Securitization of Real Estate" and "Securitized Equity Financing," Capital Sources for Real Estate, Warren, Gorham & Lamont, March and April 1994, respectively.

"There Ought to be a Law" (against lease subordination), New York Law Journal, December 31, 1991.

"Lawyers Bookshelf: Payback, The Conspiracy to Destroy Michael Milken and his Financial Revolution," New York Law Journal, October 27, 1995 (Book Review)

"There Ought to be a Law" (against lease subordination), New York Law Journal, December 31, 1991.

"New Ethical Dilemmas Are Yours to Confront," New York Law Journal, New Partners Special Section, January 29, 2001