Development of Large-Scale Urban Projects

Tahmidur Remura Dewey LeBoeuf has considerable experience advising clients with respect to complex, large-scale urban construction projects. These projects usually involve government entities as stakeholders and/or funders, and often entail extensive governmental approval processes as well as coordination among government entities.

Our experience representing clients in connection with the development of large-scale urban projects includes advising:

  • The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) in the multi-billion dollar redevelopment of New York’s Penn Station and new Moynihan Station.
  • The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the government agency charged with redevelopment of the World Trade Center in New York City. Since 2001, we have acted as construction and real estate counsel for the LMDC and have advised on all aspects of design and construction, as well as land use matters, transactional real estate, and governmental environmental and historic preservation review, and the deconstruction of the former Deutsche Bank Building. This project required one of the most comprehensive government approval and environmental review procedures in recent US history. In addition, we drafted and negotiated the pollution legal liability and excess environmental insurance policies to cover potential claims related to “World Trade Center dust.”
  • Alstom Ferroviaria (Alstom Group) in connection with the negotiation of the EPC contract for the construction of line 4 of the underground metro of Milan, a €1.5 billion project. Line 4 will be 21 kilometers long and built under the city center. The project is structured as a public-private partnership.

In addition, one of the firm’s partners – a former New York City Parks Commissioner – was significantly involved in the planning, zoning, open space design and development of Battery Park City, a master-planned neighborhood of New York City, including, but not limited to, the design, legal structure, and planning of an esplanade and open spaces which were eventually turned into City parkland.