Shumaker Law Firm Expands Real Estate and Development Practice to Sarasota | Business Observer
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An unexpected boom in demand led a leading Sarasota law firm to expand.
The firm is Shumaker and he has added a lawyer and paralegal to his real estate and development team to help meet the continued demand caused by a hot market.
The need for growth is driven by the increase in the number of commercial leases, both for retail and office, that are signed, says Jan Pitchford, partner and regional leader of Shumaker’s service line for his practice. real estate and development.
âI’ve been doing this for 30 years. I’ve never had so many rental transactions at once, âshe says. “Which for me is a very good sign.”
This is in addition to the work the company does for residential customers and developers, which has also increased.
That there is such a demand for office leases is surprising given that most people predicted that companies would reduce space when the pandemic exited while employees continued to work remotely. But that’s just not happening, Pitchford says. She says companies are always looking to bring all employees together in one space, and many are looking to jump into new developments. And it’s not just an office space. Restaurants and retailers are also taking up space in droves.
The trend is similar to Tampa, she says.
âWe just got inundated with commercial type jobs, which is wonderful,â she says. âWe are very surprised because it was difficult to predict what was going to happen when the pandemic came out. “
While a post-pandemic office and retail boom is encouraging, the way transactions are structured is changing, a sign that, while optimistic, businesses remain vigilant.
Pitchford says the terms of the lease are not as long as they used to be and there are shorter renewal periods. âEveryone,â she says, âis more cautious about long-term leases. But the owners are certainly there to rent spaces.
Shumaker, founded in 1925, has a team of more than 270 lawyers and lobbyists. The company has seven offices, located in Toledo and Columbus, Ohio; Tampa and Sarasota; Charleston, South Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina, and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
The company lists real estate as one of its core practices, focusing on everything from 1031 exchanges in the eminent domain to development and financing to portfolio management. Pitchford is one of the five regional leaders in the real estate and development services line at Shumaker.
âEveryone is more careful with long and long term leases. But the owners are certainly there to rent spaces. Jan Pitchford, partner at Shumaker and regional service line leader for his real estate and development practice
The expansion of the real estate team is part of a larger move from Shumaker to Sarasota. The firm recently added a public policy and government affairs practice.
Pitchford and Michael McKinley, who have been hired to oversee public policy and government affairs, say the two will work closely together. âThere’s obviously some overlap,â Pitchford says. âAs far as the work of school boards is concerned, they have a lot of assets and they have a lot of representation in this regard. I work on school board issues and land use lawyers too.
McKinley has been the Charlotte County School Board’s longtime attorney, representing them for about 40 years. He was recruited for his expertise after the Sarasota County School Board hired the firm to represent the district in January.
The business of the school district, especially when it comes to real estate, spans many disciplines and divisions, which requires a concerted effort to complete a project.
Shumaker, in a press release upon the announcement of McKinley’s hiring, said he was hired because he “has extensive experience dealing with local governments and working with public school districts in Florida”.
McKinley points to state funding that the Charlotte School District is trying to secure in order to build a hangar at the local airport to house its Federal Aviation Administration-certified structural and mechanical training program, as an example of the complexity of work with governments.
To have the hangar built, the company will have to persuade the state legislature to fund it, then deal with the Charlotte County Airport Authority and the School District, independent government agencies with their own rules and regulations, to build. Even then, the FAA will have to approve construction at the airport.
âSo even a relatively simple project like this gets complicated pretty quickly. There are a lot of moving parts, a lot of different agencies to deal with, âMcKinley explains.
âSince school districts are highly regulated at the federal and state levels, I have developed some experience in this type of work and that’s how we got to this point. “
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