Denise Pursley

Denise Pursley leads Nixon Peabody’s national Real Estate practice, which encompasses Nixon Peabody’s real estate, affordable housing, environmental and land use practices. As practice group leader, Denise is responsible for managing and setting strategy for the group and its industry teams. Denise advises on all aspects of commercial real estate, real estate finance, development, land-use and environmental law. She works with national company owners and operators, institutional investors, pension fund advisors, real estate developers, institutional lenders and investment banks.

What do you focus on?

I focus on real estate acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, development, management and debt and equity financing for all asset classes. The industries with which I work vary from commercial real estate developers to health care facilities to institutional investors to energy providers and telecommunication companies. Typically, the projects on which I work are complex or of strategic importance to our clients and may be located anywhere in the country.

Acquisition/Disposition/Leasing/M&A

I have substantial experience in all facets of acquisition, disposition, leasing and mergers and acquisitions. A hallmark of my practice is to assemble and carefully lead selected teams to undertake sophisticated due diligence projects. For example, I have coordinated real estate due diligence and closed projects that run the gamut from the purchase of equity interest in a wind farm tax equity limited liability company with projects in five states to the purchase of a national supermarket chain with more than 230 properties under ownership, lease or sublease.

Environmental Projects

Some of my favorite projects have been working to bring new life to environmentally contaminated properties and brownfields. Adaptive re-use of property can revitalize an entire neighborhood. A typical project would be the sale of a facility that is a federal or state superfund site, inactive hazardous waste site or former industrial facility. Recently, I worked closely with a client’s internal and external team of business, real estate and environmental professionals to negotiate the sale of a former industrial facility for commercial re-use in a downtown area on terms and conditions that satisfied state regulators and allowed the purchaser to achieve its development goals. My combination of real estate and environmental experience makes me the ideal lawyer for these complex projects.

Energy Projects

I also provide critical advice on real estate and environmental issues associated with electric, gas and renewable energy projects. I’ve represented project developers and equity investors in wind, solar and geothermal energy facilities coast-to-coast. These complex deals involve real estate, environmental, zoning, land use entitlement and governmental permitting and require me to work collaboratively with our multi-disciplinary client teams.