A Partner in the Firm’s Real Estate Practice, Leanne Welds has a versatile practice, regularly representing private equity firms, portfolio companies and other real estate investment and financing clients on a broad range of high-value and complex commercial real estate transactions across a variety of asset classes, including industrial, office, select and full-service hospitality, data center, multifamily, student housing and single family home sectors. Leanne’s transaction experiences include acquisitions, dispositions and merger transactions involving real estate and real estate-related businesses, joint ventures, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other equity capital arrangements, and borrower-side real estate financings and financing work-outs with both traditional and non-traditional lenders. Leanne’s clients include Blackstone and its portfolio companies, Oxford Properties Group, KSL Capital Partners and KKR Real Estate.
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Work Highlights
- Tortuga, a joint venture between an affiliate of KSL Capital Partners, LLC and Rodina, in its $2 billion acquisition of 14 all-inclusive resort assets located across Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica from Hyatt Hotels Corporation
- Oxford Properties Group with its joint venture investment, with Related Companies, in property located at 70 Hudson Yards, for the development of a 47-story luxury office building
- Blackstone Real Estate in connection with its $964 million sale of 11 apartment properties to Equity Residential
- KKR Real Estate in connection with its joint venture with Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated to own and invest in quality medical outpatient buildings
- Blackstone Real Estate Partners X and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) in their $3.5 billion acquisition of Tricon Residential
- Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (BREDS) and BREIT in their acquisition of a 20% equity stake in a joint venture holding a commercial real estate loan portfolio of former Signature Bank valuing approximately $17 billion
- Affiliates of DigitalBridge Group and IFM Investors in their $11 billion acquisition of Switch, Inc., a global company whose core business is the design, construction and operation of data centers
- BREIT in its $3.1 billion acquisition of WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust
- Blackstone in its $6 billion acquisition of the hotel and hospitality company, Extended Stay America and its paired-share REIT, ESH Hospitality
- La Quinta Holdings, Inc. in its $1.035 billion CMBS financing of more than 300 hotels in the spin-off of the company’s brand assets to Wyndham Worldwide and subsequent rebranding of the real estate business as CorePoint Lodging, Inc.
- BREIT in its $4.25 billion acquisition of the real estate assets of the Bellagio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino from MGM Resorts in a 95%/5% Blackstone-led joint venture
- Blackstone Property Partners Life Sciences in its $3.45 billion acquisition of a 2.3 million square foot portfolio of bio-science lab office buildings
- Northwood Investors in its $715 million acquisition of 5th and Broadway properties in Nashville, TN
Education
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Brooklyn Law School, 2014 J.D.
magna cum laude; Executive Articles Research Editor, Brooklyn Law Review; William Payson Richardson Memorial Prize
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Pomona College, 2010 B.A.
A Partner in the Firm’s Real Estate Practice, Leanne Welds has a versatile practice, regularly representing private equity firms, portfolio companies and other real estate investment and financing clients on a broad range of high-value and complex commercial real estate transactions across a variety of asset classes, including industrial, office, select and full-service hospitality, data center, multifamily, student housing and single family home sectors. Leanne’s transaction experiences include acquisitions, dispositions and merger transactions involving real estate and real estate-related businesses, joint ventures, reorganizations, recapitalizations and other equity capital arrangements, and borrower-side real estate financings and financing work-outs with both traditional and non-traditional lenders. Leanne’s clients include Blackstone and its portfolio companies, Oxford Properties Group, KSL Capital Partners and KKR Real Estate.
Representative examples of Leanne’s experience include advising the following:
- Tortuga, a joint venture between an affiliate of KSL Capital Partners, LLC and Rodina, in its $2 billion acquisition of 14 all-inclusive resort assets located across Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica from Hyatt Hotels Corporation
- Oxford Properties Group with its joint venture investment, with Related Companies, in property located at 70 Hudson Yards, for the development of a 47-story luxury office building
- Blackstone Real Estate in connection with its $964 million sale of 11 apartment properties to Equity Residential
- KKR Real Estate in connection with its joint venture with Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated to own and invest in quality medical outpatient buildings
- Blackstone Real Estate Partners X and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) in their $3.5 billion acquisition of Tricon Residential
- Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (BREDS) and BREIT in their acquisition of a 20% equity stake in a joint venture holding a commercial real estate loan portfolio of former Signature Bank valuing approximately $17 billion
- Affiliates of DigitalBridge Group and IFM Investors in their $11 billion acquisition of Switch, Inc., a global company whose core business is the design, construction and operation of data centers
- BREIT in its $3.1 billion acquisition of WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust
- Blackstone in its $6 billion acquisition of the hotel and hospitality company, Extended Stay America and its paired-share REIT, ESH Hospitality
- La Quinta Holdings, Inc. in its $1.035 billion CMBS financing of more than 300 hotels in the spin-off of the company’s brand assets to Wyndham Worldwide and subsequent rebranding of the real estate business as CorePoint Lodging, Inc.
- BREIT in its $4.25 billion acquisition of the real estate assets of the Bellagio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino from MGM Resorts in a 95%/5% Blackstone-led joint venture
- Blackstone Property Partners Life Sciences in its $3.45 billion acquisition of a 2.3 million square foot portfolio of bio-science lab office buildings
- Northwood Investors in its $715 million acquisition of 5th and Broadway properties in Nashville, TN
Leanne received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School in 2014, where she was an Executive Articles Research Editor for the Brooklyn Law Review. She received her B.A. from Pomona College in 2010. Leanne is admitted to practice in New York.