Sas Mehrara is Head of the Firm’s Real Estate Department and a member of the Executive Committee, where he focuses primarily on representing private equity firms, non-traded REITs, real estate opportunity funds and publicly-listed companies in a wide variety of domestic and international real estate transactions. Sas has represented the real estate funds of The Blackstone Group, Lindsay Goldberg, The Carlyle Group and Northwood Investors along with companies such as Apollo Global Management, Glimcher Realty Trust, Hilton Worldwide, La Quinta, Extended Stay America, MeriStar Hospitality, Boca Raton Resorts, IndCor Properties, Equity Office Properties, BioMed Realty, CorePoint Lodging, Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust, Gramercy Property Trust and PS Business Parks in numerous commercial real estate acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures and financings.
Sas has worked on more than $100 billion of public-to-private real estate transactions, which have included the acquisition by the affiliates of The Blackstone Group of Extended Stay America, Prime Hospitality, La Quinta, MeriStar, Trizec Properties, Equity Office Properties, Hilton Hotels, Biomed Realty, Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust, Gramercy Property Trust, WPT Industrial and PS Business Parks along with numerous private acquisitions and dispositions, including the acquisition by Blackstone of the U.S. logistics business of Global Logistics Properties for $18.7 billion, the largest-ever private real estate transaction globally. Sas also has extensive experience in the acquisition of performing and non-performing loan portfolios and securitized, syndicated, balance sheet and mezzanine financings. Finally, Sas has worked on many real estate restructurings and workouts including the restructuring of the Hilton Worldwide, Equity Office Properties and Boca Raton Resorts financings.
Sas’ experience includes representation of:
- Blackstone in its public-to-private acquisitions of Extended Stay America, Prime Hospitality, La Quinta, MeriStar Hospitality, Trizec Properties, Equity Office Properties, Hilton Worldwide, BioMed Realty, Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust, Gramercy Property Trust, WPT Industrial and PS Business Parks and in numerous commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and financings for such companies
- Hilton Worldwide in its restructuring and extension of substantially all of its existing debt and conversion of $2.1 billion of junior mezzanine debt to preferred equity
- Apollo in its position as mezzanine lender with respect to the bankruptcy action of the borrower for the property commonly known as 245 Park Avenue, NY, NY
- Blackstone in its acquisition and financing of the U.S. logistics business of Global Logistics Properties (GLP) for a purchase price of $18.7 billion, the largest-ever private real estate transaction globally
- Blackstone in its acquisition and financing of Colony Industrial, the industrial real estate assets and affiliated industrial operating platform of Colony Capital, for an aggregate purchase price of $5.9 billion
- Blackstone in its $14.6 billion recapitalization of BioMed Realty
- Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in the $4.5 billion investment in BREIT Class I common shares by UC Investments
- Extended Stay America in its acquisition of hospitality properties for $1.5 billion
- Blackstone Property Partners in its acquisition of 49% of Hudson Pacific Properties Hollywood Studio and Office Portfolio
- Pure Industrial Real Estate in connection with the sale of its U.S. assets to WPT Industrial REIT for $730 million
- Blackstone in connection with the sale of a 100-property industrial logistics portfolio to Nuveen Real Estate for approximately $3 billion
- Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in its acquisition of a 22-million-square-foot industrial portfolio from Cabot Properties for $1.8 billion
- Lindsay Goldberg in its acquisition of a portfolio of select service hotels from Affordable Suites of America and associated the franchise and management business
- La Quinta in a financing and spin-off of its real estate business into CorePoint Lodging, a new independent publicly traded REIT, and its sale of La Quinta’s franchise and hotel management businesses to Wyndham for $1.95 billion
- BioMed Realty in the sale of substantially all of the life science and medical real estate assets of Wexford Science & Technology to Ventas for $1.5 billion
- IndCor Properties in the $8.1 billion sale of its U.S. industrial platform to affiliates of GIC
- Lindsay Goldberg in the acquisition of 64 skilled nursing facilities in a joint venture with Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. from Welltower
- Glimcher Realty Trust in its merger with Washington Prime Group, Inc.
- Blackstone in its investment in a joint venture with Kimco Realty Corp relating to a portfolio of 39 shopping centers for approximately $1.1 billion and the subsequent sale of this interest to Kimco
Sas has been named one of the leading real estate lawyers in the United States by Chambers USA, which has called him “superb” and an attorney who “has the amazing ability to execute complicated transactions and remain calm.” He has also been recognized as a Law360 Real Estate MVP in 2015 and 2018. Sas is on the Advisory Board of NYU School of Professional Studies Schack Institute of Real Estate.
Sas joined Simpson Thacher in 2000 and became a Partner in 2007. Sas received his B.A., cum laude, with distinction in history, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and his J.D. with honors from The George Washington University Law School in 1997, where he was the production editor of The George Washington University Law Review.