EXPERIENCE

Sal’s representations include:

Healthcare

• NorthStar Realty Finance Corp., a New York-based publicly traded commercial real estate company, in its:
  • $4 billion acquisition of a Griffin-American-sponsored non-traded public REIT, which owned 289 healthcare facilities in 32 states and the United Kingdom;
  • $1.125 billion acquisition of Trilogy Investors, through a joint venture with Griffin-American, involving the acquisition of 100 senior housing facilities and ancillary businesses; and
  • $875 million acquisition of a portfolio of 35 independent living facilities in 12 states from Harvest Facility Holdings.
• HCP, Inc., an S&P 500 healthcare REIT, in its:
  • formation of a joint venture for, and multiple financings of, a $1.2 billion portfolio of 14 continuing-care retirement communities and hundreds of related garden homes;
  • formation of multiple joint ventures for, and financings and sales of, a portfolio of 49 senior housing communities;
  • acquisition and financing of, and formation of a joint venture for, the $850 million U.S. portfolio of a Canadian senior housing company, consisting of 35 senior housing communities located across 8 states; and
  • $1.125 billion sale of 64 senior housing communities to affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors L.P.

Hospitality

• Fontainebleau Miami JV, LLC, the owner of the iconic Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel, in its out-of-court restructuring of over $840 million in debt and other secured claims and in multiple subsequent refinancings of the hotel.
• A foreign investor in its engagement of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts to manage The Plaza Hotel in New York City.
• Las Vegas Sands, Corp. in negotiations with several of the world’s leading hotel companies for the management and licensing of a strip of hotels in Macau.

Other

• MTA in ground leases with Related Companies LP for the Hudson Yards project, the largest private development in U.S. history.
• Oaktree Capital Management as part of a consortium of investors that created International Market Centers, L.P., the largest network of premium home furnishings, gift and home decor showroom and exhibition space in the world.
• Jonathan Rose Companies in its arrangements with non-profit cultural groups to develop a green mixed-use project in the Brooklyn Cultural District.
• KLM Equities in the acquisition and leasing of 920 Broadway located in New York City’s Flatiron district.

The Legal 500 has listed Sal as a “Next Generation” lawyer every year since 2017. Sal has also previously been named a “Rising Star” by both the New York Law Journal and Law360. He is the co-author of a column in the New York Law Journal on commercial real estate.

Sal has served as pro bono counsel for a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Urban Justice Center, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Settlement Housing Fund and Community Access. In 2018, Sal was awarded the Cornerstone Award by Lawyers Alliance for New York for his extraordinary contributions through pro bono legal service. He sits on the boards of directors of New Yorkers for Children (a nonprofit serving youth in New York City’s child welfare system with a focus on children and young adults in and aged out of foster care) and of VIP Community Services (a Bronx-based organization that provides a continuum of services to individuals struggling with substance abuse and behavorial health challenges) and has previously served on the board of directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union and The Bronx Museum of the Arts.