Land Use / Development

Represented Napa Valley luxury wine producer Far Niente Family of Wineries & Vineyards in its acquisition of the Provenance Vineyards real estate in Rutherford, Calif. from Treasury Wine Estates. Far Niente purchased the property as the new home for its Bella Union brand. Farella also advised Far Niente on the concurrent sale of the Provenance brand and inventory to Lodi, Calif.'s Thomas Allen Vineyard & Wines.

Represented the joint venture of Hines, Urban Pacific Development, and Goldman Sachs to secure approval for the construction of a 61-story, 800-foot tall mixed-use tower adjacent to the Transbay Terminal on Howard St. known as Transbay Parcel F. It will be the fourth-tallest building and second tallest residential tower in San Francisco. 

Represented the master tenant of the San Francisco Flower Mart in renegotiating its agreements with Kilroy Realty Corp., including a long-term master lease to permanently relocate the Flower Mart to 16^th and Mississippi Streets in the San Francisco Potrero Hill neighborhood. The firm continues to assist the San Francisco Flower Mart with the redevelopment of the property. Over the past six years, the firm represented the owner of the site in obtaining entitlements for 395 housing units, industrial leasing and design matters.

Represented the developer of a build-to-suit new corporate campus consisting of four buildings for VF Outdoor, owner of such brands as North Face, in connection with developer entity formation, land purchase, build-to-suit lease with option to purchase, construction agreements and construction financing.

Representing SKS Investments in converting an historic but obsolete industrial and showroom building to a state-of-the art technology office building in San Francisco’s South of Market district. 

After obtaining land use entitlements, including general plan amendments, rezoning and conditional use approvals for the 55 Laguna mixed-use development project located at the former University of California Berkeley Extension Campus in San Francisco, we prevailed in the Superior Court and Court of Appeal (unpublished decision) defending client AF Evans Development, Inc. in a CEQA lawsuit challenging the City of San Francisco's approvals for the project (Save the Laguna Street Campus v. City and County of San Francisco, et al.). 55 Laguna provides multifamily apartments, affordable senior units, public spaces, and retail space. The project includes a combination of new construction, the adaptive reuse of three historically significant buildings and the demolition of two others, which was the focus of the litigation.

For Emerald Fund, Inc., obtained entitlements for a 300+ unit apartment project, fronted by a new public park, in San Francisco's emerging Rincon Hill neighborhood.

Represented Live Nation in defeating a last-minute appeal of the entertainment permit authorizing Live Nation to present a summer concert series in conjunction with the America’s Cup sailing races in a temporary 9,000-seat pavilion at San Francisco’s Piers 27/29.

Represented San Francisco Waterfront Partners in its acquisition, entitlement, financing, leasing and management of Piers 1½, 3 & 5, an historic waterfront property in San Francisco, California.  The revitalized Piers 1½, 3 and 5 on San Francisco's historic waterfront have been named among the 17 finalists nationwide for the Urban Land Institute's annual 2010 Award for Excellence, which were selected from a list of 170 entries from all over the Americas.

Assisted Hyatt Equities with defending the Grand Hyatt's favorable position in a limited queue of hotel rooms eligible for conversion to condominiums in the face of an appeal by UNITE HERE, the local hotel workers' union.

Representing NetApp, Inc. with land use entitlements, property acquisition and construction agreements related to the expansion of its Sunnyvale, Calif. campus.

Obtained entitlements for the subdivision of a large site near Lake Merced in southwestern San Francisco into 121 lots for the construction of 182 single-family homes and duplexes.  After defeating an administrative appeal of the project's mitigated negative declaration, we successfully defended the project approvals in the Superior Court and California Court of Appeal, and successfully defended a separate Superior Court challenge to the City's issuance of a tree removal permit.

Land use and real estate counsel to Group I in obtaining land use entitlements, including enactment of a special zoning exemption, for construction of a mixed use hotel/residential/retail project in San Francisco Mid-Market/Tenderloin neighborhood and negotiating a hotel services agreement.

Counsel to Archstone in obtaining land use entitlements for two 400+ unit residential projects in San Francisco’s South of Market and Potrero Hill districts.