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Adam Sofen

Partner

Adam has represented REITs, developers, corporations, pension funds, banks, family offices and institutional investors in a broad array of real estate matters.

Adam’s transactional experience includes acquisitions and dispositions of real estate, mortgage and mezzanine financings, real estate joint ventures, space leases and sale-leaseback arrangements, real estate M&A, acquisitions of loans and loan portfolios, and restructuring of non-performing and distressed real estate loans.

Before joining the firm in 2020, Adam was a special counsel in the real estate group of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he practiced for more than a decade, and a law clerk for Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Chief Judge Kimba M. Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

Experience

Representative matters

  • Real estate loans origination: Advising a multinational financial institution on the origination of real estate loans and in real estate acquisition, sale, joint venture and development transactions throughout the United States and in Mexico.
  • Financing, acquisition, JV formation and leasing transactions: Advising a Canadian pension client in a variety of financing, acquisition, joint venture formation and leasing transactions for U.S. properties.
  • Vornado Realty Trust in numerous property-level transactions: Vornado Realty Trust in numerous property-level financing, acquisition, development and joint venture transactions, in the formation of its Vornado Capital Partners exclusive real estate investment fund, and in connection with the separation of its Washington, D.C. business and formation of JBG Smith Properties and the separation of its suburban shopping center business and the formation of Urban Edge Properties.
  • CIM Group in connection with its investments in the Dominick (formerly the Trump SoHo): CIM Group in connection with its investments in the Dominick (formerly the Trump SoHo), 11 Madison Avenue and 15 William Street in New York, including the $2.6 billion sale of 11 Madison to SL Green in 2015, then the second-highest sale price ever for a U.S. office building.
  • Mapletree Investments in its USD3 billion acquisition of two portfolios of U.S. logistics assets, consisting of 141 properties totaling more than 28 million square feet in Baltimore, Boston, the Carolinas, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, Houston, Memphis and Washington, D.C., and in a mortgage financing secured by those assets.
  • Vornado Realty Trust in numerous transactions involving its office and retail portfolio, including (i) the USD1.25bn sale of its Kings Plaza and Green Acres shopping malls, (ii) the USD707m acquisition of a retail condominium at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, (iii) the USD605m sale of 1740 Broadway, a New York office building, (iv) the separation of its suburban shopping center business and the formation of Urban Edge.
  • Properties and (v) the spinoff of its Washington D.C. portfolio and the formation of JBG SMITH Properties.*
  • A Canadian pension investment fund in (i) a joint venture for the USD627.5m acquisition of Santa Monica Business Park in Santa Monica, California, (ii) a joint venture for the development of the 1.1m-square-foot.
  • Platform 16 office project in San Jose, California, and (iii) the USD1.03bn sale of its 45% interest in the McGraw-Hill Building at 1221 Sixth Avenue in New York.*
  • Tishman Speyer Properties in the formation of a joint venture to redevelop the historic Morgan North Postal Facility in Manhattan and related matters.*
  • Joint ventures of an American multinational investment bank and financial services company as borrowers of numerous mortgage loans, including those secured by (i) the Eastridge Mall in San Jose, California, (ii) South.
  • Towne Center in Sandy, Utah, (iii) the Field Office building in Portland, Oregon, (iv) a 2.5m-squarefoot office portfolio in Rosslyn, Virginia, (v) an 11-building office portfolio in Seattle and Denver and (vi) an apartment community in Atlanta.*
  • An American multinational investment bank and financial services company in (i) the construction financing of the Montage Healdsburg resort in Healdsburg, California, (ii) the construction financing of the Montage Los.
  • Cabos resort in Baja California, Mexico and (iii) the acquisition financing of the Hilton Los Cabos hotel in Baja California, Mexico.*
  • Round Hill Capital in its investment fund’s acquisition of a multifamily property outside Dallas and its joint venture agreement with the project’s sponsor.
  • CIM Group in connection with its investments in the Dominick (formerly the Trump SoHo), 11 Madison Avenue and 15 William Street in New York, including the USD2.6bn sale of 11 Madison to SL Green in 2015, then the second-highest sale price ever for a U.S. office building.*
  • TF Cornerstone, Inc. in its joint venture’s acquisition and planned redevelopment of the Hyatt Grand Central Hotel, the sale of Grand Central Terminal to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and related transactions.*
  • AT&T in its USD4.85bn disposition of a portfolio of 9,700 cellular towers to Crown Castle International Corp. and its lease of communications facilities on the tower portfolio.* 
  • Macquarie Group in real estate matters arising from its acquisition of Waddell & Reed Financial, including strategic advice regarding Waddell & Reed’s Kansas City headquarters lease. 
  • Evonik Industries in the ground lease of a portion of a chemicals plant in Hopewell, Virginia.
  • Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in connection with its subsidiary Global Container Terminal’s development and operation of a new intermodal container transfer facility at the Greenville Yards in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Awards

  • National LGBT Bar Association, Best 40 LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40, 2014

Qualifications

Admissions

Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2024
 
Admitted: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2010
 
Admitted: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 2010
 
Admitted: Bar of the State of New York, 2009
 
Admitted: U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2006
 
Admitted: Bar of the State of California, 2006 (inactive status)
 
Sullivan & Cromwell, Associate and Special Counsel, 2008 – 2020 
 
Hon. Wilfred Feinberg, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit – Law Clerk, 2007 – 2008
 
on. Kimba M. Wood, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – Law Clerk, 2006 – 2007

Academic

J.D., Yale Law School, 2005

A.B., magna cum laude, Harvard College, 2001

Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.