Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC’s new 120,000-square-foot headquarters in Roseland — Courtesy: CSG Law
By Joshua Burd
Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC has announced new leadership roles for its real estate law group after elevating several longtime team members.
The firm, which is based in Roseland, said three of the moves come as part of a newly branded redevelopment, land use and zoning group. Veteran redevelopment attorneys Lisa A. John-Basta and Thomas J. Trautner Jr. will serve as co-chairs, while Jennifer M. Porter will serve as practice group leader in managing the team.
John Lloyd, a well-known leader of the property taxation bar, will become chair of the rebranded real property taxation and incentives group.
“The significant growth of the firm’s Real Estate Group has created the opportunity to establish the Redevelopment, Land Use & Zoning Group and rebrand our Real Property Taxation and Incentives Group, all in order to align with client needs,” said Francis J. Giantomasi, member of CSG Law’s executive committee.
The appointments to leadership positions within CSG Law’s broad-based real estate practice reflect the firm’s continued growth in the industry and commitment to fulfilling the evolving needs of its extensive real estate client base, according to a news release. Central to the real estate team’s strengths are its deep industry knowledge and decades of experience navigating the intersection between public and private sectors.
In announcing the moves, the firm noted that John-Basta co-authors New Jersey Zoning & Land Use Administration, the pre-eminent treatise on land use and zoning in the state, published by Gann Law Books. Trautner is the co-chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Northern New Jersey chapter and is a recognized authority in affordable housing, while Porter’s practice expands the team’s reach to four states — New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut — as she serves clients’ needs regionally.
Lloyd, for his part, has more than three decades of experience representing owners, taxpayers and municipalities on real property taxation issues spanning all asset classes, as well as complex payment in lieu of taxes agreements, redevelopment, condemnation and incentives matters.
“Lisa, Tom and Jen spearheading our redevelopment, land use and zoning team, and John continuing to helm our enhanced property taxation and incentives practice, recognizes their proven leadership and will be a win-win for CSG Law and our clients for years to come,” said Mitchell S. Berkey, chair of the real estate group.
The firm’s redevelopment, land use and zoning and real estate property taxation and incentives groups are part of one of the region’s largest full-service real estate teams and often work with CSG Law’s other disciplines, the news release said. Members also work closely with leading consultants from engineering, architectural, environmental science and planning firms, having played key roles such as:
- Serving as redevelopment and land use counsel to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on a transformative $300 million project that would expand the arts and education district surrounding the existing venue. The project will create a vibrant new neighborhood in center city Newark with mixed-use high-rise and midrise buildings with over 345 residential units and 17,000 square feet of retail space as well as a new three-story family arts and education community center.
- Representing NJPAC when it decided to embark on a film studio project often billed as “Hollywood East,” in Newark’s South Ward, which will revitalize lands that housed an abandoned housing project with a new state-of-the art 250,000-square-foot campus expected to have a billion-dollar impact on Newark. CSG successfully petitioned to have the property designated an area in need of redevelopment, worked to formulate development regulations for the film studio use in the form of a redevelopment plan, negotiated and entered into a redevelopment agreement with the Newark Housing Authority and obtained land use approvals for the project.
- Representing a major national banking association in more than 95 real estate and land use matters across New Jersey, New York and Connecticut in connection with the development of new retail bank branches, expansion of existing retail branches, site upgrades including drive-up ATM and ADA-compliant upgrades, condemnation proceedings and, more recently, in support of its commitment to alternative energy investment through its operational sustainability and retail solar projects for more than two dozen sites.
- Representing a solar energy provider in obtaining land use approvals and successfully defending litigation challenging those approvals for a 70-megawatt solar energy generation facility — a one-of-its-kind, utility-scale, clean-energy project on 593 acres across several parcels throughout Harmony Township. This project helped the state to meet its renewal energy goals set forth in the Gov. Phil Murphy’s Energy Master Plan, which include achieving 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
- Representing a joint venture of a publicly traded international real estate investment firm and a New Jersey-based developer and operator as transactional and redevelopment counsel with respect to the redevelopment of the Montclair Arts & Entertainment District that has energized the vibrant cultural, dining and shopping downtown area of Montclair through a $135 million investment into a 14,000-square-foot public plaza, 200 apartments, 40,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail development and the redevelopment of the historic Wellmont Theater. Taking a lead role, CSG helped the redeveloper assemble the sites, secure the necessary land use approvals, establish terms for the shared maintenance and operation of the public plaza and negotiate all related real estate concerns.
