Thomas Fawell

Thomas Fawell serves as Consulting Counsel in PLG's Real Estate, Banking and Commercial Loans, and Corporate  practice groups where he brings a high level of experience and a practical approach to problem solving in transactional real estate, real estate development, innovative debt financing,  and capital formation. In addition, as part of a family legacy, he advises collectors and institutions in fine art acquisitions, dispositions, insurance, and finance.

Mr. Fawell's real estate experience is comprehensive, including the representation of financial institutions, municipalities, real estate funds, banks, and developers.  Mr. Fawell has particular experience in real estate acquisitions and dispositions, including 1031s, innovative applications of DSTs, development, construction, leasing, sophisticated ground-lease structures, submerged land lease harbor structures, as well as joint venture and preferred equity transactions.

Representative Experience

• HHI Development – providing counsel in large parcel development (500+ acres), navigating through administrative law utility rules, infrastructure bonds, negotiation with institutional debt and equity; negotiation and management of contracts with architects, engineers, site managers, and dispositions with institutional home builders.
• Jiffy Lube – Site Expansion and Asset Disposition: Managed and coordinated Midwest acquisition/expansion of independent and corporate acquired units for Jiffy Lube as well as disposition of redundant sites. Also, managed resolution of territorial disputes in overlapping acquired franchises. This was Jiffy Lubes largest and fastest expansion and made the company the leader in its category. Mr. Fawell reported directly to the CEO.
• Waste Management – World Headquarters Site Acquisition and Development:  Formulated expansion versus relocation evaluation and implementation for Waste Management world headquarters. Earned legal services contract award directly from CEO for facility expansion. Coordinated acquisition, entitlement and zoning approvals and coordinated all legal management of architectural and engineering design and construction contracts for headquarters relocation and expansion.
• Submerged Land and Upland 30-Year Marina Lease – The Jockey Club, Miami FL: Combined state of Florida governmental submerged-land leasehold with upland private property interests as a 30-year private-capital lease. This was effected with a parallel resolution of hard money mortgage covenants on uplands. Transaction was a matter of first impression with both the Submerged Land Section of the Florida Dept. Environmental Protection and with the hard money lender. This prevented foreclosure by the hard money lender for the owner.
• Royce Renaissance – Wetland Litigation & Resolution with Dept. of Justice: Orchestrated resolution of multiple egregious wetland violations in Chicago with pending charges from the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in two commonly owned, mixed-use office, retail and multi-family golf communities. The successful resolution was achieved by the payment of significant fines and the avoidance of incarceration of the developer client. Both projects went forward and were completed within EPA parameters and DOJ oversight.
• Wielkopolskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych (Zacheta Sztuk Pieknych Artistic Association of Greater Poland) – Led negotiations with the Chicago Park District concerning the ownership of the Agora, a 109 piece sculpture on permanent display in Grant Park, Chicago.
• Sale of Indonesian Toll Road: Mr. Fawell was engaged to negotiate the acquisition of a toll road in Indonesia where the bidding client had defaulted on the closing when its financing failed.  Mr. Fawell successfully negotiated an extension of time to close and was able to secure a commitment from a global infrastructure investor for the $200M acquisition.
• General Counsel and Direct Investor / Development: As General Counsel and direct investor, Mr. Fawell managed a 22-story residential ground-up development in Miami, and 2 Core Asset retail centers in Chicago. In this capacity, he directed all complex title resolutions, survey and plat issues, right of way vacation, utility easements, wetlands relocation and environmental remediation strategies, capital formation and third-party A&E and General Contractor agreements. Also, he negotiated all bank debt terms and documentation and managed verification of draw statements with lenders and Chicago Title.
• Financial Services and Capital Formation: Assembled $115M in a private equity acquisition of a credit card processing operation, and its equipment lease subsidiary. In this acquisition, Mr. Fawell structured and negotiated the multi-level private equity shareholder preferences & capital structure, management and investor rights, and the terms of the corporate governance structure. He also resolved critical FIRREA issues with the OCC.
• Art Sales and Finance: Mr. Fawell has advised in the sale or financing of numerous works of art from Jackson Pollock, Mario Correño, Egon Schiele, Jean-Michel Basquiat, José Clemente Orozco, Paul Gauguin and of course, his own father.