Clients rely on Robert Demchak’s strategic counsel in helping them identify, structure, and close complex real estate transactions and financings; address certain real estate investment trust (REIT) matters; develop and implement corporate governance policies and best practices; and comply with corporate regulatory requirements. Drawing on his significant in-house experience as the former longtime executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Washington Prime Group Inc. (WPG), a significant retail real estate company and former public company REIT, Rob helps clients in real estate and other sectors address opportunities, goals, and objectives from a business, financial, and legal perspective to help develop an efficient capital structure and business plan.
Rob’s real estate and financing experience extends across many asset classes and includes negotiating purchase and sale agreements, ground and space leases, joint venture agreements, commercial real estate financings, unsecured bond and term loan financings, mortgage loan workouts, loan assumptions, and the repositioning of retail assets.
Rob led the transition team involved in WPG’s spin-off from Simon Property Group in 2014 into a newly formed public company, built WPG’s legal and human resources departments from the ground up, developed and led its governance and compliance functions, and chaired WPG’s investment committee for several years. During Rob’s tenure at WPG, he helped negotiate and implement a $4.3 billion merger between WPG and Glimcher Realty Trust, negotiated $340 million and $600 million joint venture transactions involving the sale of minority interests in 15 large retail assets, closed on unsecured term loans for $340 million and $500 million, closed on unsecured bond offerings of $750 million and $250 million, refinanced over $1 billion of mortgage debt, and restructured more than $300 million of mortgage loans and $200 million of discounted payoffs. Rob also helped drive sustainability efforts at WPG by negotiating a long-term power purchase agreement with a large utility company involving the installation of large rooftop solar structures and battery storage infrastructure.
Prior to joining WPG, Rob was senior vice president of the Capital Markets Group of real estate company Simon Property Group, Inc., in Indianapolis and New York from 2009 to 2014, where he leveraged his deep understanding in the capital markets to restructure or settle over $3 billion of existing mortgage debt, lead a team that closed on the $2.38 billion acquisition of retail REIT Prime Outlets, and separately closed on the acquisition of approximately $440 million of subordinate mortgage debt. Prior to working at Simon Property Group, he was a real estate attorney in the Fixed Income Group at Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital Holdings in New York. There he structured and closed more than $4 billion in complex fixed and floating rate commercial mortgages and restructured debt for nonperforming commercial mortgage loans. Prior to that, Rob was an associate attorney for approximately eight years at several mid-sized and large New York City law firms where he represented a major investment bank in mortgage and mezzanine loan transactions, major foreign banks that originated large construction loans, and a major commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) first mortgage loan originator.