Burton_Doug

Douglas L. Burton

Partner

  • Chair, Real Estate Practice Group

Doug Burton, the Chair of WilmerHale’s Real Estate Practice Group, has nearly three decades of experience in the most complex private equity investment and joint ventures, development, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing and financing transactions. His clients include real estate investment trusts, top pension fund advisors, Fortune 50 corporations, developers and nonprofit institutions, with a broad range of asset classes, including lab and life sciences, hospitality, multi-family, seniors housing, office, industrial and retail.

Professional Activities

Since 2001, Mr. Burton has been a frequent lecturer and guest lecturer at the MIT Center for Real Estate, both conducting full-day professional development seminars and teaching graduate level courses. Most recently, he was a guest lecturer speaking about distressed loans and capital arrangements in April 2024.  Mr. Burton co-taught professional development seminars and spoke as a guest lecturer for various graduate level courses at the New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate from 2009 to 2011, and from 2009 through 2020, he was a regular guest lecturer at Columbia University's MSRED Program, speaking about joint ventures and capital arrangements.

Experience

  • Doug Burton has extensive experience across asset classes and market sectors. A sampling of his transactions include:

    • Represented a publicly traded REIT in the acquisition, leasing and operation of a 29 acre environmentally challenged parcel containing 11 historically listed buildings, and in the site’s redevelopment as an office and life sciences laboratory complex, with an overall transaction value of over $1 billion.
    • Represented the city of Boston in a public private partnership and stadium transaction, in which the City partnered with Boston’s new National Women's Soccer League team to redevelop an historic high school stadium as an NWSL caliber stadium to be shared by the new NWSL team, the Boston Public Schools and the public, including partial ground leases, overall shared usage and development agreements, and revenue sharing arrangements.
    • Represented an equity investor in the financial restructuring of the ownership of a $400 million purpose-built proton therapy center in an urban city center leased to a consortium of hospitals, including the conversion of three tiers of mortgage debt and equity to a senior mortgage, subordinated synthetic equity position, and multiple unsecured mezzanine loans.
    • Represented a REIT in the acquisition for $825 million of a two-building office campus, and the subsequent $500 million redevelopment and conversion into a laboratory facility.
    • Represented the developer in the structuring and acquisition of a three-dimensional air rights ground lease parcel from a state authority for the development of a hotel within a mixed-use complex, including an overarching reciprocal agreement among the lot owners addressing matters from easements for structural support to parking rights, operational standards, governance, and use restrictions.
    • Represented the purchaser of a 375,000 square foot lifestyle shopping center.
    • Represented an equity investor in the joint venture with a state retirement system and simultaneous acquisition of a 30-acre site comprised of 16 lots and 11 buildings for redevelopment as a mixed-use office park with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $1 billion.
    • Represented an equity investor in the disposition of a $110 million portfolio of industrial properties across multiple funds in three states, including the transfer of a municipal development authority bond arrangement.
    • Represented a REIT in the portfolio sale of three properties across affiliated entities, including both ground leasehold and fee interests, for an aggregate purchase price of $250 million.
    • Represented the developer in the site acquisition and subsequent development and operation of the third tallest building in the City of Boston, as a condominiumized mixed-use tower housing a hotel, luxury residential condominiums, and retail uses operationally supported by parking and open space rights granted via easements.
    • Represented a national quick service restaurant in its expansion into the northeast market.
    • Represented a REIT in the sale of a five-property campus owned across both wholly owned and partially owned affiliates, including the transfer of interests in a multi-campus owners association, for an aggregate purchase price of $370 million.
    • Represented the institutional owner in the sale of a portfolio of Continuing Care Retirement Communities for more than $200 million.
    • Represented the developer in the acquisition, debt and equity financing, branding and subsequent development, operation and financial restructuring of a five-star hotel on the waterfront in Reykjavik, Iceland.
    • Represented one of the two largest home improvements centers in the acquisition, leasing and development of numerous sites throughout the East Coast, including both stand-alone sites and sites forming integrated components of larger shopping centers, as well as sites purchased out of bankruptcies.
    • Represented a private equity investor in the purchase of a 555,000 square foot condominiumized trophy office tower in San Francisco.
    • Represented the majority equity investor and owner in the joint venture, financing, workout and sale of a portfolio of Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care facilities.
    • Represented a publicly traded REIT in the formation of two joint ventures with a development partner for the acquisition and development of a mixed-use campus, and assemblage of four adjacent parcels.
    • Represented a REIT in the sale of a five-property portfolio consisting of multiple asset classes, including both fee owned and ground leased interests, to multiple buyers at a simultaneous interrelated closing for an aggregate purchase price of $402 million.
    • Represented an equity investor in the acquisition, through a tenancy in common structure, of a life sciences building, together with a 65-acre tract spanning two municipalities, and simultaneous lease back of a 200,000 square foot portion of the facility for a purchase price in excess of $270 million.
    • Represented the developer in the conversion of Boston's nationally listed, historic Charles St. Jail into a 300 key luxury hotel, including the ground lease acquisition, debt, equity and historic tax credit financing, agreements with the hotel manager, and leases with a celebrity chef for the signature bar and restaurant.

Recognition

  • Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2015–2024 editions of Best Lawyers in America in the area of real estate law.
  • Named a Go To Commercial Real Estate Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (2023).
  • Named to Boston Magazine’s Top Lawyers list in the area of real estate law (2021–2024).
  • Named to the "Massachusetts Super Lawyers" list for real estate law (2021–2024).
  • Recommended in the 2017 and 2019 editions of The Legal 500 United States for his real estate practice.
  • Recognized as a leading attorney in Massachusetts in the 2012 and 2013 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business for his work in real estate law.

Insights & News

Credentials

  • Education

    • JD, Cornell Law School, 1996

      magna cum laude

      Order of the Coif
    • BA, Amherst College, 1992

      magna cum laude
  • Admissions

    • Massachusetts

    • New York

Credentials

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