As team lead for the firm’s Real Estate & Development practice group and co-chair of Husch Blackwell’s Retail Industry Sector Group, Wendy brings a creative mindset and a breadth of commercial and corporate real estate experience to her work for clients.
After nearly 30 years as a real estate attorney, Wendy divides her practice between leasing agreements for industrial, healthcare, retail and office buildings, and the sale and acquisition of real property. She handles both one-off and portfolio sale and acquisition deals from deal inception to closing and regularly assists a large Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with a national footprint in growing its real estate portfolio. Her experience is truly national, with transactions in nearly every U.S. state, as well as Canada.
Wendy has a broad knowledge of leasing for build-to-suit projects, existing locations and redevelopments of existing projects. Her experience also extends to other lease-related documents, including estoppels; subordination, non-disturbance and attornment (SNDA) agreements; defaults; prohibited use violations; enforcement of lease provisions; and navigating reciprocal easement and operating agreements and third-party consents for redevelopment projects, as well as title matters. With a solid understanding of the entire transaction process, Wendy has a true gift for proactively identifying the issues that can stop a deal—and making sure they don’t.
In addition to her work on individual leasing agreements and transactions, Wendy also provides general real estate counsel. Clients often turn to her to walk through their full real property strategy and value her perspective on the effects of real estate decisions on business. After decades in the field, Wendy has a deep understanding of construction, leasing and development issues, as well as the third-party agreements that may restrict property transactions, and is experienced at helping clients build business strategies around these challenges. She loves this creative problem-solving aspect of her work and is passionate about helping clients figure out how to achieve their real estate business goals.
Prior to joining Husch Blackwell, Wendy was in-house real estate counsel for both national retail companies and developers, including one of the nation’s largest mall REITs. Her proven ability to build consensus, identify creative solutions, and build and maintain relationships with legal counterparts—particularly brokers and developers—are key assets she brings to the negotiating table. She sees a transaction as a truly collaborative process, and she has a talent for keeping all parties focused on the end goal of getting the deal done.