Connell Foley profile of Anthony Romano, II

Anthony Romano, II

Counsel, Jersey City Office

Harborside Financial Center

2510 Plaza Five

Jersey City, New Jersey 07311

Phone: (201) 521-1000

	aromano@connellfoley.com
	Download Vcard
	Print this profile

	Professional Activities
	Representative Experience

Anthony Romano, II began his legal career in 1976 in Rockland County, New York as an associate in a small general practice law firm. In 1984, he accepted a position as partner and general counsel to a real estate development and management firm with interests throughout northern New Jersey and in the state of Florida.

In 1991, Mr. Romano joined a Jersey City law firm as a real estate attorney, overseeing an annual closing case load of over 300 residential and commercial properties of varying size, handling acquisition, sale, loan and leasing matters for a variety of clients, including the relocation and mortgage arm of a national insurance company, throughout the state of New Jersey.

Returning to the full time practice of law in the midst of the real estate recession of the early 1990s, Mr. Romano applied his practical and business experience to a series of major loan workouts, successfully negotiating settlements with lenders as well as the Resolution Trust Corporation and the Office of Thrift Supervision.

In 1995, Mr. Romano's practice branched out significantly. He was actively involved in the first major bulk sale of municipal tax sale certificates to investors in a $45 million collateralized transaction and handled

hundreds of tax sale foreclosure actions between 1995 and 1998 on behalf of the collateral servicer. One of these actions, involving one of the then largest aggregate tax sale certificate debts in the State, spawned the reported decision in 3085 Kennedy Realty Co. v. Tax Assessor of City of Jersey City 287 N.J. Super. 318, 671 A.2d 137 N.J. Super. A.D.,1996.

In 1998, Mr. Romano began a long-standing relationship with one of Hudson County's largest and most active residential rental property owners and managers, negotiating and closing on the simultaneous purchase and financing of 40 multi-family buildings containing approximately 800 units in their first transaction.

In 2004, after joining Connell Foley, Mr. Romano expanded his condominium real estate practice and represented numerous property owners in the construction of new and the conversion of existing buildings in both rental and condominium ownership schemes. Mr. Romano continues to represent both borrowers and lenders in acquisition, construction, mezzanine and all other forms of real estate related loans.

While in law school, Mr. Romano was an intern with the Office of the Public Defender in Rockland County, New York and served as an administrative aide in the New York Legislature, first to Assemblyman Harold Grune of Rockland County and later to State Senator Linda Winikow.

Practice Areas:

Real Estate Law and Land Use

Admitted to Practice:

State of New Jersey

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

State of New York

State of Florida

Education:

Columbia University (B.A., History, 1973)

Albany Law School of Union University (J.D., 1976)

Affiliations:

New Jersey State Bar Association

New York State Bar Association

The Florida Bar

Professional Activities

•	Instructor for the Real Estate course of the New Jersey Skills and Methods program, which is required of all newly-admitted attorneys and which is sponsored by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
•	Founding trustee of the Hudson-Bergen Inn of Transactional Counsel and frequent speaker on real estate topics.
•	Mr. Romano has lent his real estate knowledge and legal ability to several non-profit groups, including the Jersey City Museum, the churches of St. Patrick's and Assumption/All Saints and St. John's Baptist Church in Jersey City and St. Abanoub and St. Antonius Coptic Church in Bayonne and numerous youth sports clubs.

Representative Experience

•	Represented property owners in applications to and approvals from Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission and NJ Department of Environmental Protection for developments in the Hackensack Meadowlands District;
•	Represented landlords and tenants, including many of the country's major retail companies and mall developers, in the negotiation and administration of scores of retail and office leases, as well as commercial and industrial building leases;
•	Represented the property owner in the negotiation and administration of the construction contract for the 180,000 square foot State Office Building in Jersey City, as well as the construction and permanent loans and the lease with the State of New Jersey;
•	Represented the purchaser of one of the largest contiguous parcels of vacant land in Monmouth County and obtained all state and local land use, environmental and condominium approvals for the development of a 77 unit assisted living facility and an adjoining 89 unit age-restricted townhouse community;
•	Represented the first developer to successfully convert a century-old Jersey City warehouse into modern condominium lofts in the Powerhouse Arts Redevelopment Area;
•	Represented the buyer in a $85 million purchase of 64 residential apartment buildings from four entities, an undertaking that encompassed the negotiation and closing of new financing, existing loan assumptions and loan defeasances, as well as the infusion of major national investor equity;
•	Represented owners and buyers of multiple dwellings of all sizes in all aspects of acquisition, sale, leasing, financing, rent control and all other aspects of landlord-tenant relations.
•	Represented the owners of numerous commercial properties from acquisition and land use approvals, through construction to the establishment and sale of commerical condominiums;
•	Represented the owners of dozens of residential rental properties with buildings containing as few as 2 units and as many as 460 units in the case of the unique Dixon Mills community in Jersey City, successfully converting them to condominiums, obtaining Department of Community Affairs and other state and local approvals and resolving numerous protected tenancy and other landlord tenant issues;
•	Represented the owner and developer of one of the first projects in New Jersey to offer fractional ownership under the New Jersey Real Estate Timeshare Act and successfully won approval of this equity ownership club in Cape May from the State's Real Estate Commission.