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Anthony Romano

Of Counsel

Overview

Anthony Romano is a highly regarded real estate attorney experienced in the full range of real property transactions. With an intimate knowledge of residential and commercial property acquisitions, sales, loans and leasing matters, he represents sellers, purchasers, lenders, borrowers, landlords and tenants across all property types, including restaurants and a variety of wholesale and retail companies. Tony also advises property owners and investors in the development of new properties as well as the conversion of existing multi-family and commercial buildings in both rental and condominium ownership schemes.

Tony represents both borrowers and lenders in acquisition, construction, mezzanine and all other forms of real estate-related loans, as well as developers in the preparation and negotiation of construction contracts. He applies practical and business experience to major commercial loan workouts, successfully negotiating settlements with lenders, dating back to the Resolution Trust Corporation and the Office of Thrift Supervision. He also represents many commercial and multi-family residential landlords, as well as commercial and retail tenants, in the preparation and negotiation of complex lease transactions.

Among the notable transactions he has handled, Tony was actively involved in the first major bulk sale of municipal (Jersey City) tax sale certificates to investors in a $45 million collateralized transaction and has advised on hundreds of tax sale foreclosure actions.

Tony has a long-standing relationship with one of Hudson County's largest and most active residential rental property owners and managers and has handled the purchase, financing, sale, condominium conversion and leasing of well over 150 multi-family buildings for this client alone.

Several of the high-rise residential buildings on the Jersey City waterfront are the product of the creative and innovative condominium regimes authored by Tony, allowing for multiple structures on a single lot.

While in law school, Tony was an intern with the Office of the Public Defender in Rockland County, New York, and served as an administrative aide to senators and assemblymen in the New York Legislature. Following law school, Tony spent seven years in a small general practice law firm in Rockland County before serving as managing partner and general counsel to a real estate development and management firm with interests in northern New Jersey and southern Florida.

Experience

Representative Experience
Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.

  • 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 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 an $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 complex multi-layer commercial condominiums
  • Represented the owners of dozens of residential rental properties with buildings containing as few as two 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 environmental, protected tenancy and other landlord tenant issues
  • Represented the owner and developer of The Ocean Club, 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
  • Represented several national real estate investment funds in the formation and preparation of private placement memoranda and organizational documents

Activities

Professional and Community Affiliations

  • New Jersey State Bar Association
  • New York State Bar Association
  • The Florida Bar
  • Instructor, New Jersey ICLE for Real Estate courses, including the Real Estate program mandated for all newly admitted attorneys and Commercial Real Estate Financing.
  • Founding trustee Hudson-Bergen Inn of Transactional Counsel and frequent speaker on real estate topics
  • Romano has lent his real estate knowledge and legal ability to several non-profit groups, including the Jersey City Museum, Jersey City Community Charter School, 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
  • Alumni Representative Committee, Columbia University
  • Docent, Storm King Art Center, Cornwall, New York
  • Lector, Our Lady of Victories, Harrington Park, NJ

News & Insights

Honors

AV Peer Rated, Martindale-Hubbell since 2001
New Jersey's Top Rated Lawyers, Inside Jersey Magazine since 2012
New York's Top Rated Lawyers as seen in New York Magazine since 2012

Please see Honor and Award Methodology. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Practice Areas

Education

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

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

Admissions

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