Colleges and Universities as Commercial Landlords: Considerations for the Generalist

Rebecca Lacher is Associate General Counsel at Drexel University.  She represents Drexel in connection with matters related to real estate, construction and commercial contracts, business services, athletics and art collections.  Representative real estate matters at Drexel include: ground lease to Spark Therapeutics for 500,000 SF cell and gene manufacturing center;  ground lease for third-party development of 500,000 SF life sciences research building and lease-back of 60,000 SF;  sublease of Commonwealth owned Armory building to US Squash for $40M redevelopment of 80,000 SF US Squash headquarters; lease of 590,000 SF building for research use; managing Schuylkill Yards master development including ground lease of 570,000 SF mixed-use tower and 450,000 SF lab tower; development agreement with ACC for multi-million dollar dorm expansion and renovation. 

Rebecca began her legal career clerking for the Hon. J. William Ditter, Jr. of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and started in private practice as a litigator, later focusing on higher education and then transitioning to transactional practice in real estate.  Prior to joining Drexel, Rebeca was an attorney at Morgan Lewis in the Real Estate Practice Group where she focused on leasing, development, financing, acquisitions and dispositions of commercial and multi-family properties.  Rebecca is a graduate of Penn Law and Brandeis University.

Debra McNally is Director of Real Estate Planning and Administration at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.  For the last 20 years, Debra has served as the real estate official at Rutgers University, managing and leading the administrative affairs of the University’s real estate office and participating in real estate transactions that have taken place during her tenure.  Debra’s extensive knowledge and experience in corporate real estate asset management, facility management, and commercial real estate transactions, acquired and honed by working in senior management positions at Fortune 50 companies prior to joining Rutgers, has been relied upon by the University community and its leadership.  During Debra’s tenure, Rutgers went through an unprecedented expansion phase that included merging with the University of Medicine and Dentistry Medical School and increasing the real estate portfolio by 9 Million Square Feet.  The University’s leasing activity has increased 150% during this period as well, and is presently in excess of 400 active leases with approximately 25% of the portfolio requiring action on an annual basis.  Sixty percent of the active leases are associated with the University as a Landlord.  Debra will be contributing her insight and perspective to the discussion focused on when the University functions as a Landlord.

Robert P. Roesener, Associate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, joined Rutgers University’s Office of General Counsel in July 2006.  Mr. Roesener focuses on the University’s transactional legal needs in the areas of real estate, capital finance, investments, construction, utilities, environmental compliance, commercial contracts and procurement contracts.  Mr. Roesener also advises senior leadership on governance issues as well as the Rutgers Board of Governor’s Committee on Finance and Facilities and the Joint Committee on Investments.  Mr. Roesener also manages litigation and disputes that arise from the foregoing transactional practice areas, such as construction litigation and bid protests.   

Prior to joining Rutgers, Mr. Roesener worked in private practice at the New Brunswick office of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP where he specialized in redevelopment, land use, corporate and real estate law.  He represented developers and municipal redevelopment entities in all aspects of development and redevelopment projects around New Jersey.   

Mr. Roesener is active with the Higher Education Real Estate Lawyers group where he has been a conference speaker and has helped plan this group’s annual conference which has been hosted by institutions from around the country.  He is also involved in various civic matters and served on the New Jersey Supreme Court District VIII Ethics Committee and has been the vice chairperson of the Highland Park, NJ zoning board for many years.   

Mr. Roesener received a B.S. with high honors from Cook College and a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law – Newark where he graduated with high honors and was the recipient of the Justice Henry E. Ackerson, Jr. Award for distinction in the area of legal skills.  Mr. Roesener is licensed to practice in New Jersey and New York.  Prior to law school, Mr. Roesener worked as an environmental scientist at the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where he participated in several research cruises in the New Jersey/New York harbor system as well as Prince William Sound in Alaska.