Kickham Hanley’s real estate and business transaction lawyers offer strong academic credentials and broad experience coupled with common sense.

We have represented sophisticated and well-financed clients in complicated, multi-state transactions with varying combinations of debt and equity financing. We also represent start up entrepreneurs who assemble a mix of seller financing, investment money, different forms of debt, and perhaps government assistance. We organize corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies.

Our business attorneys counsel and represent developers of regional and neighborhood shopping centers, residential subdivisions, office buildings, multi-family projects and manufactured home communities. We assist clients in obtaining municipal and other development approvals. We have worked with our clients on tax increment financing, I.R.C. 1031 tax deferred exchanges, brownfield reclamations, leasing, and build to suit projects. We have established condominium regimes for both residential and commercial developments. We have also negotiated and structured work-outs of troubled developments and investments.

Edward F. Kickham heads the Firm’s real estate and business transaction group. He received his B.A. in History from the University of Notre Dame in 1968 and served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia from 1968 to 1970. He received a J.D. with honors from the University of Michigan Law School in 1973. He was a member of the editorial staff of the Michigan Law Review and published an article on remedies for insider trading violations under the federal securities laws. Mr. Kickham joined the Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn law firm in Detroit, Michigan upon graduating from law school and practiced with that firm as an associate and then partner until 1999. Mr. Kickham began his career with six years as a commercial litigator generally involved with real estate disputes and mortgage loan work-outs. He has since then devoted his practice to business transactions, primarily representing real estate developers, operators and professional investors. He has closed acquisitions, sales and financings in some twenty different states and in Canada. He also counsels clients in connection with zoning, land use and eminent domain matters. Mr. Kickham is listed in Best Lawyers in America and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, The Florida Bar and the State Bar of Texas.

Here follow brief descriptions of the Firm’s role in significant recent business transactions.

  • Meadowbrook Insurance Group, Inc. – new national headquarters. Kickham Hanley negotiated the construction contract, the sale of the vacant half of the land, site plan approvals, and the establishment of the land as a two-unit commercial condominium, one unit containing the 72,000 square foot headquarters building and another unit available for future construction. This condominium structure was peculiarly complex.
  • Kmart Real Estate Portfolio Restructure – The Firm closed some ninety sales of Kmart’s under-utilized properties and purchases of its occupied buildings and shopping centers. Many were 1031 tax deferred exchanges. These transactions were a major component of Kmart’s post reorganization restructure of its balance sheet.
  • Faurecia Interior Systems – world’s seventh largest tier-one automotive supplier. The Firm represented Faurecia in the following transactions:
  • Fraser, Michigan – The Firm negotiated an agreement to purchase a 265,000 square foot manufacturing facility from a bankrupt estate and negotiated the construction contracts in conjunction with renovation of the facility.
  • Northwood, Ohio – The Firm negotiated the lease terms for a 32,000 square foot light assembly facility, which included a tenant improvement allowance for renovations.
  • Sterling Heights, Michigan – The Firm negotiated the lease terms, which included an option to purchase an 80,000 square foot manufacturing facility, and a tenant improvement allowance to expand the existing building by 40,000 square feet.
  • Fraser, Michigan – The Firm negotiated the lease of a 15,000 square foot warehouse space.
  • Bloomfield Park – a Two Billion Dollar multi-use project on North Telegraph Road. The Firm represented the developer in connection with its tax increment financing approvals (over $100,000,000 in tax capture), the establishment of an unusually complex condominium regime, several land carry and predevelopment loans, and the current construction loan, and major equity transactions.
  • Moceri – Le Bear – Construction, financing and condominium work for a luxury hotel resort property in Glen Arbor, Michigan.
  • Moceri/Burton Katzman Harvest Corners – Financing, zoning and other land use matters for a mixed use project in Oakland Township consisting of some 700 mixed density residential units, neighborhood commercial, housing for the elderly, and a child care center. The zoning entitlements have been hailed as a model for managed “smart growth” and open space preservation.