Olshan Partner Nina Roket Heads Up High Profile Leasing Project For Columbus Development

Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP announced that partner Nina Roket is heading up the lease negotiations with the MTA and individual retailers on behalf of Columbus Development LLC for “Turn-Style” at Columbus Circle Station which will transform the retail corridor of the station into a retail destination to serve consumer needs ranging from the everyday to the sublime. Ms. Roket is a partner in Olshan’s Real Estate group and a co-administrative partner at the firm. She also serves on the firm’s executive committee and is head of the firm’s hiring committee. Ms. Roket is the founder and chair of the Women’s Committee at Olshan, which serves as a networking, business development and mentoring platform for the firm’s women lawyers and their clients and colleagues.

“It’s exciting to be working on this groundbreaking project with Susan Fine, one of New York’s leading developers and visionaries,” said Ms. Roket. “It’s indicative of how the real estate business has changed, and represents the new face of the once male dominated New York real estate market. Susan has the unique vision and creativity to bring this complex project to fruition,” she continued.

Susan Fine, the principal of Columbus Development commented that, “Nina came immediately to mind when this project arose, as she has an outstanding reputation in the New York real estate market for not only mastering the legal complexities of retail leasing, but also for having an astute business sense that you don’t frequently find in legal advisors.”

Turn-Style at Columbus Circle Station is envisioned as an exciting, unique retail destination with something for everyone. It will feature 30 retailers ranging from food and beverage to apparel, set across a 27,000-square-foot boulevard-style retail concourse including a market and array of shops and dining options to meet all tastes and budgets. Drawing on influence from cities such as Seoul, which successfully utilize their underground real estate, Columbus Circle will serve as a prototype for other transit-retail locations. There will be a set of turnstile kiosks designed for ease of installation in other locations and other modular elements that can be utilized across a range of other transportation centers.

Ms. Roket has been consistently acknowledged as a leading woman player in the New York real estate market. In May 2013 she was featured in a special section on “Women in Real Estate” in the New York Real Estate Journal, and was also featured in the May 2012 special section, “2002-2012: 10 Years of Women in Real Estate,” also in the New York Real Estate Journal. She was selected as one of Real Estate New York’s “Women of Influence” in 2009 and 2008. Additionally, Nina serves as a member of WX, New York Women Executives in Real Estate, an invitation-only association of executive-level women actively engaged in the commercial real estate industry in New York.  

Nina advises clients across the U.S. in sophisticated commercial real estate transactions, including leasing, sales, acquisitions and mortgage, mezzanine and preferred equity financings and represents owners, developers and tenants in leasing transactions across the real estate spectrum, including office, retail, hotel, industrial, restaurant and telecommunications space. She represents developers and landlords in key office markets including numerous office buildings in New York, Atlanta, Scottsdale, Tampa and Newark and manages complex retail leasing transaction projects on behalf of numerous developers at significant, high profile retail sites across the U.S., including New York, Miami Beach, Las Vegas, Beverly Hills and Atlantic City. Among her high-profile matters, Nina represented the owner of Herald Center (JEMB Realty), the 10-story black glass tower that is going through an extensive renovation, in the negotiation of the 25-year lease with H&M for its largest store worldwide which is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2014; represented Resorts Casino Hotel in the lease and licensing transactions for Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville casino-entertainment complex in Atlantic City, built as part of and in addition to the new Resorts Casino Hotel; and represented the owner of a downtown New York City office building in a lease of over 100,000 square feet to Millennium High School.

Ms. Roket has acted as real estate counsel to numerous high-profile restaurant owners and operators in bringing complex projects to fruition, advising them and providing resources on matters ranging from negotiating leases, acting as business counsel, handling community relations issues, advising on financing, obtaining licenses, licensing agreements, litigation issues, advertising compliance and tax issues.

A frequent speaker at leading industry conferences, Ms. Roket served as the moderator for “Women Who Deal: Head Honchos and Headline Makers,” a panel addressing deal making strategies at the 2014 Real Estate Weekly Women's Forum held on February 27, 2014 in New York. And, on April 1, 2014 she moderated a panel that included Susan Fine of Columbus Development, “Shopping for Shops: Retail MVP’s Discussing the Future of Retail and What’s Next for Developers, Tenants and Consumers,” at the 2014 Massey Knakal CRE Investment Summit in New York.

About Olshan’s Real Estate Law Practice

Across the nation and especially in and around New York, Olshan’s skilled handling of real estate transactions has helped their real estate lawyers achieve an outstanding reputation in the industry. Leveraging in-depth knowledge, creative deal-making, and diligent and cost-efficient service, Olshan negotiates and closes some of the country’s most sophisticated and significant real estate transactions on behalf of clients. Olshan has particular experience serving real estate law clients in the areas of major office buildings, including purchases, sales, space leasing and ground leasing of office buildings, hotels and development sites, retail leasing, where the firm represents major brand retailers in leasing retail space in Manhattan and across the U.S., commercial condominiums, where the firm creates, manages and enforces the rights concerning various mixed-use properties and air rights conveyance.

About Olshan

Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, a law firm based in New York, represents major businesses and entrepreneurs in their most significant transactions, problems and opportunities. Olshan’s clients range from public companies, hedge, venture capital, private equity and other investment funds to entrepreneurs and private companies worldwide. Clients choose Olshan for innovative strategies and sophisticated, game-changing advice in corporate, securities law and shareholder activism, complex commercial, corporate and securities litigation, real estate, intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, and advertising. Since the firm’s founding, Olshan has offered an alternative to the AmLaw 50 law firm business model with responsive, independent and client-focused legal counsel provided by the firm’s senior lawyers. Olshan has been recognized as a Tier 1 “Best Law Firm” in New York for Securities and Capital Markets by U.S. News-Best Lawyers©, among other accolades from clients and peers.