La Fonte Nesbitt is a Real Estate Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Holland & Knight. Mr. Nesbitt has experience with all manners of real estate projects, but his practice emphasizes urban and community development, affordable housing, government related real estate projects and programs, and various types of public-private partnerships and privatization initiatives.
Mr. Nesbitt serves as counsel to private and nonprofit developers and owners, investors, lenders and underwriters in connection with the acquisition, development and financing of housing, retail developments, office buildings and mixed-use projects. He also represents housing authorities, housing finance agencies and other government and quasi-government agencies in connection with real estate matters.
Mr. Nesbitt serves as Co-Chair of the firm's Military Installations Redevelopment Team, having gotten involved with the Department of Defense's (DoD) Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) in 1996, shortly after the legislation was enacted. He was involved in closing the first MHPI transactions involving the Army (Fort Carson), the Navy/Marines (Camp Pendleton Phase I) and the Air Force (Lackland AFB Phase I). Acting both as the firm's lead lawyer on teams working with DoD and real estate and financial advisory firms hired by DoD and as counsel to developers, bond insurers, lenders, underwriters and other private parties, he has participated in structuring the MHPI program and its policies and in closing military housing transactions involving tens of thousands of housing units and billions of dollars in total development costs. In addition to housing, Mr. Nesbitt serves as counsel to the hotel operator involved in the privatization of several thousand hotel rooms under the Army's Privatization of Army Lodging (PAL). He also has experience with DoD's Enhanced Use Leasing (EUL) and Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process and programs.
Mr. Nesbitt has extensive experience in multifamily housing finance and development, including programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, tax-exempt housing bonds, low income housing tax credits and other affordable housing programs representing lenders, owners, developers, investors, housing authorities and other parties. For example, he heads the team of firm lawyers that represents the Atlanta Housing Authority on HOPE VI and other mixed finance matters.
Within the firm, Mr. Nesbitt currently serves as Chair of the firmwide African-American Affinity Group. He previously served for more than six years as the Executive Partner for our Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland offices, as the firm's first Diversity Partner and as a member of the firm's Directors Committee.
Mr. Nesbitt is a frequent speaker on military housing, public-private partnerships and affordable housing matters.