Overview

Susan J. Booth is a Los Angeles real estate attorney with a national practice focused primarily on purchase, sale and capital market transactions involving data centers, hotels, office buildings, multifamily developments, shopping centers, industrial parks, senior-living centers and mixed-use projects. Ms. Booth represents domestic and international commercial banks, pension funds, private equity funds, debt funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and family offices and has closed more than $1 billion in transactions in each of the past several years.

Ms. Booth's extensive capital markets experience includes both commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) and portfolio loans (acquisition, development, construction, revolving, bridge, term, permanent, mezzanine, EB-5 and Sharia compliant), syndication and participation arrangements, joint venture agreements and mortgage loan portfolio sales/acquisitions. Even in the best of times, a portion of her practice is dedicated to assisting mortgage and mezzanine lenders, equity players and borrowers in developing and implementing strategies to resolve the issues arising from non-performing real estate assets. She has written and spoken extensively on loan workouts, options for handling troubled real estate assets, considerations in foreclosure and navigating through California's anti-deficiency laws.

Ms. Booth also has almost three decades of experience representing clients in the acquisition and financing (as both lender and borrower) of data centers. She uses her understanding of the unique elements of the data center business to help guide clients towards a successful outcome.

Ms. Booth spent many years on the Director's Committee of Holland & Knight and also spent more than a decade as the head of the firm's West Coast Real Estate Group.

Representative Experience

  • Represented OUE Limited as the buyer of the 1.4 million-square-foot S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles for $367.5 million and as the borrower under a $220 million secured financing
  • Represented a family office in connection with the creation of an option for it to acquire a sub-ground leasehold interest in a Class A office building as well as in the exercise of its purchase option and the assumption of an existing mortgage loan
  • Represented Digital Realty Trust Inc. in the real estate component (1.3 million square feet of data center space in 20 facilities throughout the United States) of its $1.89 billion acquisition of Telx Group Inc.
  • Represented NRG Potrero LLC in the sale of the former Potrero Power Plant located on an approximately 21-acre development site in San Francisco

  • Represented CIT Bank N.A. as lead lender in a $334.5 million syndicated financing to affiliates of ICONIQ Capital for the acquisition of a multistate data center portfolio
  • Represented a family office in connection with the borrowing of a commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) loan secured by an office building
  • Represented Wells Fargo Bank in connection with a $304 million loan secured by both receivables and a major metropolitan office building in a unique hybrid financing
  • Represented Pacific Western Bank in its $82 million loan to Panoramic Interests for the construction of City Gardens, an eight-story, 200-unit student housing complex in San Francisco

  • Represented a federal governmental entity in the workout and sale of billions of dollars of real estate mortgage and mezzanine loans that it acquired from a large (and now defunct) financial company
  • Represented a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) in connection with its negotiations with the borrower and the mezzanine lender for the restructuring of the REIT's mortgage loan, which was secured by a leasehold interest on a partially constructed condominium tower, originally intended to be the first phase of a multiphase project to be developed by affiliates of the borrower
  • Represented a large, privately held shopping center developer in its negotiations with the special servicer for the restructuring of a $100+ million CMBS loan

Credentials

Education
  • Stanford University, B.A.
  • UCLA School of Law, J.D.
  • UCLA Anderson School of Management, MBA
Bar Admissions/Licenses
  • California
Memberships
  • UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, Advisory Board
  • Lecturer-in-Law, Real Estate Finance, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, 2022, 2023
  • Lecturer-in-Law, Drafting and Negotiating Purchase Agreements, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, 2019-2021
  • Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, Board Chair Emeritus
  • American College of Real Estate Lawyers, Board of Governors
  • USC Real Estate Law and Business Forum, Co-Chair
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association Real Property Section, Chair Emeritus
  • American College of Mortgage Attorneys, Capital Markets Committee, Chair Emeritus
  • Kansas City Barbeque Society, Certified Judge
  • UCLA Law Review, Managing Editor
Honors & Awards
  • Top 24 in '24: Women in Real Estate Debt Finance, Kayo Conference Series, 2024
  • The Best Lawyers in America guide, Real Estate Law, 2013-2024
  • California Super Lawyers magazine, 2010-2024
  • Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers guide, Real Estate (Band 1), 2010-2023
  • Volunteer of the Year, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, 2023
  • 2023 Woman of Influence in CRE Legal Counsel, GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum, 2023
  • Client Service All-Star, The BTI Consulting Group, Inc., 2017, 2020, 2022
  • Los Angeles & Orange Counties Commercial Real Estate: Trends, Updates and Visionaries magazine, Los Angeles Times, Commercial Real Estate Visionary: Professional Services Advisor, 2021, 2022
  • Los Angeles Business Journal LA500, Law, 2020-2023
  • Marquis Who's Who in America, 2019-2021
  • Top 50 Women Attorneys in Southern California, Super Lawyers magazine, 2014, 2015, 2018-2020
  • Expert Guides: Best of the Best USA (Top 30) Real Estate, 2021
  • Expert Guides: World's Leading Real Estate Lawyers, 2013-2022
  • Expert Guides: World's Leading Women in Business Law, 2013-2022
  • Los Angeles Business Journal, Leaders in Law Nominee, 2019
  • The Legal 500 USA, Real Estate & Construction: Real Estate, 2011, 2014-2016, 2021
  • Mathew S. Rae, Jr. Outstanding Section Leader Award, Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2017
  • Women of Influence (California), Real Estate Forum, June 2015
  • Los Angeles Business Journal, Women Making a Difference Nominee, 2013, 2015
  • Los Angeles' Power Women in Commercial Real Estate, Bisnow, 2014
  • Up-and-Coming Real Estate Lawyer (nationally), Chambers Women in Law Awards, 2013
  • Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Los Angeles, Women at the Top, 2012
  • Commendation, City of Los Angeles, 2012
  • Deal Maker of the Year in Real Estate, California Real Estate Journal, 2009

Publications

Speaking Engagements

News