Racy Lea Haddad
Partner
Overview
Racy L. Haddad is a real estate attorney in Holland & Knight's Austin office. As a Texas real estate licensee-turned-attorney with more than 20 years of experience in real estate law, Ms. Haddad represents developers, builders, sellers and buyers in commercial and residential transactions of all sizes.
Commercial and Residential Real Estate Transactions. The majority of Ms. Haddad's practice focuses on sophisticated, large-scale residential and commercial transactions, but she also works with individual property owners and homebuilders. She handles all aspects of purchase and sale transactions, from drafting contracts and easements, bringing in investors, negotiating and amending agreements, reviewing and curing title issues, and resolving challenges that arise before closing. Ms. Haddad is also called upon to form companies to hold real estate assets, draft corporate documents prior to closing and work with third parties relevant to 1031 exchange transactions.
Land Use and Development. Ms. Haddad also has a growing land use practice and regularly represents real estate property owners, developers and homebuilders before city councils, zoning boards and municipalities throughout Texas.
Real Estate Litigation and Disputes. Ms. Haddad is also extensively experienced in complex real estate litigation and represents clients in cases related to construction defects, condemnation and contract disputes, as well as violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) and Texas Water Code. She has served as first chair in select jury trials.
Ms. Haddad is Board Certified in Real Estate Law – Residential by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Haddad was an attorney at a national law firm's Austin office. She began her career as a real estate licensee with the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC), where she represented buyers and sellers in residential and commercial transactions.
Representative Experience
- Represented the sellers in the sale of a residential home, which was at the time the highest-priced home ever listed and sold in the Austin, Texas, marketplace; property was listed at $38.9 million and encompassed a contemporary luxury homestead with approximately 665 feet of water frontage, a private lagoon and boat canal, and consisted of seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms on the edge of the Colorado River
- Represented a national homebuilder client in negotiations with the City of Kyle, Texas, related to a development and annexation agreement for development of a single-family community inclusive of improvements at be partially funded via a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ)
- Represented a high-profile private billionaire in land use proceedings related to a residential variance before the city council in the Austin area
- Represented an Austin real estate developer of a single-family development, inclusive of affordable housing, in negotiations with Travis County related to a reduction of traffic mitigation obligations based on prior agreements and developer contributions for construction of traffic mitigation improvements related to county roadways
- Represented a California developer of multifamily projects on the acquisition and improvements for three multifamily apartment projects acquired in San Marcos, Texas, including analysis of market statistics, review and drafting of contracts, review and revisions to loan agreements, formation of corporate entities for acquisition of property, negotiation of improvements and repairs, and full review of title, survey, objections and closing documents
- Successfully represented a client property owner in challenging the City of Austin's Historic Preservation Office in an attempted designation of client's property as a City Historic Landmark
- Successfully represented a multifamily property owner with holdings in Austin in an appeal to the City of Austin's Building Standards Commission to challenge a suspension of a multifamily property's rental registration
- Successfully represented the property owners of a high-end home in West Austin in litigation related to claims of water diversion from an adjoining neighbor onto the client's property, causing flooding and other damages
- Represented a national real estate developer of residential property in litigation related to claims against an adjacent property owner incident to defendant's operation of a gun range, endangering the developer's residential community
- Represented an individual property owner in litigation related to breach of contract, fraud, fraud in a real estate transaction, negligent misrepresentation and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for nondisclosure of material defects to the real property
- Represented a commercial property owner in a first-chair jury trial with a more than $7.5 million verdict related to a contractual real estate dispute
- Represented multiple limited liability companies (LLCs) owned by multiple parties and owning various commercial real estate assets related to an owner's dispute; successfully resolved such disputes through sale of real property and reorganization of assets
- Represented a family in the sale of a multimillion-dollar commercial retail project on Guadalupe Street to The University of Texas at Austin, including negotiations, drafting of contracts, assigning leases and closing of sale
- Represented a land developer in the rezoning of a commercial property located on I-35 in Austin for the development of multifamily apartments, including negotiations with an opposing neighboring homeowners' association, to arrive at a mutual agreement related to obtaining support for the developer
- Represented clients in the sale of a commercial retail property with proceeds used as part of a like-kind 1031 exchange whereby the clients purchased more than 12 single-family homes as replacement properties
- Represented a property management firm in the formation of its company, drafting of corporate entity documents (including LLC agreements), drafting of client services agreements and management agreements for client's customers
- Represented owners of a multimillion-dollar professional grade supplement company in the sale of company assets to investor-owners obtained through venture capital funds, including negotiation, drafting and closing of all sale and purchase agreements, employment agreements, noncompetition agreements and corporate restructure agreements
- Represented a commercial real estate developer in multiple sales transactions for the sale of various tracts of land to be developed as multifamily or office use, including drafting of contract drafts, making title and survey objections, negotiating multiple contract amendments, negotiating entitlement periods, and preparing and finalizing all closing documents for sale
- Successfully represented various property owners in condemnation defense actions related to governmental taking of real property, including evaluation of property's appraised values, designating appraisal experts, challenging special commissioners, attending special commissioners hearings and appealing condemnation award for new trial
Credentials
- Texas Tech University School of Law, J.D.
- The University of Texas at Austin, B.A.
- Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
- Board Certified, Real Estate Law – Residential, Texas Board of Legal Specialization
- Texas Real Estate Commission, Approved Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) Legal and Ethics Instructor
- Program on Negotiation Master Class, Harvard Law School
- Austin Bar Association, Real Estate Section
- Real Estate Council of Austin
- State Bar of Texas, Real Estate Probate and Trust Section
- Texas Exes, The University of Texas at Austin
- The Best Lawyers in America guide, Real Estate Law, 2024-2026
- Texas Bar Foundation, Fellow, 2025