Company & Industry News

Congratulations to our Managing Partner, Mike Sikora, who recently received the highly regarded distinction of being selected to the 28th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America in  Real Estate Law.  The latest edition is now available on.   We are proud to know that our industry peers think so highly of Mike.

House Bill 123, the legislation that would modify the law governing community reinvestment areas, has been a topic of much discussion over the past couple of months.  With construction costs rising, making it harder to develop commercial real estate, economic development incentive programs are more important than ever.  That Bill would expand the use and benefits from CRA-designated districts.  That Bill passed the Ohio House on May 26, 2021.  Mike Sikora and Rick Craven have been involved on behalf of NAIOP in discussing proposed modifications to improve that Bill that would further benefit the commercial real estate industry.

Rick Craven was a Moderator of NAIOP of Central Ohio’s presentation on the significant and newly enacted City of Columbus’ Wage and Theft Ordinance focused on its impact on development and CRE within the City.

Construction costs continue to rise – with no good answer in sight.  That makes economic development incentives more important than ever to get development deals or redevelopment deals done.  One such economic development incentive is Ohio’s new Transformational Mixed-use Development Program.

Ohio’s Transformational Mixed-used Development Program has the potential to promote commercial real estate development that makes our communities stronger.  Crain’s Cleveland Business featured an excellent story on this subject, in which Mike Sikora was asked to share the latest details on that Program, and its future, as well as the promise it affords to the commercial real estate industry in Ohio.

Check out that article in Crain’s Cleveland Business by clicking here.

Despite our best efforts to craft legislation to enable dower to be abolished, it will remain part of Ohio real estate title law for the foreseeable future.  Our firm invested considerable time drafting legislation narrowly tailored to address the sole purpose asserted by Ohio domestic lawyers for keeping dower in Ohio.  The domestic lawyers sole stated purpose is to limit or curb equity stripping by title holding spouses in marital residences, which may thereby harm non-title holding spouses.  Members of the Ohio State Bar Association Real Property Section then helped us refine that language.  The Ohio Land Title Association has decided that it does not support the proposed spousal share legislation as drafted.

If this legislative initiative or anything similar to it ever moves forward at any point in the future, rest assured, our firm will continue to be part of the process.