Real estate development in Mexico is often a more complex process than that found in other countries due to Mexico’s unique history, resulting in, for example, communal property (ejidos), and constitutional restrictions on the ownership of land by non-Mexicans, all of which may affect client real estate projects. At Basham, Ringe y Correa, our Real Estate Practice Group knows the pitfalls and how to deal with them. The firm acts for a variety of clients in all phases of real estate development throughout Mexico including structuring, negotiating, and implementing the buying, selling, leasing, and financing of commercial, industrial, tourist, and residential developments.
The practice group offers the following services in this area, among others, advising on:
- Negotiating and preparing agreements related to property development for commercial, industrial, residential, and tourist projects.
- Land use and zoning issues.
- Preparing purchase and sale agreements
- Negotiating and preparing leases.
- Negotiating and preparing agreements related to industrial, commercial, tourist and residential developments, including condominiums.
- Arranging rights-of-way and other easements.
- Preparing options and rights of first refusal.
- Removing land from communal property (ejido) control
- Arranging trusts for non-Mexicans acquiring land along the cost or border zones
- Investigating and registering property in public property registries, including preparing reports on title
- Acquiring water supply and waste water discharge authorizations
- Expropriations
- Representing clients in dealing with federal, state and local agencies with respect to regulatory compliance
- Constitution, registration and release of real estate guarantees.
Relevant transactions
The most representative operations in which the Firm has participated are, among others, the following:
- The largest real estate portfolio purchase in Mexico in 2004, consisting of 52 industrial plants and an office building owned by G. Accion, S.A. de C.V., by The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, represented by La Salle Investment Management, Inc., an approximate total value of US$300 million. This transaction also required advice in the financing given by GE Real Estate, including creatin mortgages in favor of each of the 53 Properties.
- The development of a large tourist/hotel complex on the Maya Riviera, led by a Spanish development group. The development consisted of the creation of a master condominium development invested in by real estate companies as well as global hotel chains resulting in the construction of six luxury hotels and a beach and golf club. The total amount of this project was approximately US$600 million.
- The purchase of hotels in Monterrey and Mexico City, involving the Mexican hotel consortium GEO, S.A. de C.V. and Sociedad Inmobiliaria Hotelera de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
- Design and negotiation, on behalf of Grupo OHL, of the sale of three shopping malls in Mexico City.
- Advise Mexama, S.A. de C.V. (joint venture entity mostly owned by Tate & Lyle) in the sale of real estate property to Unilever.
- Advise Papeles Higiénicos del Centro, S.A. de C.V. (subsidiary of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget) in the acquisition of ejido lands in the State of Hidalgo and in the development of new facility.
- Advise Aresbank and other foreign banks in certain investment in Tourist resorts in Mexico.
- Advise Tetra Pak in the construction and lease of a new facility.
- Advise Kellogg Company in the establishment of a new cereal manufacturing facility in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
- Restructure of a Joint Venture entered into and between OHL and COPEMSA, such transaction involved the acquisition (i) of shares of different companies, (ii) of shopping malls, (iii) hotels and (iv) several real estates.
- Advise Gerdau Group in the acquisition of 26 ejido lands located in the State of Hidalgo and development of new facility.
- Advise to Pirelli in the acquisition of real estate in Silao, Guanajuato and diverse agreements related to the construction of a tire manufacturing facility with an investment of US$200,000,000.
- Tax and corporate restructure of Goldcorp Inc. including highly valuable mines located in Mexico.
