Sara Schnorr

Sara Schnorr, Of Counsel with the Firm, focuses her practice on complex real estate acquisition, development, land use, and financing matters, particularly for clients in the affordable housing, life sciences, and telecommunications industries. She was appointed to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women and the State's Working Group on Gender Equity in Disability Policies by Massachusetts Governor Charles Baker. Sara is also a member of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee and the Boston Office’s Diversity Committee. 

• Represented Roxbury Tenants of Harvard Association, Inc a tenant-controlled nonprofit that acquired an existing 775-unit affordable housing project with a 1,300-space subsurface parking facility developed under MGL Chapter 121A (Massachusetts Urban Redevelopment Act); that acquisition involved a complex cash merger transaction, $18,000,000 in federal LIHTC equity, $48,600,000 mortgage financing from MassHousing insured under HUD’s Risk-Sharing Program, $10,000,000 in mortgage financing from Brookline Bank and obtaining approvals under MGL Chapter 121A and other land use requirements.
• Represented Mitchell Properties in connection with its negotiation and acquisition of a long-term lease from the Town of Watertown to convert and redevelop the former Coolidge Elementary School into mixed-income 55+ rental housing. That project involved first, second and third mortgage financing from MassHousing in the aggregate amount of $7,700,000, shared third mortgage financing in the aggregate amount of $1,500,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development under its Housing Stabilization Fund and its Affordable Housing Trust Fund programs, a $390,000 HOME Investments Partnership Program loan from the Town, approximately $6,645,000 in federal LIHTC equity and federal and state historic tax credit equity and the difficult settlement of a neighbor’s challenge of the project’s zoning relief.
• Represented a nonprofit community development company in connection with its negotiation of a Housing Creation Agreement with a commercial developer and the Boston Redevelopment Authority pursuant to which the commercial developer would provide substantial equity to help fund the nonprofits’ development of multiple units of affordable housing to satisfy the commercial developer’s obligations to provided a certain number of “Off-Site Affordable Units” under its Affordable Housing Agreement with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
• Representing a lender in connection with its providing of substantial financing to a nonprofit community development company acquiring and rehabilitating a large affordable housing project that will be obtaining its equity pursuant to a Housing Creation Agreement with the Boston Redevelopment Corporation and commercial developer obligated to provide “off-Site Affordable Housing.”
• Outside general counsel to Boston Community Capital, a private nonprofit, tax-exempt financial intermediary that provides mortgage financing for affordable housing projects, equity for businesses that create jobs and opportunities for the disadvantaged in low-income communities, and new markets tax credit equity. Also represent Boston Community Capital in connection with its acting a financial intermediary for projects receiving state low income housing, state historic rehabilitation, state brownfields, and similar state tax credits.
• Outside general counsel to the Massachusetts Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (“CEDAC”), a tax-exempt quasi-public organization that finances community development projects and affordable housing initiatives in low-income communities throughout Massachusetts, and CEDAC’s affiliate The Children’s Investment Fund, which provides capital funds for child care facilities.
• Outside general counsel to Casa Esperanza, Inc. and its affiliate Nueva Vida, Inc. in connection with the development, acquisition, permitting and financing of their clinical and residential facilities for Spanish speakers who are recovering from alcohol and substance abuse.
• Represented Amgen Inc. in connection with its acquisition, permitting, development, and leasing of the state-of-the-art 300,000-square-foot Amgen Center bioscience building at Kendall Square in Cambridge. That project involved helping Amgen obtain local zoning, historic and other land use approvals, and state environmental approvals required due some residual environmental contamination of a portion of the site.
• Represented Genzyme Corporation, particularly in its acquisition and leasing of office, R&D and laboratory space. Negotiated Genzyme’s long-term ground lease from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and managed the other real estate legal services, for the development and subsequent expansions of Genzyme’s biotechnology manufacturing facility at Allston Landing in Boston; that work including obtaining a license under MGL Chapter 91 (The Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act), air quality permits, highway permits, and other land use matters. Also negotiated the build-to-suit lease for Genzyme’s new Kendall Square, Cambridge “green building” headquarters.
• Represented Immune Disease Institute, Inc. (“IDI”) in negotiating a novel lease- sublease back transaction for the ultimate sale of its old facilities and negotiating IDI’s state of art life sciences research space in the Center For Life Sciences Boston I building in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area.
• Represented AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. as it has sought zoning approvals for its network of wireless telecommunications facilities in the Greater Boston area. That work has involved appearing before approximately 50 hostile zoning and planning boards, as well as negotiating with municipalities to amend their zoning bylaws to accommodate the wireless industry.
• Extensive commercial leasing experience, such as representing firm clients in substantial lease transactions, such as negotiating single-user build-to-suit leases on behalf of tenants; complex sale-leaseback transactions; developing form leases for, and renting up of approximately 1,000,000 square feet of retail shopping centers for Factory Merchants Malls; and handling lease negotiations and general landlord-tenant matters for both owners and tenants, including the owners of 84 State Street, One Milk Street and the Park Square Building.