Real Estate Development

Dean Mead’s Real Estate Development Industry Team has extensive experience in all aspects of real property law. We regularly represent owners, developers, investors, lenders, borrowers, landlords, tenants and other real estate professionals in every phase of their work, including acquisitions, financing, permitting, land use and zoning, development, entity formation, partnership and joint venture agreements, like kind exchanges, leasing and tax planning.

Land Development

Our Team has represented clients in connection with the development of thousands of acres throughout Florida, including commercial, residential and mixed-use projects.  From small projects to one of the largest Development of Regional Impact (DRI) developments in the state, Dean Mead has assisted real estate developer clients in every aspect of the development process.

Our attorneys have expertise in dealing with the broad range of issues that arise in the development process, including impact fees, concurrency, endangered species, wetlands, infrastructure construction and development permitting.  We also have expertise in community development districts and homeowner associations, as well as federal and state regulations applicable to the marketing of residential developments.

Land Use, Zoning, and Permitting

Dean Mead’s Real Estate Development Industry Team addresses the land use, zoning and permitting challenges that face our clients throughout the state. We handle obtaining local government approvals, such as comprehensive plan changes, developments of regional impact, rezoning, variances, special exceptions, conditional uses and planned developments in a variety of situations and in a variety of jurisdictions.

We understand the importance of building relationships with local and regional governments and other players in the development process. That is why we are very active in the communities in which we practice. Our attorneys have years of experience working with local governments in drafting and amending local comprehensive plans and zoning codes and serving on regional planning councils and local government blue ribbon commissions as well as water management district governing boards.

Because concurrency, natural resources, land use and zoning raise intrinsically local issues, when working with our statewide clients, we coordinate and oversee their legal counsel needs throughout the state to ensure that they receive the most comprehensive and seamless representation possible. In addition, our Team works directly with water management district staffs throughout the State of Florida. We assist clients in establishing (or avoiding through legal devices) development of regional impact status as well as vested entitlements.

Land Use Litigation

Our Team routinely addresses land use and zoning issues, from appearance before quasi-judicial boards through appeals of decisions to the appropriate agencies and courts. We frequently litigate land use issues as they relate to eminent domain cases and inverse condemnation.  The concept of "highest and best use" is addressed in most condemnation cases.  Factors that are typically litigated by governments claiming less intensive uses include zoning, development codes, concurrency, utilities, neighborhood/political objections, historic preservation, environmental concerns, access requirements, adjacent ownership, comprehensive land use plans, DRC issues, urban services area, transferable development rights, exaction, impact fees, annexation, code violations, among others.

Additionally, our Team has worked with development counsel when clients are seeking permits, zoning, comp plan amendments and permitting to provide possible litigation alternatives when governmental administrative procedures become bogged down by inappropriate and inordinate bureaucratic requirements.  Our lawyers regularly appear before various governmental boards, at administrative hearings and in circuit courts throughout Florida.

Additional Areas of Experience:

• 1030 Exchanges
• Association Management
• Commercial Foreclosures
• Contract Disputes
• Eminent Domain
• Leasing
• Property Tax Appeals
• Real Estate Transactions
• Sub-surface Rights
• Tax Controversies
• Title Defect Litigation
• Valuation Litigation
• Water Policy
• Work-outs