Jannelle Marie Seales

Jannelle has extensive experience in real estate finance and distressed situations throughout the lifecycle of an investment. She recently advised on the restructuring of more than $2 billion in aggregate, including representing borrowers in refinancings secured by mixed-use and residential developments and lenders in foreclosures, loan modifications and workouts involving major office, residential, hotel and retail properties.

Jannelle’s practice also encompasses corporate and M&A transactions involving significant real estate assets and portfolios. She partners with Weil’s M&A team to provide strategic real estate counsel on these transactions, including advising MGM Resorts International in its $17.2 billion sale of MGM Growth Properties to VICI Properties; Veris Residential, Inc. in its $3.4 billion sale to an investor consortium led by Affinius Capital in partnership with Vista Hill Partners; and Six Flags Entertainment Corporation in its $331 million sale of seven parks to EPR Properties.

Jannelle has been recommended for REITs and Real Estate by Legal 500 US. She was named to Lawdragon’s lists “500 Leading Real Estate Lawyers,” “500 Leading Dealmakers in America,” and “500 Leading Global Real Estate Lawyers.” She was also nominated to Lawdragon’s “500 X – The Next Generation” guide and was shortlisted as “Real Estate Lawyer of the Year” for Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Americas Women in Business Law Awards.

Jannelle received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from Harvard University.

Experience

• An institutional lender in connection with multiple complex loan modifications, restructurings and foreclosures involving significant commercial real estate assets, including the foreclosure of development projects, as well as office and hotel properties.
• An institutional investor, as construction lender, in the refinancing of a significant construction loan secured by a large-scale mixed-use residential and retail development.
• An institutional investor, as mezzanine lender, in a complex restructuring and enforcement involving the negotiated acceptance of pledged equity interests in full satisfaction of a mezzanine loan, followed by the modification of the related senior construction loan after the lender's acquisition of the underlying borrower.
• An institutional investor, as joint venture member and lender, in the restructuring of a joint venture governing a mixed-use real estate portfolio and a related member loan secured by a pledge of a co-venturer's membership interests.
• An institutional investor, as borrower, in the refinancing of a construction loan with a term loan facility.
• Monday Properties as the operating member in a joint venture with Goldman Sachs, in obtaining an $888 million refinancing, including multiple mortgage and mezzanine loans, for such venture’s portfolio of nine office buildings located in the Rosslyn submarket of greater Washington, DC, which financing includes $188 million of future funding for tenant improvements and capital improvements.
• Island Capital Group, as a joint venture participant, and Lexington Hotel JV LLC (a joint venture among MCR Development, Three Wall Capital and Island Capital Group) in its $185 million acquisition of The Lexington Hotel.
• Herald Square Properties and its joint venture partner the Davis Companies in the $118 million sale of two REITS.
• Veris Residential in its $3.4 billion take-private by Affinius Capital in partnership with Vista Hill Partners.
• Six Flags Entertainment in its $331 Million sale of Seven Parks to EPR Properties.
• Sears Holdings Corporation and its affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases, including with the monetization of over $1 billion of real estate assets comprising ~90 retail and industrial assets in markets across the U.S.
• Cedar Fair in its $8 billion merger of equals with Six Flags.
• Brookfield Business Partners in its $8 billion sale of Westinghouse Electric Company.
• Blackstone in its acquisition of Champions Group and a majority stake in New Tradition Media
• Fox Corporation in its $22 billion acquisition of Roku, Inc.
• The Home Depot, Inc. in its $18.25 billion acquisition of SRS Distribution Inc.; its $5.5 billion acquisition of GMS Inc.; and its acquisition of Mingledorff's, Inc.
• MGM Resorts International in its $17.2 billion sale of MGM Growth Properties LLC to VICI Properties Inc.
• MGM Resorts International (MGM Resorts) in the formation of a joint venture between MGM Growth Properties LLC and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust to acquire the Las Vegas real estate assets of the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay for $4.6 billion and to lease back these assets to subsidiaries of MGM Resorts and the related $3 billion CMBS financing to support the acquisition by the joint venture.
• MGM Resorts International (MGM Resorts) in its $4.25 billion sale of the Bellagio to a joint venture MGM Resorts formed with Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust and its leaseback of the Bellagio and the related $3 billion CMBS financing to support the acquisition by the joint venture.
• MGM Resorts International in its $2.1 billion acquisition of the 50% stake it did not already own in CityCenter and its $3.9 billion sale and leaseback of the Aria Resort and Vdara Hotel real estate at CityCenter.
• MGM Resorts International in its $1.625 billion acquisition of the operations of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
• MGM Resorts International in its $1.075 billion sale of the operations of The Mirage Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip to Hard Rock International.
• MGM Resorts International in its formation of MGM Growth Properties LLC (MGP) and on the corporate aspects of MGP’s $1.05 billion initial public offering.
• MGM Resorts International in its $546 million pending sale of its operations of MGM Northfield Park in Northfield, OH, to private equity funds managed by Clairvest Group Inc.
• MGM Resorts International in its $450 million sale of the operations of Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, Mississippi to CNE (a subsidiary of Cherokee Nation Businesses).