Karen has a general commercial real estate practice with a concentration in representing for-profit and non-profit organizations, financial institutions and quasi-public agencies in HUD and Fannie Mae-financed developments, federal and state low income housing tax credit, historic tax credit and tax-exempt bond financed projects, New Markets Tax Credit developments and "Comprehensive Permit" projects under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40B. She also has extensive experience structuring complex, multi-tiered and multi-phased projects using creative land use tools such as condominiums, air-rights and ground leases.

Karen also serves on the firm's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

Representative Client Work

  • Represented the owner in a $160 million refinancing of a 500-unit, twenty-five story building, mixed-use affordable residential and commercial property in Boston, Massachusetts
  • Represented the owner in multiple financings in the aggregate of over $50 million for a multi-phase ground-up development in Pontoon Beach, Illinois

  • Represented the owner all aspects of the development and financing of a 140 unit mixed-income apartment building in Quincy, Massachusetts. Tasks included structuring work-force housing units, federal and state low income housing tax credits, and a joint venture agreement with a non-profit partner

  • Represented the lender in a $37 million private placement tax-exempt bond construction to permanent financing facility and an $8 million bridge loan facility for the acquisition, rehabilitation and expansion of 199 affordable rental housing units on property ground leased from the Boston Housing Authority in Boston, Massachusetts
  • Represented the owner in a $19 million redevelopment and refinancing of a 150-unit apartment property in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
  • Represented the owner in the redevelopment and $10 million refinancing of a 59-unit mixed income housing property in Revere, Massachusetts
  • Represented the lender in a series of three loans that closed into a collateral pool subject to an existing SWAP: a $13.6 million facility secured by a multi-family property in Dartmouth, Massachusetts; an $11 million facility secured by an office property in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and a $16.6 million facility secured by an apartment and condominium development in Bridgewater, Massachusetts
  • Represented the lender in a $10 million construction to permanent financing facility for the acquisition, rehabilitation and development of an affordable multifamily property in Gloucester, Massachusetts
  • Represented the lender in making an $11 million construction to permanent loan facility for the acquisition, rehabilitation and development of a senior residential facility in a former school building property ground leased from the town of Swampscott, Massachusetts
  • Represented the lender in making permanent financing available for two phases of a multi-phase, multi-family $40 million affordable housing development project in Hartford, Connecticut ground leased from the City of Hartford Housing Authority
  • Represented the lender in an $18,000,000 term loan to refinance a 124-unit multi-family property located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Bar & Court Admissions

  • Massachusetts
  • U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts 

Education

  • J.D., Boston University School of Law
  • B.A., cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Community Engagement

  • Boston Bar Association, Co-Chair Real Estate Section, 2020-2021
  • American Bar Association, Forum on Affordable Housing, past Chair of Senior Housing Committee, 1997-present
  • Lawyers' Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness, Board Member and Past President, Lead-Boston Class of 2005-2006 
  • Women's Bar Foundation of Massachusetts, Inc., Past President and Trustee, 2001-2005
  • Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts, Past President, 1989-1990
  • Town of Brookline, Housing Advisory Board, 2012-2018

Awards & Honors

  • Best Lawyers in America® (2018-2021)
  • The Legal 500 U.S. (2019)
  • Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Top Women of Law (2016)
  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2004, 2014-2015)

Seminars & Presentations

Practices

Industries

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