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David J. Strauss

David Strauss practices primarily in the areas of real estate transactions, partnership matters and tax planning. He focuses on tax-advantaged investments involving real estate, sport franchises, cable television and general counseling to business and corporate clients.

For more than 40 years, Mr. Strauss has represented major developers, underwriters, general contractors, syndicators and individual investors in the structuring and planning of tax-advantaged investments. He is skilled in structuring equity participation financing transactions for significant pension fund clients interested in investing in real estate using the technique of equity participation first mortgage loans.

Mr. Strauss has had extensive experience in a variety of financing transactions, including conventional real estate financing, tax-exempt housing bonds and industrial revenue bond financing. Most recently, he has concentrated on representing developers and real estate owners in obtaining project financing through the use of federal and state historic tax credits and new markets tax credits. These deals often involve such complexities as integrating tax credit equity with more conventional financing sources, balancing the needs of both taxable and tax-exempt parties and utilizing master lease structures, multiple tax credits and multiple tax credit investors. Mr. Strauss served as developer’s tax counsel on the rehabilitation of the luxury Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit, Michigan, a highly sophisticated tax credit financing transaction which has received widespread publicity, including in The Wall Street Journal. He also has extensive experience in structuring tax credit transactions involving tax exempt entities, including performing arts organizations and colleges and universities, all of whom were interested in structuring historic and/or new markets tax credit transactions to assist in financing the rehabilitation of historic buildings owned by them.

Mr. Strauss helped create the tax shelter practice at Baker Hostetler beginning in 1969, and has since been involved in hundreds of syndications and major real estate transactions throughout the country. A representative transaction involved the acquisition of two center city Philadelphia projects, the first of which required negotiations covering a two-year period. In this project, Mr. Strauss’s clients realized significant profits with minimum risk and exposure.

Another significant case involved counseling the developers of a Newmarket project in Canton, Ohio—a $35 million downtown development project—that included a major office tower, a Hilton hotel and a parking facility. The project was made possible through the utilization of a variety of financing techniques, including conventional financing, an equity participation loan from a pension fund, UDAG funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, financing from Ohio’s Department of Development, funds from charitable organizations and private equity funding.

Mr. Strauss counseled investors through the acquisition of two islands off of St. Petersburg, Florida. He worked with various local, state and federal agencies to permit the development of the islands and secured the necessary financing for the development. He has also been involved in the acquisition of major shopping centers and apartment projects throughout the country.
Mr. Strauss represented Forest City in its $500 million Tower City Center project, which involved financing issues, real estate issues, construction issues and working with various local and federal governmental entities. He has represented hotel developers, office building developers and a number of nonprofit organizations in various real estate developments ranging from hotels to office buildings, apartment and commercial projects, restaurants and theaters.

Mr. Strauss is a member of the American, Ohio State, Iowa and Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associations. He has served on various committees in the Tax Section of the ABA and has been a member of the Advisory Board to the Ohio Division of Securities. For six years, he served as a member of Baker Hostetler’s Policy Committee.

Mr. Strauss has served on the boards of numerous charitable and civic organizations, including serving as Board Chair of The Jewish Family Service of Cleveland, Chair of the Cleveland Jewish Federation’s annual fund raising campaign, Vice Chair of the Playhouse Square Foundation, Life Trustee of Menorah Park Senior Center and long time Trustee of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.