Greg D. Peterson

Greg is a member of the firm’s real estate and environmental groups.  Greg provides strategic counseling to corporations, developers, investors, lenders, public utilities and private owners in connection with complex commercial real estate transactions, environmental and permitting and land use projects.

Prior to joining Tarlow Breed Hart and Rodgers as a partner in 2009, Greg was a partner at DLA Piper, LLC, a global law firm.  With 25 years of experience, Greg’s practice encompasses all phases of real estate development, from purchase and sales to managing environmental issues, financing and leasing.

Greg assists clients with the purchase and sale of contaminated properties, liability transfers, brownfields re-development, environmental insurance and environmental indemnities.  He works with clients to develop business strategies related to environmental impact review processes, permitting (e.g., wetlands, groundwater discharge, transportation, public sewage connections, air plan reviews), and acquiring local land use approvals including special permits, variances, subdivision and rezoning for a wide variety of projects.  His work includes office and industrial properties, multi-family residential and mixed-use developments, a liquefied natural gas terminal, a gas-fired electric power generation plant, and alternative energy facilities.  Alongside his environmental work, Greg guides clients through the complex process of legislative and regulatory policy development and drafting.

Greg’s real estate work includes complex property easement and structuring agreements for subdivisions and vertical parcel creation. He negotiates and drafts complex easements, covenants, development agreements, nested condominiums, options, ground leases, joint venture agreements, master planning agreements and conservation restrictions. He also manages the review of titles and plans and negotiates title insurance policies. Greg has negotiated and closed well over $1billion worth of commercial real estate loan facilities and workouts.

Representative Experience

• Conceived and structured the environmental liability transfer arrangements for and negotiated manuscripted, $10 million environmental liability insurance policies with each of Kemper, Zurich and AIG which permitted the successful redevelopment of Kendall Square, Cambridge MA, a 10-acre former manufactured gas plant adjacent to MIT.  Subsequently, this property won the 2006 US EPA Phoenix Award for best Brownfield redevelopment in America.
• Negotiated and documented the $230 million joint venture between Lyme Properties and Scottish Widows, creating the equity investment vehicle for numerous life science developments in Boston and Cambridge.
• Planned, negotiated and drafted the comprehensive, multi-phase, multi-parcel cross easement agreement with a nested condominium and shared parking garage operating agreement for the Center for Life Science Boston.  This 1.3 million square foot, high-rise biotech center adjacent to Harvard Medical School is fully leased and was sold at the highest per square foot price ever achieved for a building in Boston.
• Produced and implemented the strategy for the successful expedited permitting of Edgewood, the first major 40R smart growth project brought to market in Massachusetts.  This 400-unit residential apartment complex is located on a portion of a former state hospital property. The rezoning of the property for by-right redevelopment received a unanimous Town Meeting vote.
• Served as pro bono counsel for a local land trust, structuring and closing numerous transactions (including both outright acquisitions and conservation restrictions with public trail rights) resulting in the permanent open space preservation of over 530 acres of land between 2000 and 2010.
• Developed key elements of, and key evidence convincing the Legislature to adopt, the Expedited Permitting Act of 2006, including the Permitting Session of the Land Court and revisions to chapter 40A, the Massachusetts Zoning Act, to prevent appeals from blocking the effectiveness of Special Permits.
• Drafted critical portions of the 2007 Act Restoring the Exemption from Chapter 91 Licensing for Landlocked Tidelands.  This took place on the heels of the Supreme Judicial Court invalidating the DEP regulatory exemption of landlocked tidelands from licensing. Subsequently guided the litigation strategy for the case (Moot II) in which the SJC upheld the 2007 Act against a challenge that it violated the public trust doctrine, allowing the North Point project to be sold in 2010.
• Obtained MEPA clearance in one year for Langwood Commons, a mixed-use 300-unit residential and 225,000 square foot office redevelopment, after nearly 10 years of delay.
• Advised Harvard University on regulatory compliance for accelerated remediation of 21E sites.
• Authored and implemented the strategy allowing the redevelopment by Hobbs Brook Management of a property with an ongoing, active 21E site controlled by a third party, resulting in the successful completion in early 2010 of a 300,000 square foot LEED Gold complex on Route 128, which was fully leased by the fall of 2010.

Achievements

• Repeatedly listed in The Best Lawyers in America
• NAIOP Massachusetts Public Affairs Award - 2005
• President of the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts - 2002
• Town of Carlisle Conservationist of the Year Award - 1999

Civic Organizations

• Trustee of the Carlisle Conservation Foundation, 1997 - present
• Town of Carlisle Planning Board, which he chaired in 2008-2009
• Trustee of Town of Carlisle Affordable Housing Trust, 2007 - present

Professional Memberships

• Boston Bar Association
• Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts
• NAIOP (formerly known as the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties)
  
  – Member of the National Board of Directors

Bar and Court Admissions

• Massachusetts

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1985, cum laude
• A.B., Columbia University, 1980, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa