As a co-founder for his own real estate development company, Jim understands firsthand how to start and manage a company, including partnership negotiations, management of service providers and other external relationships, employment and compliance matters, general contracting and corporate compliance, and day-to-day operations.
Jim has also managed multi-million dollar real estate development projects, working with municipal governments, architects, general contractors, environmental consultants, brokers, and other crucial members of a real estate development project’s ecosystem. He appreciates the time pressures and value that goes into running a business and the costs that are associated with it.
In addition to starting and running a business, Jim has extensive experience representing local, national and international clients in all facets of real estate, including purchase and sale of property, condominiums, obtaining state and local zoning/permitting approvals, leasing, joint venture development agreements, construction contracts, and commercial and private financing. Jim has negotiated and managed relationships with high-net worth individuals, family offices, and co-development companies for his company and clients in the real estate development business.
Awards & Honors
- Named “Exclusive Featured Attorney” Representing Boston Premier Real Estate Lawyers 2022-2024.
- Named a “Super Lawyers New England” for Real Estate by Thomson Reuters, 2022-2024.
- Named a “Super Lawyers New England Rising Star” for Real Estate by Thomson Reuters, 2013-2021.
- Named a “Top Lawyer” by Boston Magazine, 2021-2024.
- Named a “Boston Rising Star” by National Law Journal, 2015.
Representative Matters
- Represented a regional developer of self-storage facilities in a $8 million dollar development in Boston, including joint venture formation, equity raise, financing, and acquisition.
- Represented an operator of privately owned marinas in Massachusetts in the $20 million sale of its business and real estate.
- Represented several privately funded real estate holding companies with the acquisition of Class B+ office buildings, for both office use and conversion to residential.
- Represented a national operator of apartment building s with the acquisition of properties in Great Barrington and Easthampton, Massachusetts.
- Represented a national operate of Planet Fitness gyms with various leases along the east coast.
- Represented a group of independent gym operators with various leases in the Boston area, including franchising assistance.
- Represented an area small business in a dispute and mediation against its commercial landlord.
- Represented a landowner with the successful request for Reasonable Modifications under Title II of the American with Disabilities Act in the Town of Belmont, Massachusetts, including successfully defending against an abutter’s appeal.
- Represented a regional developer in the development, management and sale of Brunswick Station in Brunswick, Maine, which included mixed use of apartments, offices, and retail/restaurants.
- Represented a regional bank in the $40 million dollar acquisition financing for a prominent building in Chinatown, Boston.
- Represented Emerald Place Development Company in the $76 million dollar sale of a 238-unit apartment building in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.
- Represented Navem West Broadway in the development, construction, conversion to condominium, and sale of a 44-unit condominium building in South Boston, Massachusetts.
- Represented a large regional bank in the $13 million dollar refinancing of apartment buildings in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Represented a Chinese investor in a joint venture with a local developer for the acquisition and development of a $120 million mixed use development in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
- Represented a joint venture development of 16 condominium units in South Boston.
- Represented a local developer in their $7 million dollar acquisition of a ground lease development in Quincy, Massachusetts.
- Represented a regional developer in their $10 million sale of a light industrial property in Portland, Maine.
- Represented a restaurant tenant with a complex lease regarding a boutique hotel located in downtown Boston.
Articles & Talks
- Chinese Investment in Boston Commercial Real Estate Expected to Continue, by James B. Heffernan, New England Real Estate Journal, March 2016
Education
- Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 2007; Executive Editor, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.
- Boston University, B.A., cum laude, 2004
Bar Admissions
- Massachusetts
Court Admissions
- District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Outside the Office
- Jim lived in Beijing, China, where he learned to speak Mandarin Chinese and worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
- Jim lives with his wife and two boys in Canton, Massachusetts. He regularly takes his family camping in the summer and skiing in the winter.
- He is a volunteer head coach and a board member to Canton Youth Soccer Association.
