DLA Piper represented Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, one of the country's largest private real estate funds focused on developing urban properties in underserved neighborhoods, and The HYM Investment Group, a Boston-based owner, investor, developer and manager of commercial and residential real estate, in the sale of NorthPoint Development, one of the largest development projects in the Boston area.

Since September 2010, Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds and The HYM Investment Group have been working to to jump start plans to transform the former rail yard into a fully-permitted mixed-use development community. When completed, NorthPoint will feature more than 5 million square feet of residential, commercial office, retail, hospitality and life-sciences uses surrounding a 10-acre central park.

The sale of NorthPoint was completed in two transactions. In the first, Prudential Real Estate Investors, the global real estate investment business of Prudential Financial, Inc. purchased a recently completed 20-story, 355-unit luxury apartment building at NorthPoint. In the second transaction, Divco West, a privately owned real estate investment firm, purchased the remaining undeveloped portions of the mixed-use property for approximately US$300million.

The DLA Piper team consisted of Richard Rudman, Primo Fontana, Brian Hochleutner, Emma Rothfeld Yashar, Mark Tang, Donovan Powell, Cheryl Edelman, and Luciana Correia (all of Boston). Also deeply involved in the project was former Boston DLA Piper Real Estate partner Charlie Baker, who has over 30 years of experience in government, politics, real estate and law, and recently left to become the Chief Administrative Officer of the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign.

For more than 15 years, DLA Piper has handled all permitting for the development project as well as agreements for the relocation of a public transit station and ongoing efforts to obtain public financing for site infrastructure.

The firm also recently represented EF Education First, the world leader in international education, in the development of its new North America headquarters, an approximately 300,000 square foot office building on the Charles River in Cambridge, MA, a block away from the Northpoint site. DLA Piper was involved in the site acquisition from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, adoption of special State legislation and local zoning code amendments to permit development of the site, approvals under State environmental review and tideland protection laws, and local zoning approvals.

The DLA Piper team consisted of Richard Rudman, Emma Rothfeld Yashar

and former partner Charlie Baker.