Biography
Michael K. Kuhn focuses on commercial real estate, with a particular emphasis on office and retail leasing, within the firm’s Real Estate Group.
With 38 years of practice in Houston commercial real estate, Michael brings a wealth of experience and practical knowledge of the local market to the advantage of his real estate clients. Over his career, Michael has handled all types of real estate acquisition, disposition, development, and leasing matters. With significant experience in most every area of real estate law, he is able to responsively address clients’ needs and to create innovative solutions.
Michael is a recognized authority in office and retail leasing. He routinely drafts and negotiates commercial leases and advises clients on complex leasing issues and strategies.
Education
B.A., magna cum laude, Duke University
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law
Bar Admissions
Texas, 1979
Board Certifications
Commercial Real Estate Law
Over his career Michael has handled the office leasing for as many as six Class “A” downtown office buildings in Houston, Texas. Currently he does the leasing work for two of the Houston area’s premier shopping districts. His practice is not limited to either Houston or Texas, and he routinely handles office and retail leasing matters throughout the country.
- Represented the owner of the Rice Village Shopping Center in the lease negotiations for most of the existing tenants including Shake Shack, Altar’d State, Front Burner Restaurants (Sixty Vines), Warby Parker, Hopdoddy, CB2, West Elm and Mendocino Farms Sandwiches.
- Represented the owner/developer of a newly-constructed mixed-use office/retail complex in the lease negotiations for office tenants including Prologis and Spur Energy and notable local restaurant tenants including Texadelphia, Treebeards and Masraff’s.
- Represented the landlord/redeveloper of a Fort Lauderdale high-rise building, in the relocation of the ground floor national bank to temporary premises during the redevelopment phase and a permanent lease with the bank upon project completion.
- Successfully renegotiated an existing lease with a prominent consumer electronics retailer, for the relocation of the store to a new downsized location in the same shopping center, in Irving, Texas.
- Successfully negotiated a lease restructuring in a downtown Chicago office building involving a Fortune 500 global document technology company’s spin-off of its HR consulting business line.
- Handled the 10-year extension of a headquarters lease for a major Houston-based engineering firm, downsizing from three floors to two.
- Handled the substantial expansion of lease space for a European-based manufacturing/electronics company, at a Class “A” suburban Houston office building, addressing issues arising from the tenant’s consolidation of various business divisions into the building.
- Negotiated a 40,000 square foot major anchor lease with a national off-price department store retailer, within a major “Town Center” shopping district in New Braunfels, Texas.
- Handled lease negotiations for a 60,000 square foot retail lease to a major home appliance retailer, including obtaining an exemption to existing exclusions from a neighboring national home improvement chain.
- Represented a Houston developer in leasing a mixed-use project on Lower Westheimer, which includes 100,000 square feet of office space and more than 50,000 square feet of retail.
- The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White Inc.)
- Real Estate Law, 2008-2016, 2018-2022
- Super Lawyer, Thomson Reuters, 2005-2013
- Top Lawyers, H Texas magazine, 2006-2010
- Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2004-2007
- Ranked for Real Estate – Texas
- Webinar for Strafford Publications, “Allocating Risk in Real Estate Leases: Contractual Indemnities, Additional Insured Endorsements and Waivers of Subrogation,” September 8, 2016
- Presenter at 2020 Bernard O. Dow Leasing Institute sponsored by University of Texas School of Law, on the topic, “Rent Relief in the Time of Pandemic”.