Robert Friedman and Alon Lagstein were interviewed in a Law360 article titled “Inside Primestor's Tariff-Swayed Modular Supplier Switcheroo.” The article discusses Primestor Development’s decision to change suppliers due to tariffs, roughly half a decade into the planning process for a $300 million mixed-use real estate project in Southern California.
Friedman and Lagstein assisted Primestor with the retail and commercial aspects of the project and advised on the market-rate residential portion. Friedman has been working with Primestor for several years on various projects.
In late 2025, as Primestor was seeking a new manufacturer for the residential modules, the developer was also looking to tie up agreements on the residential and commercial pieces of the project. It was "5:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 when things closed," Friedman said, referring to the closing of the retail and commercial piece, as well as the market-rate residential portion. "It is the longest loan refi escrow ... I think that I might have seen on a loan term sheet. In the summer — May, maybe June, July — we were talking about closing in August or September. It's usually eight weeks." Primestor, Friedman added, "always felt that the property penciled. It's a very skittish loan market; it was a big loan, and then it had modular. ... I've never been involved in a loan transaction when the lender wanted a tariff opinion."
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