Robert P. Friedman

Robert Friedman is a real estate and business law attorney with more than 40 years of experience, primarily advising commercial developers, property owners, and tenants in a variety of transactional matters. Robert’s clients also include wealthy individuals, families, trusts, and small and midsize businesses.

Robert manages all aspects of legal work on behalf of clients, including strategy, negotiation, and documentation of agreements involving a wide variety of corporate and real estate transactions. His practice includes entity formation, acquisition, development, joint venture documentation, financing, and sales. He is experienced in handling real estate deals involving public-private partnerships.

Robert is known for his efficiency in handling large and complex transactions. His notable work includes representing a promote partner in connection with the sale by an existing equity partner of partnership interests in nine shopping centers. The total value of assets included in the complex transaction involving multiple partners and lenders was nearly $500 million. In another matter, Robert represented a joint venture in a $46 million, 75-year ground lease for the ownership and development of a shopping center adjacent to the expansion of a Los Angeles housing project. Robert negotiated the ground lease and disposition and development agreement, the joint venture agreement with an equity partner, and new markets tax credit financing in the complex matter involving a public-private partnership.

Robert is an active member of the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Beverly Hills Bar Association. He serves as president of the board of trustees of Turning Point School in Culver City, California.

• Represented Primestor Development on its construction loans on the retail and market-rate housing project components, which total up to $140 million borrowed. The transactions’ complexities included not only a challenging lending market but also Primestor's decision to use modular construction, which compelled it to replace a modular manufacturer in China with one in Mexico to mitigate tariff risks less than 30 days prior to year-end. Ultimately, the parties worked collaboratively and closed after business hours on New Year’s Eve.
• Represented client in connection with acquisition of Chula Vista Center in Chula Vista, California, for $86 million, including joint venture funding by affiliated real estate fund and bridge loan to reposition the property from an insurance company.
• Represented client in connection with acquisition of Hilltop Shopping Plaza in Richmond, California, for $36.5 million, including joint venture funding by affiliated real estate fund and bridge loan to reposition the property from an insurance company.
• Represented client in connection with acquisition of Esplanade Shopping Center in Oxnard, California, for $90 million. Deal structured as a tenants-in-common with two third parties (one as a 1031 exchange upleg) as well as a bridge loan from an insurance company.
• Represented client in connection with sale of retail property in West Hollywood for $25 million.
• Representing client in connection with ongoing division of family assets involving a delayed 1031 tax-free exchange of three office buildings.
• Represented client in connection with the financing of a transaction involving a long-term ground lease from Los Angeles County for a mixed-use development, which will include retail stores, affordable homes for seniors, a Metro training facility, and access to public transit and other transportation amenities to serve a historically marginalized and underserved neighborhood.
• Represented equity investor receiving return of investment plus additional return as part of its withdrawal from of the original investment vehicle.
• Represented purchaser of shopping center in Torrance, California, for $40 million, utilizing reverse exchange and involving tenants-in-common ownership as part of replacement property closing.
• Represented purchaser of four residential properties for $64 million plus options to acquire two adjacent properties in Bel Air, California, at a later date for redevelopment and sale as one-of-a-kind trophy/environmentally sensitive estate.
• Represented owner of medical office building in Brentwood, California, in $42.5 million refinancing with life insurance company lender.
• Represented equity partner in connection with the acquisition of $24.5 million partnership interest with concurrent refinancing to restructure loan secured by $46.5 million marina property in Orange County.
• Represented seller of spec residence in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood for $83 million. The deal was the largest residential sale in Los Angeles County through July 31, 2021, and the highest price per square foot ever for a residence in Pacific Palisades.
• Represented owners of four affiliated medical office buildings in non-simultaneous refinancings with large CMBS lender. The loan amounts were $42.5 million, $38 million, $21 million, and $8.3 million.
• Represented purchaser of two mixed-use properties in Austin, Texas, both with joint venture equity, co-equity, and debt financing, for affiliates of same client. The purchase prices were $32 million and $24 million.
• Represented owner with construction loan for the redevelopment of a shopping center in California’s San Fernando Valley. The loan amount was $40 million.
• Represented landlord in negotiation of master lease of retail property in Venice, California. The total lease consideration was more than $20 million plus improvements to property in excess of $3 million.
• Represented purchaser of shopping center in Los Angeles’ Panorama City neighborhood, including joint venture equity and debt financing, with purchase price of $98 million.
• Represented seller of a rental house for $29 million followed by a deferred exchange of the proceeds and the acquisition of two companion apartment buildings with a total of 268 units for $71.5 million.

• Top Real Estate and Development Lawyers, Daily Journal (2025)
• Commercial Real Estate Visionaries, LA Times (2025)
• Legal Visionaries, LA Times (2025, 2026)

• State Bar of California
• Los Angeles County Bar Association
• Beverly Hills Bar Association
• Turning Point School, Culver City, California
  • President, Board of Trustees