Gino Bianchini is a Greenberg Traurig shareholder and is a nationally recognized tax attorney specializing in REITs, funds and other real estate and partnership transactions. Specifically, he has represented private equity investment groups in the formation of funds to acquire real estate and real estate loans (including the use of REPO financing); the tax aspects of foreclosure / deed in-lieu and loan restructuring transactions; the formation, acquisition, merger and operation of REITs in every industry group (hotel, health care, retail, office and industrial); the formation of structures to address the concerns of foreign investors in US real estate with respect to FIRPTA and ECI and the concerns of taxexempt investors with respect to UBIT (including the pension-held REIT rules); the formation and operation of nontraded REITs; and the taxation of real estate development and operational activities, such as tax accounting methods, the application of the uniform capitalization rules, like-kind exchanges.
Gino recently joined Greenberg Traurig after nearly 15 years with Ernst & Young LLP, where he was a tax partner in the Real Estate Group (including the National Tax Department in Washington, DC). While at Ernst & Young, Gino participated in a wide array of REIT and fund transactions in the real estate space, REIT mergers, portfolio asset acquisitions; and the formation of numerous funds to acquire distressed assets and loans.
Significant Representations
- Represented a large private equity firm in a transaction involving its investee company that was taxed as a domestic REIT in the acquisition of a foreign company with assets and operations in the United States and internationally. Pre and post transaction planning and structuring was required because the target was not previously a REIT.*
- Represented a publically traded domestic REIT in the acquisition of another publically traded domestic REIT.
- Performed pre-transaction structuring and due diligence due to the target’s international operations. *
- Represented numerous commercial property owners in large asset and/or portfolio restructuring transactions as part of their overall de-leveraging and loan workout strategies.*
- Advised commercial and residential developers as to tax planning matters related to the tax accounting of the revenue and expense associated with large-scale development projects such as master-planned communities and mixed-use hotel / condominium / retail projects.*
- Assisted in structuring complex like-kind exchange transactions involving multiple assets, forward and “reverse” exchanges, including safe-harbor and non-safe harbor parking transactions.*
- *The above representations were handled by Gino Bianchini prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Professional & Community Involvement
- Tax Law Program Advisory Board Member and Adjunct Faculty, Real Estate Tax Planning, Chapman University School of Law
- Member, California State Bar Association
- Section of Taxation
- Member, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts
Previous Experience
- Principal, Ernst & Young, LLP, 1997 - 2011
- Associate Attorney, Tax Law Offices of F.W. Daily, 1993 - 1997