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HeatherSunser

Partner

"The satisfaction I get from helping my clients to achieve their business goals is what makes my legal practice so fulfilling."

Overview

Biography

Heather is the firm's Tax Credits Team leader. She primarily concentrates her practice on affordable housing and community development, real estate law, institutional lending, land use, and municipal compliance. She handles real estate acquisitions, sale transactions, and financing and serves as examining counsel for several national title-insurance companies. Heather's financing experience includes representing lenders in commercial real estate transactions, such as conventional mortgage, municipal finance projects, and SBA 504 and 7(a) guaranteed-business, building, and construction loans.

Heather also represents for-profit and not-for-profit developers and local housing authorities in the acquisition, development, sale, and financing of affordable housing and community development projects and historic tax credit projects, including conventional and subsidized construction mortgage loans from private-sector and governmental sources, negotiation of construction agreements, and the application for and negotiation of property tax exemptions and PILOT agreements.

Heather has a deep understanding of the myriad of complex legal issues that are often involved in housing and community development matters. She assists clients with their agreements with the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation, New York State Housing Finance Agency, State of New York Mortgage Agency, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the New York City Housing Authority, US Department of Agriculture Rural Development, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other financing agencies across the country. In addition, Heather guides her development clients through permanent take-out financing as well as converting construction loans to the permanent phase.

Heather routinely provides support with eminent domain and condemnation matters involving fee acquisitions, easements, rights-of-way, and title-examination research. She's also well-versed in CPS-7 exemption applications and all types of plan-amendment preparation for condominium and homeowners' association developers.

Bar Associations

  • New York State Bar Association
  • Onondaga County Bar Association
Experience

Representative Experience

  • Represented a client in the purchase of an existing vacant facility, including the negotiation of financing with a commercial lender and industrial development agency.
  • Represented an international client in the acquisition of real estate rights and the resolution of issues in connection with a settlement action.
  • Closed a complex SBA 504 construction loan on behalf of the permanent lender with a simultaneous IDA deal that was a lease and leaseback transaction and a PILOT agreement with the municipality in which the property was located.
  • Served as examining counsel in the issuance of title insurance for a $24 million development of a university bookstore and retail facility with IDA straight lease and condominium development.
  • Served as buyer’s counsel in negotiating the purchase of an industrial facility, and served as title examining counsel in the issuance of title insurance for a $21 million historic rehabilitation/development with a local IDA.
  • Represented commercial building owners in negotiating and drafting retail and office leases and lease modifications with numerous national and local businesses.
  • Managed a large-scale compliance project for a telecommunications client.
  • Managed a large-scale, multistate leasing project for a national client.
  • Negotiated multiple leases, lease extensions, and addendums for a large medical and corporate office park with large institutional tenants on behalf of the landlord.
  • Represented a real estate developer in historic tax credits and new market tax credits historical-renovation development in Central New York.
  • Represented a national company in the sale of real estate and fixtures at the former site as part of a charitable taxable deduction.
  • Assisted with real estate leasing and property options for facilities, including production for CBD isolates. 
  • Assisted with an NY Department of Agriculture & Markets, Plant Industry Division application for authorization to process hemp on behalf of a wholly owned subsidiary.
  • Negotiated a facility lease for a hemp processing manufacturer.
  • Served as general outside counsel to a development company regarding the acquisition of a facility in Binghamton, New York, as well as financing the facility renovation through traditional construction financing and through the sale of federal and state historic tax credits and obtaining state and local assistance. Handled real property title issues, appropriate historic designations, and the negotiation of the master lease and other equity considerations to facilitate the financing.

Prior Experience

  • Hiscock & Barclay, LLP, Partner
  • NY State Attorney General's Office Health Care Bureau, Law Clerk

Selected Community Activities

  • Oswego Health Foundation Board, Board Member
  • Oswego County Child Advocacy Center, Board Member
  • Onondaga County Bar Association Foundation, Board Member
  • Habitat for Humanity, Volunteer Attorney
  • Onondaga County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Volunteer Attorney

Selected Honors

  • The Best Lawyers in America®: Banking and Finance Law, 2025
  • City & State New York, Trailblazers in Building & Real Estate List, 2024
  • Selected to Super Lawyers Upstate New York Rising Stars: Real Estate, 2013–2014
Knowledge

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • Onondaga County Bar Association, “Representing a Client in a Residential Purchase or Sale”
  • Onondaga County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Project, “Landlord Tenant Court Training”

Selected Alerts & Blog Posts

Featured Media

Alerts

The Reach and Apply Injunction: Massachusetts's Secret Sauce

Alerts

Latest Update to the Corporate Transparency Act – What You Need to Know

Alerts

OCR Begins Investigating Higher Education Institutions Following Dear Colleague Letter

Alerts

Streamlining Business Bankruptcy: Subchapter V Compared to Chapter 11

Alerts

NYS Court of Appeals "Rashly Enact[s] a Staggering Expansion of Municipal Liability"

Alerts

OCR Issues FAQs Regarding Dear Colleague Letter Addressing Race Discrimination

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