Michael F. Burke

Landlords and tenants frequently engage Mike in complex leasing transactions, including sale-leasebacks, ground leases, air rights leases, and build-to-suit leases. Partnerships, limited liability companies, real estate investment trusts, and real estate funds select Mike for his extensive experience in negotiating joint venture agreements on complex real estate projects throughout the United States.

Notable Experience and Client Impact

Mike has helped clients solve numerous business issues, including:

• Client goal: Navigate a complex legal landscape to acquire development rights and develop a $230 million mixed-use project. Project experience: Led a team that advised Related Beal on a range of complex issues, including the negotiation of the air rights lease above a federal highway. The lease was signed in December of 2015 with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Construction for the project was completed in 2018 and it is currently fully occupied.
• Client goal: Negotiate and conduct due diligence in real estate purchase. Project experience: MAPFRE Commerce Insurance Co., the largest insurance company in Massachusetts, engaged Nutter to assist it to negotiate and conduct due diligence review in connection with its recent purchase of One Winthrop Square, a coveted "jewel box" building in Boston’s Financial District esteemed for its 19th century detailing.
• Client goal: Negotiate headquarters office lease. Project experience: assisted global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) in the negotiation of the largest office lease transaction in Boston in 2015: the relocation of HMH’s Boston headquarters from the Back Bay to the premier downtown building at 125 High Street in Boston, adjacent to the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The long-term lease involves nearly 200,000 rentable square feet, including prominent ground floor space for marketing and display of HMH’s content and digital solutions.
• Client goal: Negotiate lease and obtain construction financing for medical surgical center. Project experience: On behalf of developer, negotiated a complex build-to-suit lease and $51 million construction loan for new state-of-the-art medical/surgical building recently constructed in Longwood Medical Area of Boston.
• Client goal: Negotiate purchase and sale agreements. Project experience: On behalf of privately-held real estate advisory firms and their commingled real estate funds, negotiation of purchase and sale agreements and leases for office, industrial, warehouse, residential, and retail properties throughout the United States.
• Client goal: Negotiate build-to-suit lease. Project experience: On behalf of a national insurance company, negotiated a build-to-suit lease on behalf of tenant for new 200,000 square foot build-to-suit office building and 800-space parking garage.
• Client goal: Formulate and execute a complex sale-leaseback transaction within a desired timeframe. Project experience: On behalf of ownership group, arranged sale of a five-building corporate portfolio. The portfolio, comprising most of a city block in the heart of Boston’s Financial District, is often referred to as the Fidelity Block and includes 82 Devonshire Street, 35 Congress Street, 68 Devonshire Street, 19 Congress Street, 15 Congress Street, and the land parcel at 54 Devonshire Street.

A respected leader in the real estate industry, Mike is a member of several professional associations, including the Boston Bar Association, the Real Estate Bar Association, the Real Estate Finance Association of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. He has previously been involved with the Artery Business Committee. Mike has also served as an officer of P&O Properties Boston, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of The Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company; a publicly-held company based in the United Kingdom whose wholly-owned affiliate, Boston Wharf Co., once owned 70 buildings in Boston.

An avid supporter of charitable organizations, Mike serves on the Board of Directors of the Boston Local Development Corporation, and served on the Board of Overseers of the Greater Boston Aid to the Blind. In 2022, he was appointed a Board Member of the Duke Boston Alumni Association as the sole representative of Duke University School of Law. Mike’s community involvement has also included his roles as one of the Founding Leaders of the Duke Law Club of New England, former Board Member of the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA in Marblehead, former elected Member and Chairperson of the Swampscott School Committee, and former elected Swampscott Town Meeting Member.