Joanne Franzel is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s New York office. She is a member of Gibson Dunn’s Real Estate Practice Group.

Ms. Franzel’s practice has included all forms of real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions and financing, as well as office and retail leasing with anchor, as well as shopping center tenants. She also has represented a number of clients in New York City real estate development, representing developers as well as users in various mixed-use projects, often with a significant public/private component.

She has worked on various aspects of the Hudson Yards project, representing the developer, which is a joint venture of The Related Companies and Oxford Properties.  The project will encompass more than 18 million square feet of commercial and residential space, much of it built over a working rail yard on the West Side of Manhattan.  Ms. Franzel’s involvement to date includes the equity transactions with Time Warner, KKR and Wells Fargo to move their respective corporate headquarters to 30 Hudson Yards, a 2.6 million square foot office tower adjacent to a retail shopping mall currently under construction.  She also handled the land acquisition for a new office tower under construction at 55 Hudson Yards, and an anchor tenant lease with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy to relocate its offices to that building. 

Ms. Franzel has represented major institutional lenders in connection with construction and acquisition loans in New York and throughout the United States, including a financing of the acquisition and ongoing development of Snowmass Base Village in Snowmass, Colorado and a construction loan for residential condominiums at 36 Bleecker Street, New York, NY.  She has also assisted the firm’s investment banking clients with office and residential properties throughout the country, including acquisition, financing and ultimate sale of the assets.

Additionally, Ms. Franzel has represented Jamestown, the owner of Chelsea Market, One Times Square and other New York City buildings, on various transactions.  She handled the acquisition of 1250 Broadway in Manhattan for Jamestown, represented them on numerous office leases during their period of ownership, and then handled the 2016 sale of the Building.  She also represented Jamestown on the acquisition of the Falchi Building in Queens, and the recent sale of that asset.  She continues to handle the retail and office leasing for Jamestown at Chelsea Market, including leases for an Anthropologie store and Giovanni Rana restaurant on the ground floor and numerous leases for retail stores and restaurants in the concourse, and has worked on office leases with tenants such as Google and MLB.

As tenant’s counsel, Ms. Franzel recently represented Nissan North America in connection with its new Manhattan flagship dealership to be located at 787 11^th Avenue.  She has also represented Bowne & Co. in a 200,000 square foot headquarters lease at 55 Water Street, a boutique investment banking firm in a headquarters lease at the Citigroup Center and numerous other leases of New York City commercial office and retail space.

Ms. Franzel was recognized as one of Real Estate Forum‘s 2017 "Women of Influence," a select group of 50 women who have significantly impacted commercial real estate.

Ms. Franzel received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980.  She received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in 1977 from Brown University.