Amelia (Amy) H. Huskins

Partner

  • Amelia (Amy) H. Huskins
  • Phone: +1 404 253 6930

    Amelia (Amy) H. Huskins - LinkedIn Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    1075 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 1700
    Atlanta, GA 30309-3929
    USA

Amy Huskins practices in the areas of commercial leasing, real estate and finance. Her leasing experience includes representation of both landlords (and sublandlords) as well as tenants (and subtenants). She represents both lenders and borrowers in connection with complex financing transactions, including multi-state and multi-national transactions. She also represents owners and operators of real property, including the permitting, purchasing, selling and licensing of real property.

Ms. Huskins is Co-Chair of the Legislative Subcommittee for the State Bar of Georgia Real Estate Section, working with the State Bar of Georgia regarding all proposed legislation of the State of Georgia relating to real property matters, including the leasing, owning and operating of real property, as well of the lending upon and occupancy of real property. In connection with serving as Co-Chair of the Section's Legislative Subcommittee, she speaks at events regarding Georgia legislation, LIBOR transition and other commercial real estate matters, including those in connection with the State Bar of Georgia Advisory Council on Legislation. She also serves on the State Bar of Georgia Real Estate Section Subcommittee on Title Standards.

Ms. Huskins also serves as one of the firm's liaisons with and is an active member of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREF-C) (formerly known as CMSA), with emphasis on all aspects of CMBS transactions, including, but not limited to, LIBOR transition.

Among her clients, Ms. Huskins represents one of the world's largest publicly-traded telecommunications companies, serving as the firm's key partner contact for the company's worldwide leasing needs, including headquarters leasing and subleasing, as well as office leases for its employees in the U.S. and worldwide. Leases for this client often address construction and permitting issues.

Ms. Huskins also represents a technology and integrated risk management company with offices in Atlanta as well as throughout the nation, on real estate matters. Ms. Huskins advises this client on real property leasing and business permitting in London, Northern Ireland, and also Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and other locations in the U.S.

Ms. Huskins serves on a firm team that represents one of the nation's largest provider of post-secondary degrees regarding national lease-related documentation, including negotiating numerous commercial leases, subleases, licenses, subordinations, estoppels and termination agreements. This client has unique regulatory issues that affect the leasing terms and conditions of most of the client's locations. The firm and Ms. Huskins have represented this client on hundreds of leasing transactions in almost every state.

Ms. Huskins represents a worldwide entertainment company in lease negotiations for its entertainment complexes, including a retail lease in a Las Vegas hotel and retail resort and casino.

Ms. Huskins is a member of the firm's team representing a hospital chain that has purchased several hospitals, hospital complexes, and medical office buildings in Texas and Illinois, which includes leases for more than 180 doctors practicing with those hospitals. Ms. Huskins also represents tenants in medical office or hospital leasing matters, including those located in New Jersey, New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Ms. Huskins represents a client with real estate retail centers in Georgia, Arizona, Utah and Idaho in connection with the purchase and leasing of retail tenants, as well as negotiated settlements arising from tenant breaches.

She is a member of the firm's team representing an operator of convenience stores with hundreds of locations throughout the nation in the periodic acquisition and transfer of stores, which representation has involved FTC divestiture and other governmental compliance issues.

Ms. Huskins served on a firm team of partners representing the world's largest operator of marinas, whose legal matters include real estate leasing, operations, survey and zoning issues, as well as unusual permitting issues regarding ownership and leasing of structures located in navigable waters of the U.S. Leasing matters for this client include industrial boat repair facilities leases and also yacht slip leases, riparian dock and pier leases with federal and state governments, and life-estate leases with initial boat owners.

Ms. Huskins also represents financial institutions in connection with public and project finance transactions, matters involving CMBS transactions, lenders in connection with condemnation, foreclosure, restructuring, reorganization, loan sale, receivership and commercial real estate matters, owners/developers in the acquisition, holding and disposition of commercial real estate; secured creditors in loan workouts, foreclosures, economic development, leasing, land use and other business matters.

Ms. Huskins is a member of the firm's finance group and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) group and represents underwriters, issuers and banks in connection with public and private activity, taxable and tax-exempt bond transactions, as well as assists clients in preparing requests for proposal for PPP transactions. Ms. Huskins also has experience in project finance and credit enhancement transactions. She has experience in loan pool sales, sale/leasebacks, securitization/structured finance of government credit-lease projects, and the financing of alternative energy projects, including waste-to-energy and solar projects.

She has served as outside real estate counsel for a developer of mixed-use, high-end developments, which developments included medical office buildings, retail, sporting and other amenities, as well as senior housing, work force housing and luxury homes in South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. She also has acted as Georgia transactional counsel for national life insurance companies for sale/acquisition/loans/creditors' rights transactions. Ms. Huskins has considerable experience representing financial institutions in transactions with nonprofit organizations, in her position as lead counsel for a lender regarding commercial loans to non-profit organizations in more than 40 states. Ms. Huskins has been an approved title attorney for and title agent for substantially all major national title insurance companies.

Ms. Huskins is a past president of Commercial Real Estate Women of Atlanta-CREW, the first attorney to be elected as president, and served as Atlanta co-chair of the National Network CREW convention, working with her staff of 123 volunteers over a three-year span. She was the inaugural co-recipient of the CREW-Atlanta Member of the Year Award. She has been featured by and authored articles for the Atlanta Business Chronicle, was author of "RTC Title Standards" for the State Bar of Georgia Title Standards, and was previously appointed to the Advisory Board of Dorey's real estate publications.

Ms. Huskins is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law, where she was elected to the editorial board of the Tennessee Law Review and is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Tennessee, where she served as Panhellenic President and Neyland Scholar and was inducted into Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa. She is a past delegate to the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association, past president of the University of Tennessee Atlanta Alumni Association and past representative to the University of Tennessee College of Law Dean's Circle Advisory Council. She currently serves on subcommittees for the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Representative Matters

  • Represented a leading distributor and retailer of motor fuels in the sale of its assets, including more than 1,400 wholesale fuel locations and 70 retail convenience stores, to a large U.S. operator of gas stations/convenience stores in a transaction valued at over $350 million.

  • Represented a public employees’ retirement system pension fund in connection with its ownership of a large real estate project next to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, including transfer of the ownership structure of the real estate project on behalf of the fund from a trust arrangement to a limited liability company arrangement.

  • Represented Hunterdon Healthcare in its joint partnership with Atlantic Health System, home to seven award-winning New Jersey hospitals.

  • Serves on firm team representing a consumer services company in connection with the $385,000,000 financing of more than 290 locations in 31 states, including the continental US and Puerto Rico.

  • Serves on firm team representing a consumer retail company in connection with the acquisition, and separately a series of sales, of real property locations in more than 10 states, including master leases for more than 70 locations.

  • Represented one of the nation’s money center banks in a $55,000,000 loan to a casino in Natchez, MS, which included leases and zoning issues.

  • Represented the nation’s fifth-largest poultry processor and supplier on its real estate leasing, finance, environmental, and real-estate related matters, including 30-plus parcels located in Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Leasing matters included permitting and environmental remediation issues arising from the vertically-integrated businesses of this client.

  • Represented a NYSE-traded real estate investment trust (REIT), in a merger transaction valued at $3.1 billion to acquire a "non-traded" REIT. The combined company as a result of the merger had a pro forma enterprise value of over $10 billion and was the largest REIT in the triple net lease sector at the time of this transaction.

  • Represented a client in winning an auction in connection with an $80 million sale under section 363 of the bankruptcy code, obtaining bankruptcy court approval of the sale and entering into an Asset Purchase Agreement.

  • Acted as bank counsel (real estate) for a $49,750,000 bond transaction involving a Georgia hospital system.

  • Represented major European banking institution as underwriter's and/or bank counsel in connection with several public and/or private activity bond transactions having Certificates of Participation/Public Purposes Project Revenue Bonds regarding facilities leased to the State of Georgia and other county instrumentalities.

  • Represented a national bank as underwriter's counsel in connection with due diligence on a series of three waste-to-energy projects in Georgia, each in the amount of $250,000,000, having an international issuer.

  • Represented a national bank as underwriter's counsel in connection with due diligence on a series of waste-to-energy landfill projects located in Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina totaling $30,000,000.

  • Represented a nationally-recognized autism center in the defeasance of $17,500,000 in bonds through the sale of its Georgia headquarters to a large Atlanta-based children's hospital.

  • Represented a national lender/placement agent in connection with credit-lease loan transactions secured by federal government leases throughout the country, including, without limitation, $16,200,000 financing of federal courthouse in Canton, Ohio; $4,650,000 financing of U.S. Forest Service headquarters in Northern California; $28,000,000 financing of Veteran's Administration facility in Eastern North Carolina.

  • Represented an international Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain in connection with U.S. real estate holdings, including leases, sale/leasebacks, together with franchise, media and intellectual property matters, involving store locations throughout the nation.

  • Acted as Georgia real estate counsel for a real estate investment company in connection with due diligence for a proposed $300,000,000 mixed-used development in metropolitan Atlanta.

  • Acted as lead counsel for large national bank in $13,150,000 acquisition and development loan in Savannah, Georgia, for master mixed-use, multiphase planned community, including, commercial streetscapes with office and retail, multifamily, senior assisted-living, residential single-family and townhomes, park space and amenity areas located on historic plantation lands.

  • Acted as real estate counsel for Canadian seller in connection with the $32,000,000 sale of a shopping center in metropolitan Atlanta to a Canadian buyer.

  • Acted as Georgia lead real estate counsel for the purchaser in the multistate acquisition of lumber and timber facilities, including multi-tranche financing, totaling $19,000,000.

  • Acted as lead real estate counsel for $20,000,000 debt financing on behalf of NASDAQ-traded public company with holdings in 25-plus international locations.

  • Acted as real estate counsel to trustee of $34,500,000 in bondholder debt secured by religious facilities and a national television ministry.

  • Acted as lead real estate counsel to the developer of mixed-use, high-end wellness developments linked to a major medical institution, with proposed developments in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Texas, having multi-tranche institutional financing as well as mezzanine debt totaling more than $100,000,000.

Areas of Practice

  • Leasing
  • Capital Markets
  • Public, Project and Structured Finance

  • Construction Matters Related to Leasing

Admissions

  • Georgia
  • Supreme Court of Georgia

Education

  • University of Tennessee College of Law, J.D.

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Partner, 2004-present
  • Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice (now Womble Bond Dickinson)
    - Prior Partner

  • Parker, Johnson, Cook & Dunlevie (merged into Womble Carlyle)
    - Prior Partner and Associate

  • Smith, Gambrell & Russell
    - Prior Associate

Professional Activities

  • Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREF-C) Portfolio Lenders Forum and Special Servicers Forum
  • State Bar of Georgia
    - Real Estate Section
    -- Co-Chair of the Legislative Committee
    -- Subcommittee Member of the Title Standards Committee

  • Inducted into Lawyers Club of Atlanta
  • Atlanta Bar Association
  • Speaker for Bar Seminars on legislation, LIBOR transition and commercial real estate

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • Presenter, "COVID-19: From Sea to Shining Sea: A Quick Update of U.S. and International COVID-Related Restrictions," Duane Morris LLP, Webinar, December 11, 2020