Development

We advise Florida developers and property owners through the full arc of a project, from land acquisition and entitlements through permitting, construction contracting, and project closeout. The work is part transactional and part regulatory, because a development deal is a series of approvals and contracts that have to line up in the right order for the project to actually get built.

We get involved before the land is under contract, because the entitlement path determines what the site is worth. A parcel that cannot be approved for the intended use is not a discount, it is a different project.

• Land Acquisition: structuring the purchase with the diligence periods and contingencies a development site requires.
• Entitlements and Land Use: pursuing the zoning, comprehensive plan, and site plan approvals the project depends on.
• Development Agreements: negotiating written commitments with local government on density, infrastructure, timing, and vested rights.
• Construction Contracting: drafting and negotiating owner agreements with general contractors, including AIA based forms.
• Design Professional Agreements: setting scope, standard of care, ownership of documents, and liability limits with architects and engineers.
• Lien Law Compliance: managing notices, releases, and payment procedures under Florida’s construction lien law.

A development site is worth what it can be approved for. That approval is not guaranteed by current zoning, and the path to it can take a year or longer depending on the jurisdiction. The contract to buy the land has to account for that reality with entitlement contingencies, extension rights, and a deposit structure that does not go hard before the risk is resolved.

We structure land contracts so that the buyer controls the site while the approvals are pursued and can exit if the local government says no. Paying full price for land on the assumption that entitlements will follow is one of the most expensive mistakes in development.

• Site Control Agreements: negotiating purchase contracts and options that hold the land while approvals are pursued.
• Entitlement Contingencies: tying closing obligations to receipt of the specific approvals the project actually needs.
• Zoning and Comprehensive Plan Review: assessing what the current designations allow and what changes would be required.
• Plat and Site Plan Approvals: managing the platting, replatting, and site plan review processes with local staff.
• Feasibility Diligence: coordinating survey, environmental, wetlands, utility, and access review during the inspection period.

Most development decisions in Florida are made at the city or county level, in front of staff, planning boards, and elected commissions. Each body has its own procedures, its own record requirements, and its own politics. The application that gets approved is usually the one that anticipated the objections before the hearing, not the one that argued best on the night.

We prepare the record with the assumption that an approval may be challenged, because the conditions and findings adopted at a hearing become binding on the project. What is said on the record is as durable as what is written in the order.

• Hearing Preparation: assembling the application, the presentation, and the supporting record for staff and board review.
• Approval Conditions: negotiating the commitments attached to an approval and confirming what they obligate the project to deliver.
• Impact Fees and Concurrency: evaluating transportation, utility, school, and park obligations and the credits available against them.
• Permitting: coordinating building, site, and environmental permits, including review through the applicable water management district.
• Vested Rights and Approval Duration: confirming how long an approval lasts and what is required to keep it in effect.

The construction contract decides who absorbs the cost of a delay, a change, or a differing site condition. Standard industry forms allocate those risks in ways that favor the contractor unless the owner negotiates. Schedule, retainage, change order procedure, and the definition of substantial completion are all terms that determine what the project actually costs.

We negotiate owner side terms on AIA and similar forms rather than signing them as published, because the published version is a starting point drafted by the industry. The changes that matter are usually four or five provisions, and they are worth the time.

• Owner Contractor Agreements: negotiating price structure, schedule, retainage, and remedies with the general contractor.
• Change Order Procedures: setting how changes are priced, approved, and documented before the work is performed.
• Architect and Engineer Agreements: defining scope, deliverables, standard of care, and document ownership with the design team.
• Insurance and Bonding: confirming coverage, additional insured status, and payment and performance bond requirements.
• Schedule and Delay Provisions: allocating responsibility for delay, defining excusable events, and setting the consequences of missing dates.

Florida’s construction lien law gives contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers a claim against the property itself when they are not paid. The protections available to an owner depend almost entirely on paperwork completed before and during construction, including notices, releases, and proper payment procedures. An owner who pays in full can still face a lien if the process was not followed.

We build lien protection into the payment process from the first draw rather than responding after a claim of lien is recorded. Owners who collect the right releases every month rarely end up paying for the same work twice.

• Notice to Owner Procedures: tracking notices from subcontractors and suppliers and confirming who has preserved lien rights.
• Release and Payment Controls: requiring conditional and final releases at each draw so payments extinguish the claims they cover.
• Lien Claims and Transfers: responding to recorded claims of lien, including transfer to bond or other security where appropriate.
• Payment Bonds: evaluating bond requirements and the process for making a claim or defending one.
• Project Closeout: confirming final releases, warranties, permit closeout, and certificates of occupancy before final payment.

Development work rewards counsel that understands both the approval process and the contract documents, because the two are constantly interacting. A condition imposed at a commission hearing shows up in the construction schedule. A payment term in the general contract determines what happens when a subcontractor records a lien. Pomeranz Law works as outsourced general counsel to Florida developers, which keeps those pieces in the same set of hands.

Pomeranz Law provides the regulatory judgment to move a project through approvals and the contract discipline to protect it once construction starts. Both are needed, and they are rarely found in the same place.

• We assess the entitlement path before the land is under contract, so the price reflects what the site can actually be approved for.
• We negotiate construction contracts from the owner’s side, including the industry forms that most parties sign without changes.
• We manage the lien paperwork as a routine part of the draw process rather than as an emergency after a claim is recorded.
• We tell clients when a project timeline is unrealistic, because a schedule built on optimistic approvals costs more than a slower one.
• We stay with the project from land acquisition through closeout, so nothing is lost in a handoff between counsel.