Minta E. Kay

Minta Kay is a partner in the firm's Business Law department, and Real Estate Industry group. For more than 35 years, Minta has represented institutional investors, tax-exempts, real estate funds, and owner/operators in connection with all aspects of their real estate investment transactions. She regularly advises clients on joint venture formation and restructuring, senior and junior debt origination, acquisition and restructuring, portfolio transactions, development transactions, and property sales and acquisitions. In the past five years, she has closed over 55 real estate transactions totaling in excess of $12.5 billion.

Minta founded and is co-leader of Goodwin’s PropTech Initiative, which supports companies at all stages, real estate investors and owners, VC's and other parties working at the intersection of Real Estate and Technology. As leader of Goodwin's Prop Tech Initiative, Minta is at the forefront of engaging with constituencies who are analyzing and deploying technology to impact the built environment, whether through development, adoption, consolidation or growth. She and the Proptech team are able to blend technological and real estate goals and norms across two industries that have not historically been well integrated. Minta's keen understanding of the importance of connecting real estate and technology clients, paired with her collaborative and innovative nature, allows for improved synergy in this emerging and important area.

Minta is consistently recognized as a leading real estate attorney by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Super Lawyers, and U.S. News-Best Lawyers. She formerly served on Goodwin's Executive Committee, as chair of its Attorney Review Committee, and as a member of the Partnership and Allocations Committees. Presently, she serves as a member of the Women's Initiative and the firm's Amplify program, focused on the advancement of diverse attorneys and attorneys of color.

Admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts, Minta splits her time between the firm’s New York and Boston offices.

Minta's recent experience includes representing:

• An institutional investor in connection with the acquisition of a $3b single family rental platform, financed with three lines of credit from large investment banks and a programmatic growth joint venture with the property operator
• An institutional investor and developer partner in connection with the acquisition, development and $700 million financing of a 1.1 million-square-foot office building in New York City
• A privately held real estate owner and investor in connection with a large programmatic joint venture to invest in the hospitality and leisure space in the US, Europe, and APAC
• A seed stage proptech start-up in connection with its seed and Series A capital raises
• An institutional real estate investor in connection with its technology purchase and portfolio distribution activities
• An institutional investor in connection with development of a $700m program and joint venture to build and own student housing assets across the US
• A growth stage proptech company in connection with its Series C and structuring and implementation of its propco/opco structure broadening its attractiveness to a wider group of potential investors
• A real estate fund in connection with the contested restructuring of several tiers of mortgage and mezzanine debt and equity capitalization on a 20-property US hotel portfolio
• An institutional investor and developer in connection with a multi-phase mixed use development of a brownsfield area in Nashville
• A real estate investment manager in connection with a 50/50 equity up front joint venture with a publicly traded foreign company on a ground up residential and retail development project in Boston
• A venture between an investment advisor and publicly traded REIT in connection with the acquisition and ultimate enforcement of junior tranche mezzanine debt, potential bankruptcy of the borrowers and successful conversion of the junior debt into, and recapitalization of, equity ownership in a portfolio of 28 US hotels
• An institutional investor in connection with its investment in commingled and single account proptech funds and companies
• A single client insurance company separate account in connection with a joint venture to develop a two phase multi-family project in Washington DC
• An owner/operator in connection with the recapitalization of a hotel, modification of existing senior and junior debt, modification of hotel management arrangements, modification of union contracts and admission of new equity
• A majority equity owner in connection with the sale of its interest in a Manhattan office building to a private fund entering into a new joint venture with the minority JV member
• A real estate opportunity fund in connection with the establishment of a joint venture with a hotel developer and operator to redevelop and operate an historic hotel in South Beach

Minta currently serves on the CREtech Leadership Board, which brings together the leaders in real estate technology. She also serves on the Urban Land Institute’s Global Exchange Council as well as on its Women’s Leadership Initiative. In addition, Minta is a past vice-chair of the ABA Real Property and Probate Section Committee on Legal Opinions.

Minta is responsible for developing the dedicated client team approach employed by Goodwin’s Real Estate Investment Management practice on behalf of its clients, and she runs the largest of the firm’s real estate investment client teams. Prior to joining Goodwin Procter, she was an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton.

Minta has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America Best Lawyers for her work in Real Estate Law 2022. 

Minta was a recommended lawyer for Real Estate and Private Equity Funds (including Venture Capital) by The Legal 500 in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

In addition to her annual inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, U.S. News-Best Lawyers, and Super Lawyers, Minta has been nominated annually to serve as a mentor in the CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Executive Mentoring Program – “Bridging the C Suite Gap” and was recognized in Real Estate Forum’s Women of Influence 25^th Anniversary Edition. Minta is also a member of ACREL (The American College of Real Estate Lawyers), a premier organization of U.S. real estate lawyers.

Minta’s recent speaking engagements and article publications include: 

• "Meet the top 10 proptech lawyers minting big deals and helping real-estate startups raise cash," Business Insider, January 2022
• “'We should be prepared for a new normal': 3 real estate experts on how the coronavirus is transforming offices and accelerating the rise of industrial property,” panelist in Business Insider webcast and post-event article, April 2020
• Moderator, “New Perspectives on Venture Capital,” CREtech NYC Conference, October 2019
• “The Biggest Forces Driving the PropTech Movement: Real Estate is Preparing Now,” New York Real Estate Journal Article, February 2019
• “The Law of PropTech,” Real Estate Is Your Business Podcast, September 2018
• “Global Law Firm Goodwin Launches PropTech Practice,” Cheddar Video Interview, October 2018
• “The Future, Now,” Commercial Investment Real Estate Article, July 2018
• “Impact of Retail Turbulence on Real Estate,” Bloomberg Radio Interview, January 2018
• Moderator, “New Construction Financing,” Hotel Equity & Lender Perspectives Conference, April 2014
• Speaker “JV Structures, Negotiation Points & Operating Agreements: Are GP’s Again Dictating Terms?,” IMN Real Estate Opportunity & Private Fund Investing Forum, May 2013
• “Joint Ventures: New Wrinkles in the Operator/Finance Partner Model,” IMN Real Estate Opportunity & Private Fund Investing Forum, May 2012
• Presenter, “Loan Sale & Structured Finance Opportunities,” Eastdil Secured Conference, January 2010
• Moderator, “The Financial Crisis and its Implication on the Real Estate Debt Markets,” Goodwin Procter/Columbia Business School RECM Conference, January 2010
• A series of industry seminars on “Distressed Debt Opportunities”, 2009

Minta has also served as a speaker for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and as a member of its Real Estate Curriculum Advisory Committee.