Ryan W. Sawyer

Ryan W. Sawyer is a counsel in the firm’s Business Law department and a member of its Hospitality and Leisure Group and the Real Estate Industry group. He joined Goodwin in 2014. Ryan advises on a variety of commercial real estate transactions, including joint venture formation, financings, development, restructurings, and asset-level and entity-level acquisitions and dispositions. He has experience working with institutional investment funds, public companies, real estate developers, and REITs.

Ryan’s recent experience includes representation of:

• A non-traded real estate investment trust in its $1.8 billion acquisition of Equity Inns Lodging Portfolio from affiliates of Whitehall Real Estate Funds. The portfolio included 116 hotels with a combined 13,744 rooms across 31 states. The acquisition established the REIT as one of the largest select-service hotel REITs in North America.
• A partnership in the sale of (1) the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes, (2) the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, including the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, and (3) the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, including the Wildfire Golf Club, for a purchase price of $1.245 billion.
• A real estate investment firm in multiple programmatic joint ventures (including investments in the underlying operating companies) for the acquisition, development, and operation of hotels in the United States and the Caribbean, including the creation of an OpCo/PropCo and co-GP structure.
• A real estate investment firm in the restructuring of a joint venture for the development and operation of a ski resort.
• An alternative asset management firm in the acquisition of multiple hotels and an investment into the operating company to develop a new hotel brand.
• A publicly traded REIT in the sale of a hotel in Key West, Florida for a purchase price of $94 million and the assignment of existing management agreements and franchise agreements.
• A joint venture in the acquisition and financing of 21 student housing apartment complexes for a purchase price of approximately $1.5 billion from a publicly traded real estate company. The financing consisted of multiple facilities which totaled approximately $700 million in new debt.
• An alternative asset management firm in its acquisition of 100% of the fee simple interests and 50% of the ground leasehold interests in a portfolio of 52 office properties. The portfolio consists of almost four million rentable square feet of office space in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina. The deal involved the bifurcation of the fee and ground leasehold estates, establishment of a new joint venture, and negotiating fee/leasehold/mezzanine financing documents ($350 million).
• An alternative asset management firm in a loan portfolio acquisition consisting of over 500 loans with an aggregate outstanding principal balance of almost $308 million. The loans are secured by mortgages in more than 20 different states.
• A publicly traded REIT in the UPREIT acquisition of the fee and leasehold interests in the 34-acre site located in Yonkers, New York for a purchase price of $51.7 million.
• A real estate investment trust with the closing of a $205 million CMBS financing secured by its leasehold interest in an 825-room hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.
• A real estate investment firm in its joint venture investment in (1) 10 Post Office Square, a 13-story office building located in Boston, Massachusetts and (2) certain shares in corporations which own the Post Office Square Parking Garage.
• A Delaware Statutory Trust in the sale of multifamily properties for over $270 million.
• An alternative asset management firm in the buyout of its joint venture partners in multiple logistics assets and the recapitalization and refinancing of such investments.
• A real estate private equity firm in its formation of a joint venture, acquisition of a property on South Wacker Drive in Chicago, Illinois for $155.25 million, and mortgage financing in the amount of $133.7 million.
• A publicly traded REIT with the closing of a $127.5 million CMBS financing.
• A global private equity investor in a $100 million subscription secured credit facility.
• A real estate private equity firm in its formation of a joint venture, acquisition of property in Brooklyn, New York ($46 million), and mortgage/redevelopment financing in the amount of $51 million.
• A multi-national construction, property, and infrastructure company in connection with its acquisition of a vacant parcel in East Boston, Massachusetts for the development of a mixed use complex (residential/retail/restaurant).
• A joint venture between publicly traded REITs with an $80 million mortgage loan to refinance a retail shopping center.

Ryan is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pawtucket, Rhode Island Boys and Girls Club. He is also a Member of the National Association of Development Companies and the Boston Bar Association.

Ryan has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America Ones to Watch for his work in Real Estate Law each year from 2021 - 2025.

Ryan was named to The Best Lawyers in America: Top Attorneys each year from 2023 - 2025.