Environmental
Verified Update
Filed
The City of San Antonio sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in federal court in San Antonio on October 13, 2026 (Case No. 5:26-cv-06542). The city wants to stop federal plans to turn a nearly 640,000-square-foot industrial warehouse on the city's East Side into a detention and processing center for up to 1,500 people. The city argues that the agencies have not done the environmental review the National Environmental Policy Act requires. It asks the court to bar further development until that review is complete.
Injunctive relief; warehouse bought for $66.1 million
Oct 13, 2026
U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 13, 2026, the Appellate Division, First Department unanimously affirmed a $1,216,177.36 jury judgment for a preschool operator, Ordinary Faces LLC, and its founder against their landlord, Bohemian Brethren Presbyterian Church. The jury found the church breached lease provisions requiring it to cooperate in obtaining city approvals and to act diligently on a fire alarm system, which kept the tenant from getting the Department of Buildings sign-off it needed to run the school. The court upheld the lost-profits award, held a rent abatement was not the tenant's only remedy, and ruled that a landlord-liability cap did not bar recovery after the church sold the building.
$1,216,177.36 judgment
Oct 13, 2026
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 13, 2026, the Court of Appeals of Virginia affirmed the dismissal of Recycled Properties, LLC's challenge to the City of Chesapeake's refusal to approve a site plan for a warehouse and office building at its construction-debris landfill. The city had found the buildings would expand a legally nonconforming use and asked for more information and a conditional use permit. The court held the owner's complaint, read with the city's denial letter attached to it, did not plead facts showing the denial was arbitrary or outside the zoning ordinance.
Site plan approval; statutory damages claim dismissed
Oct 13, 2026
Court of Appeals of Virginia
Eminent Domain
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 13, 2026, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a McKean County order enforcing a settlement between the City of Bradford and property owner DewBoi Properties, LLC over the city's taking of 374 square feet of an alley behind DewBoi's property for a new bus station. The owner had accepted $30,000 and the city's promise to relocate two utility poles, then balked when one pole was to be moved elsewhere on its lot, citing lost parking for its tenants and their customers. The court held the signed agreement unambiguously allowed relocation onto DewBoi's property and rejected the owner's mutual mistake defense.
$30,000 condemnation settlement
Oct 13, 2026
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 12, 2026, a California Court of Appeal panel affirmed a judgment for cannabis retailer TGS CC Ventures, LLC and its parent and lease guarantor Jushi, Inc. in a suit by developer Pacific Collective, LLC over a 15-year build-to-suit lease for a dispensary at 3800 Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City. The court held that the lease implicitly required Pacific to buy the land from ExxonMobil within a reasonable time, and that substantial evidence supported the referee's finding that its delay justified TGS's February 2020 rescission. Pacific had alleged damages of more than $20 million against the tenant and guarantor.
Damages alleged to exceed $20 million; $4.2 million land purchase
Oct 12, 2026
California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Filed
AZ 175th Street LLC, which owns a mixed-use building at 91-10/91-14 175th Street in Jamaica, Queens, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition in the Eastern District of New York on October 10, 2026 (Case No. 26-44763). The petition reports about $14 million in assets and $12.6 million in liabilities. It is the owner's second Chapter 11 case: the first, filed in May 2025 as a single-asset real estate case, was dismissed in October 2025 on the secured creditor's motion, and the order barred the debtor from filing again for 180 days.
$12.6 million in reported liabilities against $14 million in reported assets
Oct 10, 2026
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Filed
Merchants Bank of Indiana has filed a foreclosure complaint, reported on October 10, 2026 as filed earlier in October, in Cook County Circuit Court against borrower GRV Jackson Park LLC, seeking to foreclose on three apartment buildings in Chicago's South Shore and Jackson Park areas. The suit covers two loan facilities totaling $6.4 million made in June 2024, on which the borrower allegedly stopped making monthly payments in March 2025. The complaint also names the venture's two principals under their unconditional guaranties and seeks to hold them liable for any deficiency.
$6.4 million in two loan facilities
Oct 10, 2026
Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois
Premises Liability
Verified Update
Filed
Microsoft sued JLL in Manhattan state court, alleging the real estate services firm broke its promise to defend and indemnify Microsoft against lawsuits arising from the build-out of its office at 122 Fifth Avenue and to name Microsoft as an insured under JLL's $10 million liability policy. The suit stems from a worker's personal-injury case over a March 2023 forklift accident during the build-out, to which Microsoft was added as a defendant in 2025.
Defense costs and indemnity; $10M liability policy at issue
Oct 9, 2026
New York Supreme Court, New York County
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 9, 2026, New York's Appellate Division, Fourth Department unanimously affirmed an Erie County damages judgment in a commercial mortgage foreclosure brought by the trustee of the JPMBB Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust 2014-C24, acting through special servicer LNR Partners, LLC, against borrower Stradtman Park, LLC. The trust had asked for roughly $588,000 in attorneys' fees and got $250,000, and it was refused note-rate interest of $120,882.59 on top of $583,938.25 in default-rate interest. The appellate panel found both rulings supported by a fair interpretation of the evidence.
$3.6 million CMBS loan; $588,000 fee request cut to $250,000
Oct 9, 2026
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Pending
On October 9, 2026, Starwood Mortgage Capital LLC removed to Manhattan federal court a suit by the trustee of the BMO 2024-5C5 CMBS trust. The trust says Starwood sold it a $46.85 million loan on two Harris County, Texas properties, The Pointe and Oak Shadows, that was never a first lien. A previously recorded $27.6 million deed of trust held by Thistle Creek Partners, LP was allegedly foreclosed, wiping out the trust's collateral. The trust wants Starwood to repurchase the loan or pay at least the repurchase price.
$46.85 million mortgage loan
Oct 9, 2026
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (removed from New York Supreme Court, New York County)
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 9, 2026, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the denial of a use variance sought by Hetley Associates, owner of the Hetley Plaza strip shopping center in Lemoyne Borough. The owner wanted to demolish three houses it owns in the borough's Urban Residential District and replace them with parking for the center, which has fewer spaces than its commercial zoning requires. The court held that the claimed hardship belonged to the separate commercial parcel and to the owner, not to the residential lots that needed the variance. That failure alone defeated the request.
Use variance to demolish three houses and build a parking lot (no dollar figure at stake)
Oct 9, 2026
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 9, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel ruled on a fee dispute that followed the bankruptcy sale of a San Francisco assisted-living and memory-care facility. Lender Lenox Mortgage IX LLC had demanded $419,266.94 in attorneys' fees on top of its payoff. The panel agreed with the bankruptcy court that the old HUD-era loan documents did not allow Lenox to recover fees from the earlier defaults and state-court litigation. It reversed as to the fees Lenox incurred in the bankruptcy case itself and the payoff fight, and it vacated the borrower's prevailing-party fee award for reconsideration.
$419,266.94 in disputed lender attorneys' fees on a $19.8 million payoff demand
Oct 9, 2026
U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit (appeal from U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California)
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Filed
Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as trustee for the GSMS 2013-PEMB CMBS trust, sued Pembroke Lakes Mall LLC in Broward County Circuit Court to foreclose on the roughly 750,000-square-foot Pembroke Pines, Florida mall owned by Brookfield's BGRE platform, after the $260 million loan matured unpaid on March 1, 2025. Deutsche Bank says the borrower now owes approximately $263.8 million as of September 1, 2026, and is separately asking the court to immediately appoint Carmen Spinoso of Spinoso Real Estate Group as receiver over the property.
$263.8M owed (principal, interest, and default interest) on a $260M loan
Oct 8, 2026
Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Florida
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Filed
Quantum Maryland LLC, the Catellus-managed master developer of the Frederick Digital Campus on the former Alcoa Eastalco smelter site near Adamstown, sued Frederick County, its Planning Commission and the county executive in Frederick County Circuit Court. The suit (Case No. C10CV26000874) challenges an executive-order freeze on new data center and substation applications that has now been extended to July 1, 2027. The developer asks the court to void the moratorium, let its applications proceed and award damages.
Injunctive relief and damages; developer says a $500M+ land deal was derailed
Oct 8, 2026
Circuit Court for Frederick County, Maryland
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 8, 2026, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a Court of Chancery judgment holding that HREF Senior Worthington LLC is now the sole manager of the holding company that controls a 117-bed assisted-living facility in Conroe, Texas. The Supreme Court issued a short order adopting the reasons in the Chancery memorandum opinion of January 12, 2026. That opinion found that HREF's contractual step-in right had been triggered when the holding company stopped making monthly payments on HREF's $4.5 million investment. The sponsor-side entities had argued that HUD approval rules on the project's mortgage-insured loan blocked the change of control. The courts rejected that argument.
$4.5 million preferred-equity investment; control of the project's holding company
Oct 8, 2026
Delaware Supreme Court (appeal from the Delaware Court of Chancery)
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Filed
Silver Fox 606 LLC, which owns 606 acres zoned Heavy Industrial in Indiantown, Florida, filed a complaint and verified petition for a writ of prohibition in Martin County circuit court on October 7, 2026. The suit names the Village of Indiantown, its village council and its Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board. The developer says the village is improperly trying to undo a plat for its data center project that was administratively approved and recorded. It asks the court to bar the zoning board from hearing a citizen appeal of the plat. It also seeks declarations that the plat is final, and it raises a Sunshine Law claim against the council.
Declaratory and injunctive relief and a writ of prohibition; developer says it has spent more than $25 million on the project
Oct 7, 2026
Florida Circuit Court, Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, Martin County
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
A Sixth Circuit panel affirmed a judgment for Trustees Main/270, LLC, owner of a Columbus, Ohio shopping center, against its former big-box tenant ApplianceSmart, Inc. and the lease guarantor JanOne, Inc. The defendants argued the landlord had failed to mitigate its damages by turning down two replacement tenants that the guarantor and an affiliated company had proposed. The court held that Ohio law does not make a commercial landlord deal with replacement tenants that carry an undue risk of another default, and that the landlord's multi-year search, which ended in an AutoZone lease, was a reasonable effort to mitigate.
Unpaid rent and reletting damages under a big-box retail lease and guaranty (amount not stated in the opinion)
Oct 7, 2026
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (on appeal from the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio)
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 7, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel affirmed a bankruptcy court order that retroactively annulled the automatic stay. The order validated nine nonjudicial foreclosure sales that Enterprise Bank and Trust held on October 15, 2025 for Laguna Beach properties owned by ten single-asset entities. Involuntary Chapter 11 petitions had been filed against the owners minutes before the sales began. A prospective bidder appealed, arguing all the sales should be re-noticed. The panel found no abuse of discretion, given the bankruptcy court's finding that the filings were made in bad faith.
Roughly $80 million first-lien debt on ten Laguna Beach properties
Oct 7, 2026
U.S. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit (appeal from U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California)
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
The Bayamón Court of First Instance dismissed, with prejudice, a lawsuit by DBR Dorado Owner LLC seeking to halt construction of the 171-room Casa Dorado hotel, a Tapestry Collection by Hilton project developed by The Dawn Hotel at Dorado LLC. DBR had argued the project violated land-use restrictions barring lodging facilities and buildings over two stories, but the court found DBR had known of the development since 2020 and waited more than five years to challenge it.
$48 million development at stake
Oct 6, 2026
Bayamón Court of First Instance, Puerto Rico
Zoning & Land Use
Verified Update
Filed
Affiliates of Denver-based Broe Cos. that own the roughly 3,000-acre Great Western Industrial Park filed a 24-page complaint in Weld District Court (Case No. 2026CV31187) on October 6, 2026. They ask the court to review and reverse the Weld County commissioners' September approval of a use-by-special-review permit for GlobalAI Cloud Inc.'s data center on the 438-acre former Carestream Health property. The suit alleges improper commissioner intervention, rule changes tailored to the project, open-meetings violations and unenforced stop-work orders.
Judicial review and reversal of land-use approval
Oct 6, 2026
District Court, Weld County, Colorado
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Filed
Southbridge Associates LLC, which owns the 203-room Wellsworth Hotel and conference center complex at 14 Mechanic Street in Southbridge, Massachusetts, filed a Chapter 11 petition on October 6, 2026. The filing came one day before October 7 foreclosure auctions of the hotel site and the on-site power plant equipment that had been scheduled on behalf of lender X-Caliber Rural Capital, which made a $13.25 million loan on the property in 2022. A cash collateral motion was docketed on October 8, and an affiliate, Southbridge Associates II LLC, had already filed its own Chapter 11 case on September 21.
$13.25 million hotel loan
Oct 6, 2026
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Massachusetts
Lending & Foreclosure
Verified Update
Filed
Travis Property Owner LLC, a single-asset real estate entity that owns The Travis apartment community at 900 Gordon Heights Lane in Lakewood Village, Texas, filed a Chapter 11 petition minutes after midnight on October 6, 2026. Law360 reported that the debtor listed more than $50 million in debt, and the petition puts both assets and liabilities in the $50 million to $100 million range. Acore Capital Mortgage, L.P. appeared as a creditor the same day (a 2022 trade report says ACORE Capital financed the property's purchase with a $73.4 million loan), and a cash collateral motion and request for an expedited hearing were docketed on October 8.
More than $50 million in debt; $73.4 million acquisition loan (2022)
Oct 6, 2026
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 6, 2026, Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the Young Men's Christian Association of Central Ohio in a suit by landlord Long Street Associates, LLP over the YMCA's 2020 termination of its lease at 31-55 West Long Street in Columbus. The lease let the tenant walk away once if the construction budget for its improvements exceeded a fixed threshold of roughly $523,100, and the budget delivered came to $1,036,697.38. The court held the landlord's own complaint admitted the final plans were agreed and the budget was the one the lease contemplated, and that an oral offer to absorb the overage could not defeat the termination right.
$1.04 million tenant-improvement budget vs. ~$523,100 termination threshold
Oct 6, 2026
Ohio Court of Appeals, Tenth Appellate District
Commercial Lease Disputes
Verified Update
Ruling Issued
On October 6, 2026, New York's Appellate Division, First Department unanimously affirmed the dismissal of a commercial tenant's suit against its landlord, ESRT Empire State Building LLC. The court held that H. Roske & Associates LLP had expressly waived constructive eviction rights in its lease, and that even without the waiver its pleadings did not show the substantial loss of use the claim requires. Its breach-of-lease claim also failed because it identified no lease provision that was breached.
Dismissal affirmed
Oct 6, 2026
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department
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