Abraham Leitner
Director
New York
aleitner@goulstonstorrs.com+1 212 878 5158Abraham Leitner
Director, New York
aleitner@goulstonstorrs.com+1 212 878 5158Related Expertise
Abraham “Abe” Leitner helps clients navigate high-stakes domestic and cross-border transactions, in the U.S. and abroad, including Canada, Europe, China, and the Middle East. Known for his creative, solutions-oriented approach, Abe advises funds, developers, REITs, and global investors on structuring deals, reducing tax exposure, and maximizing returns.
Clients—including real estate investment trusts, private equity funds, institutional investors, and other domestic and multinational real estate investors—turn to Abe for cross-border mergers and acquisitions, international joint ventures, private equity fund formations, tax structuring, and efficient exit strategies such as Section 1031 like-kind exchanges and other tax-deferred transactions. He is also widely known for his work with qualified opportunity zone funds, having advised real estate developers, investors, and lenders since the inception of the program. Across all of his work, Abe develops tax-optimized approaches to his clients' sophisticated commercial and real estate transactions.
Depth, perspective, and leadership
Applying deep tax experience and personalized attention, Abe is particularly experienced in advising foreign governments, insurance companies, hedge funds, assisted living providers, manufacturers, and high-net-worth individuals on their complex tax matters and investment strategies. He handles sophisticated domestic transactions alongside his extensive international work, including advising company sales to financial buyers, corporate spinoffs, student housing investments, affordable housing private equity funds, and debt restructuring matters for distressed assets. Abe serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Tax Group.
Related Representative Matters
A foreign pension fund investor in connection with its joint venture, commingled fund and club fund investments, and co-investments, in U.S. real estate, infrastructure and natural resources, including “anchor investor” positions in funds, programmatic joint ventures and single asset joint ventures.
A lead investor on a $250 million investment in a US timber fund structured as a timber REIT.
A foreign pension fund investor in connection with its majority equity investment in the Hines-sponsored South Station development project – a 1.9 million s.f. multi-phase, mixed-use project at Boston’s South Station intermodal transportation center.
A foreign pension fund investor in connection with a $300 million investment to acquire a GP stake in one of the largest real estate fund sponsors in North America.
A UK resident high net worth individual in connection with his emigration to the United States.
Owners of distressed shopping centers in connection with the workout of mortgage loans.
Owners of a portfolio of nursing home facilities in structuring a tax-efficient division of the portfolio between different groups of partners.
AXA IM Alts and its affiliates in one of the largest industrial portfolio acquisitions of 2020—a $875 million portfolio of 27 assets across major markets including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Dallas, South Florida, and Atlanta. The acquisition, completed through a joint venture with Cabot Properties via a share purchase of a Cabot-managed REIT, marked a significant milestone in AXA IM Alts’ strategy to expand its logistics platform. We advised on property diligence, structuring, joint venture, purchase, financing, tax and environmental considerations of the property, including tax and structuring issues relating to cross-border investments.
A syndicate of underwriters, led by two investment banks, on the $114 million initial public offering of WPT Industrial REIT—the only Canadian REIT exclusively focused on U.S. industrial assets.
A Boston-based mall developer in structuring a $150 million joint venture with a major Canadian pension fund, aligning long-term investment strategies in retail real estate
Canada's largest real estate investment trust in its $1.9 billion sale of a 49-property U.S. retail portfolio —spanning the Northeast and Texas—to Blackstone.
Canadian based Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) engaged in the ownership and management of predominantly industrial properties in North America and Europe in its conversion under a plan of arrangement to an international stapled-unit REIT with an initial (NYSE/TSX) market capitalization of $1.8B. This company was the first REIT to qualify as a REIT for Canadian income tax purposes while holding both a Canadian and international portfolio; and also the first to achieve flow-through treatment for its U.S. portfolio by electing to be a partnership for U.S. purposes and utilizing a U.S. private REIT.
A leading gold producer in connection with its $2.3B acquisition by Newmont Mining Corporation. The transaction was structured as a plan of arrangement providing for cash consideration and the spin off of shares of a new TSX-listed company holding exploration assets to the former shareholders of the client.
A privately-owned, Canadian real estate development company in connection with its long-term ground leases, bond financing, tax, and joint ventures across the United States and Canada. Our team helps this client with legal matters across many industries including real estate, multi-family, hospitality, retail, industrial, and product manufacturing.
Owner of the iconic Watergate 600 building in Washington, D.C., in connection with the contribution of the property to a partnership controlled by Washington REIT in exchange for $135M of consideration including units in the Washington REIT partnership
A Qatari investment firm in connection with its acquisition of a 161-room, full-service Club Quarters Hotel in Washington, D.C.’s Farragut Square.
A premier real estate investment management firm operating in Canada and the United States in its acquisition by Sun Life Financial Inc. for a purchase price of $560M.
A premier real estate investment management firm operating in Canada and the United States in its acquisition of Landon Butler & Co. and NewTower Trust Company, the investor relations and capital-raising firm and trustee of the Multi-Employer Property Trust, an open-end commingled real estate equity fund that invests in a diversified portfolio of institutional-quality real estate assets in the United States and has in excess of $6B in net asset value as of June 30, 2015.
The second largest REIT and the largest diversified REIT in Canada in connection with a bought deal financing pursuant to which it issued $262M aggregate principal amount of stapled units and convertible debentures.
Federal Realty Investment Trust in connection with the acquisition of and joint venture for a $345M portfolio of shopping centers in Los Angeles, California.
Consortium of South Korean investors in connection with structuring its $305 million acquisition of Novo Nordisk’s 762,000-square-foot North American headquarters in Plainsboro, New Jersey, marking the largest single-asset sales in New Jersey in 2016.
Tax-exempt investors investing in real estate properties across the US and advising on important tax and fractions rule considerations for such investors.
The second largest REIT and the largest diversified REIT in Canada in connection with a bought deal financing pursuant to which it issued $150M aggregate principal amount of stapled units.
The owner of an under-water shopping center owner in restructuring a loan that was in default and arranging for a new investor to be admitted and take control of the borrower in a manner that protected the borrower from adverse tax consequences.
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Accolades
- 2025 Lawdragon 500: Leading Global Tax Lawyers
- Tax Trailblazer, National Law Journal, 2023
- New York Metro Super Lawyers, 2013-2024
- Who's Who Legal, Corporate Tax - Advisory, 2022, 2023
Affiliations
- International Tax Institute
- Young IFA Network Committee, IFA USA Branch, Former Chair
- Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers Committee, Tax Section of the American Bar Association
- Inbound U.S. Activities of Foreign Taxpayers and Outbound Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers Committees, Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association
- International Fiscal Association
- Tax Club of New York City
Admissions
- New York
Education
New York University ( LL.M. , 2000 )
Columbia University School of Law ( J.D. , 1996 )
Touro College ( B.S. , summa cum laude , 1992 )