Alex H. Rosenthal is a partner in the Real Estate group at the law firm A.Y. Strauss, where he leads the firm’s Data Centers & Digital Infrastructure group. He has more than ten years of experience in in commercial real estate transactions, including data center acquisitions and leasing, commercial leasing, portfolio acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, land banking, and real estate financings.

Data Centers & Digital Infrastructure

As leader of the Data Centers & Digital Infrastructure group at A.Y. Strauss, Alex advises AI cloud providers, developers, operators, institutional investors, and equity sponsors across the full data center deal cycle, including acquisitions, dispositions, development, financing, and leasing. He directs transaction strategy and structuring and oversees multidisciplinary due diligence covering power and energy, real estate, environmental, land use and zoning, and regulatory matters; and has played a key role in more than $5 billion of data center and colocation leasing and related transactions.

Commercial Real Estate Practice

Alex’s commercial real estate practice covers commercial leasing, portfolio acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, and related financings. He works across all major asset classes: office, retail, residential, industrial, hospitality, and data centers. His clients include institutional investors, equity sponsors, sovereign wealth funds, investment firms, and growing national businesses.

He also handles land banking transactions, helping clients secure strategic land positions across the United States.

Prior Experience

Before joining A.Y. Strauss, Alex Rosenthal practiced at international and national law firms. Some of his notable matters include an $8 billion joint venture for the Manhattan West mixed-use development in New York’s Hudson Yards District and the acquisition of more than 1,000 model homes across 27 states for a global investment firm, including leaseback structuring and ongoing portfolio management. He has also represented retail and technology companies in headquarters acquisitions, dispositions, sale-leasebacks, ground leases, and space leases nationwide.

Representative Matters

• Advised a global investment firm on the acquisition of more than 1,000 model homes across 27 states, including leaseback structuring and ongoing portfolio management.
• Represented a hedge fund-backed, quantitative real estate firm in the acquisition and financing of a portfolio of large manufactured housing parks in Texas, Alabama, and Georgia.
• Represented a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in the acquisition of a research and development facility.
• Represented the leading U.S. public-private community development company in amending and expanding its operative documents for the leasing, acquisition, development, and financing of housing on dozens of U.S. Army bases.
• Represented a sovereign wealth fund in its $8 billion joint venture with Brookfield to develop Manhattan West, a five-acre project in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards District with 7 million square feet of office space in three buildings, plus residential, hotel, retail, and open space.
• Represented a national bedding and home goods company in retail and office leases in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Santa Monica, Portland, and Washington, D.C.
• Represented private placement noteholders and designated lenders on real estate matters in the financing of the $2.8 billion acquisition of Skyway Concession Company, which operates the Chicago Skyway toll road under a 99-year public-private partnership lease with the City of Chicago.
• Represented a major U.S. financial institution, as administrative agent and lead arranger, on $750 million in senior unsecured bridge financing commitments for Government Properties Income Trust’s $1.4 billion acquisition of First Potomac Realty Trust.
• Represented Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a Thailand-based global chemical company, on the real estate components of its $2.1 billion acquisition of chemical businesses from Huntsman Corporation.
• Represented a real estate fund manager on New York City property asset management matters, including retail, parking, and office leases, sales, and property management agreements.

Publications/Presentations

• Real Estate Joint Ventures & Promote Crystallization: Mechanics, Presented by Strafford, October 31, 2023, (webinar)
• Environmental Justice Implications for Brownfield Redevelopment, Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast – Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop, September 13, 2022
• What Does A Business Tenant Really Care About?, National Law Institute CLE, October 13, 2022
• Contraction Rights in NYC Commercial Leasing: Surveying the Post-COVID Landscape, Law360, August, 2022
• Why the Federal Government Should Act to Create a New Action Insurance Program, National Real Estate Investor, June 2020
• Associate Editor, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

Honors, Awards, & Recognitions

• Super Lawyers® Rising Stars: Real Estate, 2024

Professional and Civic Activities

• New York State Bar Association, Member
• New Jersey State Bar Association, Member
• New York City Bar, Member
• Real Estate Board of New York, Member
• Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, Member