McLane Middleton is pleased to welcome attorney Melissa Rivers to the firm as a Director in the Real Estate Practice Group. Melissa represents developers, landlords, and tenants in the transactions that shape commercial real estate, with a particular focus on retail and mixed-use development and leasing.
Her experience spans the full life cycle of commercial real estate projects—from acquisitions, dispositions, financing, and development through leasing, construction, repositioning, and ongoing property operations.
Her practice is grounded in commercial leasing, with extensive experience negotiating retail, office, and industrial leases on behalf of both landlords and tenants. At the same time, her broader transactional experience allows her to understand how individual leasing decisions fit within the larger objectives of a development or investment. She handles the leases, easements, development agreements, construction agreements, purchase and sale agreements, and other documents that bring commercial real estate projects from concept through completion.
Whether representing a developer assembling and leasing a new mixed-use project, a landlord repositioning an existing retail or office property, or a tenant evaluating expansion and footprint opportunities, Melissa brings a practical, deal-focused approach to every transaction. Her broad perspective enables her to identify issues early, navigate the competing interests of developers, owners, tenants, lenders, and other stakeholders, and keep complex commercial real estate transactions moving toward a successful deal.
Her career also includes in-house roles with a national retailer, a publicly traded REIT, and a real estate development company, as well as a director position at another Am Law 200 firm, experience that shapes how she approaches the business considerations behind every transaction.