R. Davis Powell (Dave)

Dave Powell helps real estate investors structure and execute complex commercial real estate transactions. He advises institutional, private equity, and non-U.S. clients on real estate joint ventures, equity and debt investments, acquisitions, dispositions, financings, private REITs, and workouts across asset classes.

Dave works with real estate investors pursuing U.S. opportunities that require practical structuring, clear risk allocation, and coordinated execution across capital stacks, ownership vehicles, and operating partners. His recent work includes advising clients on programmatic and single-asset joint ventures, private REIT and partnership structures, asset and entity-level acquisitions and dispositions, borrower-side financings, development transactions, and commercial real estate loan workouts.

Clients look to Dave for help translating investment objectives into transaction structures that can withstand market complexity and support long-term business goals. He routinely structures and advises clients on joint venture programs around the country in a variety of asset classes.  He regularly helps institutional investors, private equity sponsors, REITs, overseas investors, lenders, and borrowers navigate negotiations involving governance, economics, financing, exit rights, development obligations, management arrangements, and distressed real estate issues.

Dave leads the Joint Venture Working Group for the Real Estate and Funds practice group.  This team focuses on the representation of equity investors in real estate, often through joint ventures, and includes acquisitions, dispositions, borrower-side financing, development, joint ventures, management and all aspects of asset level real estate transactions. 

Dave has been recognized as a leading practitioner in a number of industry journals.  A frequent panelist and speaker on real estate joint ventures, Dave is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and has been a Lecturer at Law at Columbia Law School.  He currently serves on the board of Urban Dove, a network of high schools serving under-credited high school students.