Bio
Brian Lipson is a seasoned real estate executive and attorney with deep experience spanning land use, entitlements, commercial development, and complex real estate transactions across major U.S. markets. Trained as both a lawyer and a city planner, Brian brings a dual-disciplinary perspective that enables him to navigate legal, political, financial, and design considerations in a wide range of projects.
Brian began his career as a Real Estate and Land Use associate in Los Angeles, where he handled entitlement strategy, zoning matters, environmental review, and development-related negotiations on behalf of institutional and private developer clients. Over the course of his subsequent 30-year career as a senior real estate executive—including leadership roles at Trizec Properties, Maguire Properties, Rubenstein Partners, and his own firm, TriCoastal Group—he has continued to work at the intersection of law, planning, and real estate economics.
He has led or advised on more than $10 billion in transactions involving office, mixed-use, industrial, residential, and urban infill redevelopment projects. His land use and entitlement work includes major rezonings, variances, creative adaptive-reuse strategies, ground lease restructurings, perfecting entitlements and multifaceted redevelopment approvals, including
- Redevelopment entitlements for the 6-acre former Children’s Hospital site in Chicago, resulting in a multi-building mixed-use community with two residential towers;
- Variance, zoning, and redevelopment strategy for multiple historic and adaptive-reuse office projects in Minneapolis and New York;
- Comprehensive feasibility and planning analysis for high-density infill sites involving multifamily, retail, and institutional uses;
- Structuring public-private elements of large-scale projects including transit-adjacent and waterfront developments.
Brian is known for blending legal insight with practical deal execution, often serving as the key problem-solver on matters involving distressed assets, complex ownership structures, entitlement challenges, or highly regulated urban sites. His background working directly with industry noted industry leaders including Sam Zell, shaped his approach to sophisticated negotiation, strategic capital deployment, and risk management—skills that directly complement a land-use-focused legal practice.
