Kenneth A. Kecskes

Ken Kecskes has advised and represented clients in real estate and land use matters throughout California for nearly 30 years. His transactional experience includes complex acquisitions and dispositions, real estate secured and mezzanine debt financing, equity investments in real estate projects, and construction and leasing. His land use practice includes representing clients in land use due diligence and entitlement strategy, environmental review, pursuit of legislative changes to land use laws, and securing discretionary project approvals.

Ken's practice covers a wide variety of real estate product types, including residential and mixed use communities, port and logistics facilities, military base reuse projects, hotels and resorts, and retail, office, industrial, biotechnology, and high-technology uses. He has helped clients purchase, sell, and finance land, multifamily properties, office and industrial buildings, regional malls and retail centers, and logistics and industrial complexes.

Ken helps clients with the land use entitlement of complex, large-scale development projects. He has advised clients on California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance strategy, including the tailoring of project design features and mitigation measures to address the environmental impacts of development. His experience includes public-private partnership negotiations between local governments and project developers in statutory development agreements and disposition and development agreements. He has advised clients on general plan amendments, specific plans, port master plans, zoning changes, permitting, subdivision map processing, and exactions and impact fees. He consults clients on the use of public finance tools to fund large scale projects, such as tax increment financing, community facilities districts, infrastructure financing districts, county service areas, geologic hazard abatement districts, and assessment districts.

Ken advises clients on regulatory compliance matters involving their development projects, including laws stimulating housing development such as California’s Housing Accountability Act and Density Bonus Law, public trust lands matters involving the California State Lands Commission and California's port districts, and brownfields redevelopment matters involving US EPA Region 9, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the state’s regional water quality control boards. He has assisted clients with evaluating the impact of green building laws and climate change on development, including the development of a green development program for a large-scale master planned community.

Ken advises both public and private owners and developers of hotel properties. His experience includes acquisition and disposition of hotel properties, construction of leisure amenities (including marinas), environmental matters, alcoholic beverage licensing, restaurant leasing, parking and service contracts, and hotel management agreements. 

Ken provides strategic advice to international clients who have an interest in entering or deepening their investments in U.S. real estate opportunities. He has participated in economic missions with officials from the City and County of San Francisco sent to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong to stimulate interest in real estate investment in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has represented clients based in the United Kingdom and continental Europe with their in-bound investment in US real estate. His experience includes the structuring of transactions involving non-US entities and high net worth individuals and their investments in land, buildings, development projects, and real estate-related businesses.

Ken is a member of K&L Gates global Artificial Intelligence team with a focus on impacts on the real estate industry.