John Lisy is of counsel in the firm's Real Estate practice, based in Charlotte. He represents institutional investors, developers, operators and major corporate occupiers in acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, development, financing, preferred equity and leasing across a broad range of commercial real estate asset classes. John brings particular depth in data center development, headquarters and large-format leasing, complex ground lease structures, and sporting and entertainment venue projects — areas where specialized infrastructure, entitlement and regulatory challenges demand counsel with both transactional sophistication and sector-specific fluency.

John advises clients throughout the full life cycle of their real estate investments, from structuring joint ventures and negotiating acquisition and disposition agreements to navigating development projects and the complex financing, entitlement and operational issues that arise along the way. His leasing practice spans both landlord and tenant representation, and he regularly structures real estate capital stacks involving construction and permanent debt, mezzanine financing, preferred equity and programmatic joint venture equity.

John represents data center owners, developers and operators in the ground-up development of mission-critical facilities across major U.S. power markets. He leads all real estate aspects of data center development — from site acquisition and land assemblage through entitlement, construction and lease-up — advising owners on site selection driven by substation proximity, utility capacity, fiber density and jurisdictional incentive packages. He structures powered shell and colocation leases from the landlord's perspective, negotiating per-kilowatt rent structures, mechanical efficiency commitments and tenant improvement frameworks calibrated to the specialized buildout requirements of hyperscale and enterprise tenants. His development work encompasses dedicated substation and utility service agreements, redundant power design specifications incorporated into shell delivery conditions, as well as dark fiber and connectivity easement programs. He also guides clients through the distinctive entitlement challenges of data center campuses — including noise compliance, water use permitting and community engagement strategies that differ significantly from standard industrial approvals.

John represents leading technology and automotive companies in the negotiation of headquarters leases, including multi-building campus transactions with complex expansion rights, contraction options and built-to-spec improvements for laboratory, R&D and advanced manufacturing uses. He advises corporate occupiers on build-to-suit development agreements, construction management overlays and phased occupancy structures, as well as landlords positioning trophy and Class A assets for anchor tenant commitments involving naming rights, exclusive signage and priority amenity access.

John has also advised organizing committees, host cities and private developers on the real estate infrastructure underlying global sporting events — including site assembly, venue development agreements, temporary-use licenses, overlay permits and post-event legacy conversion strategies for FIFA World Cup and Olympic facilities. He has also structured public-private transactions for professional sports stadiums, including ground lease and land disposition agreements with municipal authorities, special district arrangements, community benefits agreements, naming rights accommodations and ancillary mixed-use development parcels surrounding the venue.

In the ground lease space, John represents institutional investors and operating partners in the acquisition and recapitalization of ground-leased assets, negotiating leasehold mortgage recognition agreements, estoppels, SNDA structures and lease modifications necessary to accommodate new capital stacks — including bifurcation of fee and leasehold interests to facilitate separate financing of each position. He structures ground leases for major mixed-use, residential and commercial developments, drafting provisions addressing phased delivery of development parcels, vertical subdivision of air rights, condominium overlay regimes and allocation of development costs between fee owner and ground lessee across multi-phase, multi-decade construction timelines.

• Notre Dame Law School, J.D. (cum laude), 2014
• Wake Forest University, B.A. (cum laude), 2011