
Bio
Ms. Olson advises on real estate investment trust (REIT) formation, structuring and related transactions, financings, portfolio and single-asset acquisitions and dispositions, joint venture transactions, private equity investment, real estate fund formation and investment, leasing, distressed asset workouts and reorganizations, and real property development. She is a member of the firm’s REIT Group.
Ms. Olson represents both lenders and borrowers in connection with her real estate finance practice. She advises clients with respect to secured and unsecured loans, lines of credit and construction loan facilities, including for REITs and other clients owning and leasing office properties, industrial properties, hotels and resorts, shopping centers, and residential and mixed-use properties, and has extensive experience advising lenders and borrowers in connection with debt restructuring transactions in and out of bankruptcy. Ms. Olson also represents numerous investors with respect to real property acquisitions and dispositions and U.S. and international private real estate fund, partnership and joint venture investments, and real estate funds in connection with their formation and financing transactions.
Ms. Olson has represented various clients on significant transactions, including:
- investors in connection with (i) an $8.1 billion joint venture for the acquisition and ownership of industrial facilities; (ii) an approximately $2 billion joint venture to acquire and own rental homes; (iii) an approximately $300 million joint venture to develop and operate purpose-built, for-rent multifamily buildings across Mexico’s largest cities; (iv) the acquisition of a portfolio of Class A office assets in California, including the negotiation of a purchase agreement, acquisition loan and construction agreements; (v) a joint venture focused on investing in private-pay independent living, assisted living and memory care communities; (vi) programmatic joint ventures for the purpose of developing, acquiring and operating data centers as well as life sciences and technology real properties across the U.S.; (vii) a joint venture and the related acquisition of a 95 percent interest in a 50-story office tower in New York City; (viii) a $5.4 billion joint venture for the ownership of a portfolio of regional malls throughout the United States; and (ix) a joint venture for investment in student housing opportunities in the U.S.;
- Brookdale Senior Living Inc. in its $2.8 billion merger with Emeritus Corporation, its $1.2 billion opco/propco joint venture with HCP, Inc., and the restructuring of its leased portfolio with Ventas, Inc. and Welltower Inc.;
- New Senior Investment Group Inc. in its $725 million loan from Goldman Sachs and in various acquisitions, dispositions and financings of senior housing communities, including pursuant to a $1 billion sale/leaseback transaction and a $233 million opco/propco acquisition; and
- Holiday Retirement Corp. in its $1 billion sale of 29 senior housing communities and in its sale/leaseback of senior housing communities with New Senior, NHI and Sabra Health Care REIT, Inc.
Ms. Olson has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. She also was named Best in Real Estate at Euromoney’s 2020 Women in Business Law Americas Awards. Additionally, she has been repeatedly named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notable Gen X Leaders in Law, including in 2022. Crain’s also previously named her one of Chicago’s Notable Women Lawyers and one of the Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago. Ms. Olson also was named in IFLR1000 in 2019 and named as one of GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum’s 2020 Senior Housing Influencers.
Credentials
Education
- J.D., Loyola University School of Law, Chicago, 1996
- B.A., Northwestern University, 1993
Admissions
- Illinois