Cookie/Privacy Notice

bio-portrait
Contact

(212) 692-5988

jmillett@dsllp.com

vcard

Education

    • Duke University School of Law (J.D./LL.M, 2006)
    • Johns Hopkins University (B.A., cum laude, 2000)

Practice Groups

Jessica Millett

Partner

Jessica Millett is chair of Duval & Stachenfeld’s Tax Practice Group.  She has particular expertise in U.S. tax issues that arise in complex real estate transactions, notably cross-border investments and Qualified Opportunity Fund structures. She regularly advises clients on tax structuring and documentation for real estate acquisitions, joint ventures, restructurings and refinancing arrangements, including inbound and outbound investments, and structures involving REITs.

 

Ms. Millett’s practice also includes advising on tax-efficient structures for cross-border finance transactions, including U.S. and international securities offerings (debt and equity), private placements and private equity transactions.  She regularly represents sponsors and managers of, and institutional investors in, private investment funds including real estate, distressed debt, and hedge funds.  Ms. Millett also has extensive experience advising financial institutions on a variety of tax and compliance issues including U.S. withholding and information reporting rules, and tax treaty planning.

 

Ms. Millett’s recent, notable transactions include advising:

  • Represented Almanac Realty Investors, a business unit of Neuberger Berman, in its commitment to provide up to $500 million to Storage Post, one of the country’s leading self-storage owner and operators. Structured the investment to accommodate Almanac’s investment through a REIT and to ensure tax efficiencies given Storage Post’s historical ownership of the assets. 

  • Advised Roundhouse Group Inc., an Idaho-based developer and operator of multifamily housing, on two major opportunity zone projects: an 11-acre site that will be developed into a 268-unit garden-style community in Montana and a new 240-unit multifamily community in Meridian, Idaho. Both Roundhouse and its capital partner invested in the deal through qualified opportunity funds, so the joint venture agreements were each negotiated as qualified opportunity zone businesses. 

  • Represented a self-storage operator based in the Southeast on a recapitalization of a $500m portfolio of self-storage properties with a large institutional real estate investment trust. The transaction was structured in a manner that allowed the principals to roll their investment in a tax-efficient manner and certain properties were sold in a 1031 transaction so historical investors were able to exit via a tax-free exchange. 

  • Advised Halpern Real Estate Ventures on the first closing of its qualified opportunity fund – a unique deal in that it was the first sponsor capital fund to solely target opportunity zone investments. Structured both the fund level, as well as the investments in properties located in opportunity zones. To date, the fund has invested in three projects: a mixed-use project in Denver, a multifamily residential complex in Jersey City, and an urban development in Philadelphia.

  • Represented a real estate investment professional in the creation of a GP sponsor and management platform, with first-round investment from a large international equity company, targeting industrial assets in Florida.

  • Represented Savanna Asset Management on a $264 million development of an office building located at 141 Willoughby Street in Brooklyn, New York. Advised on structuring the project in compliance with the opportunity zone program, including the formation of a qualified opportunity fund to indirectly invest over $100m as part of the capital stack, as well as both a mortgage and mezzanine construction loan for the development. 

  • Represented a developer on structuring a multifamily apartment project in Jersey City, New Jersey consisting of approximately 250,000 net rentable square feet with approximately 386 market-rate apartment units and approximately 51 parking spaces.  Advised on tax considerations relating to historic 1031 structure, as well as restructuring to accommodate an investment by a new partner through a qualified opportunity fund.  

  • Represented a Florida-based real estate development company on structuring a $50m qualified opportunity fund as part of the capital stack for a hotel and condo development in Tampa, Florida. 

 

Ms. Millett is Chair of the Subcommittee for Foreign Investors of the ABA Tax Section Real Estate Committee.

 

She also serves as Co-Chair of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee having initiated pro bono relationships with several organizations to assist clients in U-Visa applications and asylum applications.

 

Prior to joining the Firm in 2012, Ms. Millett was an associate at Linklaters LLP where she practiced since 2006.  Ms. Millett received her B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 2000, and her J.D. and LL.M. (International and Comparative Law) from Duke University School of Law in 2006, where she was a member of the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law. Ms. Millett is admitted to practice only in New York.

 

Recognitions:

  •      Listed, Top 25 Opportunity Zone Influencers, Opportunity Zone Magazine (2022)

  •      Listed, Top 25 Opportunity Zone Influencers, Opportunity Zone Magazine (2021)

  • Real Estate Weekly's Leading Lady List. 2019

  • Listed, Real Estate Weekly Rising Star 2019

  • Listed, Top 25 Opportunity Zone Influencers, Opportunity Zone Magazine (2019)

  • Listed, Top 50 People Shaping the Future of Opportunity Zones

  • Listed, CRAIN's 100 Leading Women Lawyers in New York City, 2018

  • Super Lawyers: New York Metro Rising Star: 2017

  • Listed, The Best Lawyers in America (2019, 2022)

 

Publications:

 

Media Coverage

 

 

Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett Jessica Millett

Neither the content on this web site nor any transmissions between you and Duval & Stachenfeld LLP through this web site are intended to provide legal or other advice or to create an attorney-client relationship.In communicating with us through this web site, you should not provide any confidential information to us concerning any potential or actual legal matter you may have. Before providing any such information to us, you must obtain approval to do so from one of our lawyers.

By clicking "ACCEPT" below (and thereby choosing to communicate with us without such prior approval), you understand and agree that Duval & Stachenfeld LLP will have no duty to keep confidential any information you provide.

Accept