James G. Benjamin

Of Counsel

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Biography
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  • Insights
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  • Community Involvement
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Jim Benjamin is a real estate and business attorney with Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe. Jim is well-known for his legal work in real estate, banking, and lending. In his practice, he works with developers, land owners, banking and lending institutions, landlords, commercial tenants, and lenders, borrowers, sellers, and purchasers of real estate including vacant land, subdivisions, office buildings, apartments, shopping centers, and mixed-use complexes. Jim practices focuses on commercial real estate transaction work, including acquisitions, sales, leasing, financing, condominium development, land development, and condominium conversions, as well as institutional client lending, including asset-based financing and real estate secured financing.

He works on matters involving real estate loans, real estate acquisitions and dispositions, commercial leasing, ground leases, condominium and common interest community regime formation, reciprocal easement agreements and LLC formations.

He is frequently retained as an expert witness in court proceedings and arbitrations to provide testimony, opinions and advice on complex real estate law matters and on the standards of care required by attorneys in representation on real estate transactional matters.

Jim is a frequent lecturer teaching continuing legal education courses for other attorneys on substantive areas of real estate law and ethics for transactional lawyers. He is the Managing Editor of CLE of Colorado, Inc.’s book on Colorado real estate forms. The book covers purchase and sale agreements, listing agreements, deeds, 1031 tax deferred exchanges, deeds of trust, promissory notes, leases, easements, closing documents, forcible entry and detainer actions and mechanics’ liens.

Prior to joining Ireland Stapleton, Jim led the real estate boutique law firm, Benjamin & Cohen from 1990 to 2019. He has also headed the real estate departments of a large regional law firm and of the Denver office of a large national law firm.

Jim was selected as the Barrister’s Best Real Estate Lawyer in Colorado by Law Week Colorado for the last several years. He is listed amongst the Top 100 lawyers in Colorado by Super Lawyers. Is listed in Best Lawyers in America in Real Estate, is band rated by Chambers & Partners in Real Estate, and has an AV Preeminent rating by Martindale Hubbell- Judicial Edition.

 

Admissions

  • Admitted to practice in California
  • Admitted to practice in Colorado
  • Admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court

Education

  • J.D., Loyola University Los Angeles, 1976
  • B.A. Political Science, University of Southern California, 1971, Cum Laude

Honors & Awards

  • Selected to The Best Lawyers in America® for Real Estate Law, 2020-2025
  • Selected to Colorado Super Lawyers® for Real Estate Law, 2006-2023
  • Selected to 5280 Magazine’s Top Lawyers List for Real Estate Law, 2020-2023
  • Selected to Chambers USA for Real Estate Law, 2019 – 2023
  • Selected to Colorado Super Lawyers® for Business Mortgage and Refinance, 2006 – 2020
  • Recognized by Law Week Colorado as Barrister’s Best for Real Estate Law 2016 – 2019
  • Selected to Colorado Super Lawyers® list of Top 100 lawyers
  • Purchaser/Borrower in the acquisition and financing of a conglomerate of apartments at a purchase price more than $150 million involving a syndication of lenders
  • Purchaser of numerous high- rise office buildings in Downtown Denver and suburbs
  • Purchasers of hotels in Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Tennessee
  • Purchasers of shopping centers
  • Creation of Bramblett tax transactions for land owners, who subsequently developed the properties into single-family residential subdivisions
  • Purchasers and sellers in the Section 1031, IRC, tax-deferred exchanges
  • Land owners granting conservation easements on their property
  • Shopping center and office building complex owners in the creation of reciprocal easement agreements
  • Landlords in leasing high-rise office buildings and retail spaces in shopping centers and mixed- use developments
  • Tenants in leasing commercial office space and retail space
  • Creation of condominium projects and conversion of apartments to condominiums
  • Acquisition and financing and FHA refinancing of mobile home communities
See all of James's Insights
  • Leases and Promissory Notes” Real Estate Deskbook Seminar, 2019
  • “Types of Conveyance Deeds and When to Use Them”, CLE of Colorado, Inc., 2016
  • “Roof Top Leases”, Annual Real Estate Symposium, CLE of Colorado, Inc., 2011
  • Program Chair, 23rd Annual Real Estate Symposium, CLE of Colorado, Inc.
  • Arapahoe County Bar Association
  • Colorado Bar Association, Chair of the Joint Management
  • Denver Bar Association
  • State Bar of California
  • Denver Bar Association, President
  • Colorado and Denver Bar Associations, Building Task Force, Chair
  • Healing Waters Project, Volunteer
    This organization teaches soldiers and veterans with disabilities the art and healing attributes of fly fishing
  • Osage Initiatives, General Counsel
    This a project involving the affiliation of for-profit and non-profit entities to deal with the issue of homelessness population in Colorado.
  • Denver University Sturm College of Law, Tribal Wills Project, Supervising Attorney
  • Girl Scouts Mile High Council, Real Estate Counsel
  • Department of Regulatory Agencies, Blue Ribbon Committee Member
  • Worked on a deal regarding the sunsetting of real estate broker regulation and affiliated business arrangements
  • Bradford Publishing Company, Member of the real estate publication advisory board
  • Colorado and Denver Bar Association, Building Task Force, Chair
    The Task Force selected the Bar offices for the associations, and then negotiated and documented the lease and construction of the premises
  • Colorado Legislature on Adverse Possession, Advisory and Drafting Counsel
  • Committee that Drafted the Beneficiary Deed Act and Drafted Amendments to the Limited Liability Company Act, Member
See all of James's Community Involvement
See all of James's Firm News