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Attorneys

John M. Boehnert

Senior Counsel

E-mail: jmb@psh.com

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No other Rhode Island practitioner has Mr. Boehnert’s combined depth and breadth of experience in the areas of real estate law, real estate development, and environmental law. His over 25 years of experience includes structuring and permitting sophisticated real estate acquisition, leasing and development projects, obtaining permits for complex Brownfields redevelopment projects, and winning the most significant real estate property rights case before the Rhode Island Supreme Court in over a century.

He has represented developers, energy companies, multi-national corporations, investors, lenders, non-profit corporations, and state and local governmental entities over the years. His governmental representation has included the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation on environmental and economic development matters, the Providence Redevelopment Agency on urban redevelopment and environmental issues, and the Capital Center Commission on general legal matters, including drafting of its Design and Development Regulations for the 77-acre downtown Providence Capital Center District. He is also actively involved in practice before governmental bodies regulating permitting and development along Rhode Island’s extensive coastline, including the Coastal Resources Management Council.

Mr. Boehnert’s extensive multi-disciplinary experience in both private and public sector representation provides clients with a number of tangible benefits, including:

  • Knowledge of what environmental regulators, economic development representatives, and land use officials will accept to resolve disputes, issue permits for projects, and provide economic development incentives
  • Familiarity with uncodified procedures and unwritten policies which impact the timing and substance of regulatory decisions
  • Understanding the most time-efficient way to obtain permits and regulatory approvals for development projects
  • Structuring complex real estate transactions in the most cost-effective and legally-protected manner

Results obtained for clients because of these benefits have included:

  • Structuring the first major air rights development project in Rhode Island, a hotel built in the airspace over a new downtown Providence parking garage.
  • Winning a judgment from the Rhode Island Supreme Court, without a lower court trial and within 13 months of filing of a complaint, which cleared title to millions of dollars of property located on filled tidal land owned by two utilities, a chamber of commerce and a college and established a mechanism to cost-effectively clear title to hundreds of millions of dollars of coastal properties. 

Mr. Boehnert is a member of the American, District of Columbia and Rhode Island Bar Association and admitted to practice law in Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. He obtained his J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.S., summa cum laude, from Boston University. Mr. Boehnert is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, a trustee of the Providence Foundation and a member of the Rhode Island Society of Environmental Professionals. He is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Service Panel and the American Arbitration Association Dispute Resolution Service Commercial Neutral Panel. Mr. Boehnert has completed the National Health Lawyers Association Alternative Dispute Resolution Mediator Training Program and the American Arbitration Association Commercial I Arbitrator Training Program and Commercial II Arbitrator Training Program. Mr. Boehnert is the former Co-chair of the International Conference of Shopping Centers Government Affairs Task Force on Property Rights, a former trustee of the Rhode Island Bar Foundation, and he served on the Chicago Title Insurance Company Advisory Council. Additionally, he was legal counsel to the Capital Center Commission and drafted its Design and Development Regulations, which included aesthetic and architectural guidelines and which regulate development within the 77-acre Capital Center District. Mr. Boehnert formerly served as an aide in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, and was a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge John H. Pratt in the D.C. Circuit.

A frequent writer and speaker on land use and environmental topics, Mr. Boehnert had, for years, written a column for the Providence Business News on environmental issues, and was a co-columnist for New England’s Environment. He is also an occasional contributor to The Providence Journal. Mr. Boehnert has addressed national conferences on International Submerged Lands, International Coastal Zone Management, and Land Use Law, as well as other professional groups. He authored a chapter in a book on legal issues affecting the shopping center industry, and his article on the Public Trust Doctrine was published in the William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review.