Overview

Vincent Wong’s practice focuses on commercial real estate and business transactions, including purchase and sales, construction and permanent financing, and leasing. With his experience representing developers and landowners, borrowers, and commercial landlords and tenants, Vincent leverages his deep knowledge and experience of working with both sides of the transaction to maximize the benefit for his clients. Vincent also takes a multidimensional approach to provide additional client support in the areas of environmental law, land use, permitting, and nonprofit needs.  His clients also benefit from his environmental law, land use, and permitting experience.

Vincent was previously with the natural resources law firm of Mitchell Chadwick LLP, where he represented Fortune 500 energy and mining companies, developers, and large landowners. His practice areas included all aspects of CEQA, Clean Water Act permitting and enforcement matters, Streambed Alteration Agreements, Incidental Take Permits, and local land use matters.

Vincent received his J.D. in 2013 from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. He was named a Rising Star in the 2021 and 2023 editions of Northern California Super Lawyers and listed in Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyers 2021 and 2023 list for excellence in real estate law.

Education
  • University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
    J.D., 2013
  • University of California, Irvine
    B.A., magna cum laude, 2009
    Phi Beta Kappa
Admissions
  • State Bar of California
  • U.S. District Court, Central District of California
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
Leadership
  • The Council for Giving, Member, Executive Board (2020 to 2023)
  • 916 Ink, Member, Board of Directors (2019 to 2021)
Memberships
  • Sacramento County Bar Association, Real Property Section
  • Urban Land Institute
  • Asian Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento
  • Association of Environmental Professionals
Experience

Representative Matters

Purchase and Sales

  • Advise developers on every aspect of commercial and residential projects, from acquisition, due diligence, construction and takeout financing, complex contingency structuring, infrastructure reimbursement agreements, entitlements, revenue shares, and phased lot sales.
  • Work closely with the client and the client’s designated agents to negotiate and close land acquisition deals for property owners, developers, and homebuilders throughout California, including for affordable housing and market-rate projects.
  • Negotiate and close land acquisition deals for property owners, developers, and homebuilders throughout California, including for both affordable housing and market-rate projects.
  • Resolve a wide variety of real property disputes, including adverse possession claims, agricultural neighbor issues, easement disputes, and unwinding (or closing of) inherited transactions with complicated fact patterns.
  • Conducted due diligence and other transactional duties in investment fund’s purchase of a multi-million-dollar property for mitigation bank purposes.
  • Representative matters include: sale of entitled property to national homebuilder, sale of conservation easements, purchase and sale of stabilized shopping centers, sale of newly-constructed mixed use development in Midtown Sacramento.

Financing

  • Represent borrowers of construction and permanent loans for a wide range of developments, including hotels, medical condominiums, mixed-use, commercial, and multifamily projects.
  • Represent private equity and institutional lending institutions on construction and permanent loans, with an emphasis on borrowers and guarantors with complex organizational structures.
  • Advised national equipment lessors on perfecting real property and personal property security interests in California.
  • Representative matters include: nine-figure private equity debt deals for hotelier client expanding Northern California portfolio, portfolio loan secured by office and commercial property throughout California, mezzanine financing for multifamily developments in the Central Valley.

Leasing

  • Resolve CC&R disputes, including allocation and scope of CC&R passthrough costs.
  • Negotiate lease termination agreements containing asset acquisition, liquor license, and bulk sale provisions on behalf of both landlords and tenants.
  • Negotiate ground leases, in-line leases, and standalone NNN leases with national restaurant chains and franchises.
  • Draft ground leases on behalf of commercial landlords and tenants, including leases with complex tenant improvement arrangements and term options.
  • Representative matters include: 20-year industrial leases on behalf of two international corporations, leasing of a new shopping center with national coffee and quick service restaurants, ground leases with national gas franchises.

Land Use

  • Consult and negotiate with local, state, and federal agencies to entitle a wide range of projects, including mixed-use developments, aggregate mines, and major subdivisions.
  • Draft conservation easements on behalf of landowners as well as mitigation bank sponsors.
  • Assisted in the approval of a 4,000-acre mitigation bank in Los Angeles County, including the review and response to Interagency Review Team comments.
  • Advised property owners on permitting efforts of a mitigation bank in Northern California.

Environmental / CEQA 

  • Defended two Fortune 500 companies against groundwater and pipeline contamination environmental lawsuits.
  • Advised clients on front-end CEQA compliance, including a review of Environmental Impact Reports for industrial projects throughout the State.
  • Settled an oil and gas royalty dispute with a monetary payment of ten percent of the original demand amount.
  • Assisted in the successful defense of an air pollution agency’s approval of upgrades to an oil refinery.
  • Supported successful permit revocation proceedings against a centralized waste treatment facility, including the assessment of a million-dollar penalty.

Other Experience

  • Served as Deputy City Attorney and Assistant General Counsel to numerous public entities throughout Southern California, including the Orange County Sanitation District and the City of Palm Springs.

Speaking Engagements

  • Speaker, “Annual Mining, Energy, Public Lands Legal Update,” Mining and Land Resources Institute, Reno, NV (March 2017)
Awards
  • Named a Rising Star in Northern California Super Lawyers, Real Estate (2021-2023)
  • Named in Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyers List, Real Estate (2021, 2023)
News