Overview

Rich brings 30 years of commercial real estate experience to understanding each client’s objectives and achieving them proactively and efficiently. Clients routinely seek Rich’s market knowledge and depend on him to handle their largest transactions, as well as their day-to-day real estate deals. Rich represents large real estate investors and lenders, as well as technology companies, in projects located across the country.

As a co-chair of BFKN’s nationally prominent Real Estate practice group and a career commercial real estate attorney, Rich has a hand in an incredibly broad range of commercial real estate transactions. Much of Rich’s work is devoted to representing parties in purchase and sale transactions involving all major asset classes of commercial real estate. Many of these transactions involve the disposition of trophy quality assets or portfolios of properties.

Rich also devotes substantial time to handling important lease transactions for large U.S. and foreign-based companies, including some markets’ largest office and industrial leases. He regularly represents borrowers and lenders in traditional mortgage loans and in alternative capital markets transactions, as well as in loan workouts. Rich’s joint venture work includes both traditional one-off partnerships and the recapitalization of existing investments. He has counseled several clients in the creation and implementation of programs to lease, develop or dispose of types of property (e.g., retail or cell sites) or types of transactions (e.g., programmatic joint ventures and build-to-suit programs).

Credentials

Admissions

  • State of Illinois
  • U.S. District Court - Northern District of Illinois

Education

  • University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 1987
  • Carthage College, B.A., magna cum laude, 1984

Experience

  • Representation of buyers and sellers in the purchase and sale of large office buildings throughout the U.S.
  • Representation of technology companies in some of the country’s biggest office lease transactions.
  • Representations of private funds in sales of the beneficial ownership interests in private REITs that own industrial and office properties.
  • Representation of a technology company in “forward commitment” purchases of office buildings to serve as regional business offices.
  • Representation of institutional owners in connection with the leasing of large warehouse facilities to public and privately held companies.
  • Representation of a large communications company in its development of build-to-suit customer contact centers throughout the U.S.
  • Representation of an institutional investor in the ground-up development of life sciences centers.
  • Representation of a Fortune 100 company in its redevelopment of an iconic office/retail/transportation center.
  • Representation of a multi-national energy corporation in the disposition of portfolios of service station properties in major markets.
  • Representation of wireless carriers in the portfolio acquisition and disposition of cell sites.
  • Representation of parties in mortgage loan workouts and loan sale transactions.
  • Representation of technology companies in the development and leasing of critical infrastructure, including data centers and telecommunications switches.
  • Representation of wireless companies in contested land use matters.

Newsroom

Recognitions

  • Best Lawyer, The Best Lawyers in America© (2024-2025)
    • Real Estate Law
  • Leading Complex Commercial Real Estate Transactions Lawyer of the Year (Illinois), AI Leading Advisor Awards (2019)
  • Illinois Super Lawyers (2005-2007, 2009-2014)
  • Client Choice Award, Commercial Property (Illinois), Lexology Client Choice Awards USA & Canada (2013)
  • bl_nikchevich2025
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