Real Estate & Construction News Roundup (7/8/26) – Data Centers Negotiate Flexibility for Speed, Hotel Deal Activities Focus on Luxury, and DC Sues Apartment Owners
July 20, 2026 —
Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law BlogIn our latest roundup, rail projects gain steam across the U.S., AI optimizes building operations, a modular approach speeds data center construction, and more!
- Hyperscalers want their data centers online, and utilities want to provide interconnections, but both are still looking for common operating guidelines. (Herman K. Trabish, Construction Dive)
- Contractors are taking advantage of multibillion-dollar train and transit contracts, even as funding challenges create hurdles for project execution. (Matthew Thibault, Construction Dive)
- Although hospitality and leisure M&A deal volume was down 2.5% in the first half of 2026 compared to the prior six months, investors are concentrating on the upper end of the market, including luxury hotels, wellness resorts and gaming, or “data-rich,” platforms. (Noor Adatia, Hotel Dive)
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Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team
Four Kahana Feld Attorneys Selected to 2027 Southern California Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars Lists
August 16, 2026 —
Kahana FeldIRVINE, CA – Aug. 3, 2026 – Kahana Feld is pleased to announce that partners
Jason Feld,
Amir Kahana, and
Sharon Oh-Kubisch were selected to the 2027 Southern California Super Lawyers list, and attorney
Hannah Ellenhorn Bloom was selected to the 2027 Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars list.
Jason Feld was recognized in the area of Construction Litigation. He is a founding partner of Kahana Feld and focuses his practice on the defense of homebuilders, contractors, developers, and real estate professionals primarily in construction defect, general liability, insurance defense, construction accident, and real estate matters. He also represents government entities handling construction, premises liability, general liability, and environmental claims. He serves as panel counsel for many prominent insurance carriers, as well as personal counsel to several national and regional homebuilders, developers, and general contractors.
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Kahana Feld
Construction Companies Are Nearly Seven Times Safer With These Best Practices
June 15, 2026 —
ABC - Construction ExecutiveWASHINGTON, May 4—Associated Builders and Contractors released its
2026 Health and Safety Performance Report, an annual guide to health and safety best practices on construction jobsites. The 2026 report shows the positive effects of participating in
ABC’s STEP® Health and Safety Management System, which enables top-performing ABC members to achieve incident rates 686% safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics construction industry average, reducing total recordable incident rates by 85%.
Established in 1989, STEP is a proven system that provides contractors and suppliers with a
robust, no-cost framework for measuring health and safety data and benchmarking with peers in the industry. This self-assessment tool helps participants identify real opportunities for scalable growth in their health and safety programs to lower their total recordable incident rates and become an employer of choice in a competitive labor market.
Reprinted courtesy of
ABC, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
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Your Construction Contract Won’t Always Save You From a Bad Project Record
November 02, 2026 —
Matthew J. Devries - Best Practices Construction Law BlogConstruction contracts are full of protections. No-damage-for-delay clauses. Consequential damage waivers. Rights to supplement a subcontractor’s work. Broad scheduling provisions. But a recent Tennessee construction case provides an important reminder: the best contract in the world may not save you from bad project facts.
In Commercial Painting Company, Inc. v. The Weitz Company, LLC (TN Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2026), the dispute involved a general contractor and its drywall subcontractor on a multi-building retirement community. The subcontract was originally worth more than $3.2 million, and the parties eventually disagreed about delays, scheduling, supplemental work, backcharges, and unpaid applications for payment. What began as a fairly typical construction dispute became anything but typical. A jury ultimately found that the general contractor had intentionally misrepresented material facts and awarded the subcontractor $3.9 million in punitive damages. (The case has a lengthy procedural history involving multiple appeals, but this post focuses only on the practical lessons from the most recent decision.)
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Matthew J. Devries, BuchalterMr. Devries may be contacted at
mdevries@buchalter.com
Building More Than a Ramp: HHMR and the Home Builders Foundation
September 15, 2026 —
Colorado Construction Litigation BlogLast Friday, four members of the Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell team traded briefs, depositions, and construction litigation files for lumber, drills, and a day on a jobsite.
HHMR attorneys Ricky Nolen, Amanda Tynan, Kyle Thompson, and Tanner Davis participated in the
Home Builders Foundation’s 2026
Blitz Build, helping construct an accessibility ramp for Andrea, a Denver-area resident whose mobility challenges had made something most of us take for granted extraordinarily difficult: leaving her own home independently.
The day after the build, the volunteers received an e-mail from HBF’s Terrina Reiber with an unusual request: set an alarm for 10:00 the next morning.
At 10:00 on a Saturday, she explained, they might be running errands, meeting a friend, or simply deciding what to do with the day.
When the alarm went off, she asked them to think about Andrea.
Because Andrea could now make that same choice.
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Higgins, Hopkins, McLain & Roswell
What Is the Independent Tort Doctrine? New Case Explains…
August 24, 2026 —
David Adelstein - Florida Construction Legal UpdatesFlorida’s Sixth District Court of Appeals in Atout v. HHM Land Trust Dated October 29, 2013, 51 Fla.L.Weekly D1569a (Fla. 6th DCA 2026) recently included an extensive discussion on Florida’s independent tort doctrine. The independent tort doctrine is an important legal doctrine, particularly when parties are in contractual privity. This doctrine stands for the proposition that tort claims must be independent of any breach of contract. See Atout, supra. The Sixth District’s extensive discussion analyzed the indicators to determine this “independence,” which may arise from the source of the duty, the asserted conduct, the damages sought, or even public policy:
Unlike claims that rely on contractual relationships, an “independent” tort is often characterized by a duty imposed by law rather than by agreement. As to this consideration, United States District Court Judge Steven Merryday has explained that the independent tort doctrine honors the same divide as the economic loss rule, but rather than looking at the nature of the loss, it focuses on the source of the duty allegedly breached. “If a contract imposes a duty, and the defendant breaches that duty, the plaintiff must sue for breach of contract. If society imposes the duty, the plaintiff must sue in tort.” Following this reasoning, courts should consider whether the alleged breach of a duty in tort coincides or overlaps with a duty imposed by a contract. If the duty at issue is within the scope of a contract, and the relationship of the parties that led to the creation of that duty stems from a contract, then that duty’s source is from contract and any alleged tort claims based on a breach of those duties may not be “independent.”
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David Adelstein, Kirwin NorrisMr. Adelstein may be contacted at
dma@kirwinnorris.com
At the Frontier of Change: How—or Where—to Rebuild as Alaska's Permafrost Disappears
September 28, 2026 —
Pam McFarland - Engineering News-RecordIn some areas of the tiny subsistence coastal village of Kwigillingok along the Bering Sea in western Alaska, pockets of ground feel squishy, almost gelatinous, rather than solid. It’s an odd sensation, as if there is only a thin layer of muddy soil preventing people from falling into the water beneath their feet.
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Pam McFarland, Engineering News-RecordMs. McFarland may be contacted at
mcfarlandp@enr.com
California Poised for the Most Significant Residential Construction Defect Reforms in Decades
September 01, 2026 —
Thomas D. Fama & Andrew J. Mallon - Wood Smith Henning BermanThe California Legislature is consid
Seller Cannot Compel Arbitration for Its Role in Construction Defect Case<Feds Used Wire to Crack Las Vegas HOA ScamWhat You Don’t Know About Construction Law Can Hurt Your Engineering Firm (Law Note)Top U.S. Counties Most at Risk for Tornado Damage in 2025Developer Boymelgreen Forced to Hand Over Financial Records for 15 Broad StreetSecond Month of US Construction Spending DownIf You Get ‘Reported to the Board’ for Your Professional License (Law Note)Too Costly to Be Fair: Texas Appellate Court Finds the Arbitration Clause in a Residential Construction Contract UnenforceableCongratulations 2024 DE, MA, MD, NJ, NY, and PA Super Lawyers and Rising StarsU.K. to Set Out Plan for Fire-Risk Apartment Cladding CrisisMaryland Legislation Prohibits Condominium Developers from Shortening Statute of Limitations to Defeat Unit Owner Construction Defect ClaimsWhat Clauses Must a Contract Include?UConn’s Law-School Library Construction Case Settled for MillionsCourt Finds California FAIR Plan UnlawfulHomeowner Loses Suit against Architect and Contractor of Resold HomeAppropriation Bill Cuts Military Construction SpendingBuilders Seek to Modify Scaffold LawSupreme Court Limits EPA’s Options for Wastewater Discharge PermitsThe Best Lawyers in America® - Ball Janik Attorneys Earn Multiple RecognitionsBeth Cook Expands Insurance Litigation Team at Payne & FearsElevators Take Sustainable Smart Cities to the Next LevelChicago Developer and Trade Group Sue City Over Affordable Housing RequirementsDon’t Miss the 2015 West Coast Casualty Construction Defect SeminarThe Activist Group Suing the Suburbs for Bigger BuildingsMusings: Moving or Going into a New Service Area, There is More to It Than Just…Changes to the Federal Rules – 2024Axa Buys London Pinnacle Site for Redesigned SkyscraperNY Project Produces America's First Utility Scale Wind PowerPennsylvania Considers Changes to Construction Code ReviewBuilding the Secondary Market for Reclaimed Building MaterialsLast Parcel of Rancho del Oro Masterplan Purchased by Cornerstone CommuntiesThe Ghosts of Baha Mar: How a $3.5 Billion Paradise Went BustDavid Uchida Joins Kahana Feld’s Los Angeles Office as PartnerCOVID-19 Response: Key Legal Considerations for Event CancellationsImportant New Reporting Requirement for Some Construction Defect SettlementsBill Taylor Co-Authors Chapter in Pennsylvania Construction Law BookJudgment for Insured Upheld After Insurer Rejects Claim for Hurricane DamageGovernor Brown Signs Legislation Aimed at Curbing ADA Accessibility Abuses in CaliforniaInsured Versus Insured Clause Does Not Bar CoverageNYC’s Next Hot Neighborhoods Targeted With Property FundsJury's Verdict for Loss Caused by Collapse Overturned2021 2Q Cost Report: Industry Execs Believe Recovery Is in Full SwingBlog Completes Fifteenth YearTravelers’ 3rd Circ. Win Curbs Insurers’ Asbestos ExposureDrywall Originator Hopes to Sell in AsiaInside the Old Psych Hospital Reborn As a Home for Money ManagersNear-Zero Carbon Cement Powers Sustainable 3D-Printed HomesA Brief Discussion – Liquidating AgreementsSIG Earnings Advance 21% as U.K. Construction StrengthensFacing Manslaughter Charges In Worker's 2021 Trench Collapse Death, Colorado Contractor Who Willfully Ignored Federal Law Surrenders To PoliceConstruction Law: Unexpected, Fascinating, BizarreThe Murky Waters Between "Good Faith" and "Bad Faith"Arctic Roads and Runways Face the Prospect of Rapid DeclineEnglish v. RKK- There is Even More to the StoryHow a Robot-Built Habitat on Mars Could Change Construction on EarthFollowing Pennsylvania Trend, Federal Court Finds No Coverage For Construction DefectBid Protests: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Redeux)Construction Defects and Warranties in MarylandSurety Bond Producers Keep Eye Out For Illegal WaiversA Court-Side Seat: Guam’s CERCLA Claim Allowed, a “Roundup” Verdict Upheld, and Judicial Process Privilege LostAnthony Luckie Speaks With Columbia University On Receiving Graduate Degree in Construction Administration Alongside His FatherThe 2017 ASCDC and CDCMA Construction Defect Seminar and Holiday ReceptionCan You Really Be Liable For a Product You Didn’t Make? In New Jersey, the Answer is Yes
