Benjamin A. Kelley

Partner

Baltimore

Tel 410.528.5515
Fax 410.528.5650

Benjamin A. Kelley co-leads the firm's Insurance Company and Institutional Investments Team. He counsels clients in all aspects of real estate-related legal matters with a primary emphasis on representing both lenders and borrowers in commercial real estate finance transactions. Ben’s experience includes construction/rehabilitation loans, forward commitments, acquisition loans, refinance loans, bridge loans, tenant improvement financings, credit tenant financings, mezzanine loans, note sales and acquisitions, loan-on-loan structures, structured and permanent financings (and assumptions and modifications thereof) of market rate and affordable multifamily housing projects, seniors housing projects, industrial/warehouse projects, office buildings/complexes, corporate parks, retail shopping centers, and mixed-use projects.

Ben has a diverse practice that also includes representing real estate owners and developers in soup to nuts ground-up real estate development and finance transactions, representing equity owners in joint venture arrangements and mezz/preferred equity investments, representing buyers and sellers in acquiring, selling and financing commercial real estate, and representing commercial property owners and tenants in commercial leasing matters.

Services

Experience

Representative Matters

Represented the joint venture partner and financial adviser in a $675 million planned sale-and-leaseback transaction for construction of a 40-story office tower in Charlotte, NC
Represented the developer in the phased acquisition and financing of the development of a multifamily project in Wilmington, DE, on a former textile mill site
Represented the developer in the sale of 2 build to suit logistics warehouses in Baltimore, MD

Represented the sellers in the disposition of, and the owners in the refinance of, 21 medical office building and a supporting data center in North Carolina and South Carolina
Represented the developer in a joint venture arrangement to acquire and develop a multifamily project as a part of a larger phased mixed-use project in Philadelphia, PA
Represented an institutional lender in the financing of a suburban office park in Dulles, VA
Represented the developer in a joint venture arrangement to acquire and develop a multifamily project as a part of a larger phased mixed-use project in Sussex County, DE
Represented the mezzanine lender in the financing of 26 affordable housing projects in Los Angeles, CA, that were under different phases of construction
Represented the developer in a joint venture arrangement to acquire and develop a multifamily project as a part of a larger phased mixed-use project in Maryland
Represented the mortgage lender in connection with a bridge loan to finance the acquisition of 13 manufactured housing projects in North Carolina
Represented a mortgage lender in connection with a “loan on loan” financing of an office building in the design district in Miami, FL
Represented an institutional lender in connection with the permanent financing of a newly developed hotel in Seattle, WA
Represented a preferred equity provider in connection with investments in the acquisition and construction of multifamily projects and retail shopping centers in Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, Texas, Arizona and Washington DC
Represented an institutional lender in connection with the permanent financing of a portfolio of flex office/warehouse buildings in Dulles Virginia corridor
Represented a mortgage lender in connection with the financing of the construction of self-storage facilities in New Jersey and Louisiana
Represented an institutional lender in connection with the permanent financing of a portfolio of industrial/warehouse buildings in Wisconsin
Represented an institutional lender in connection with the permanent financing of a newly developed retail shopping center in Baltimore
Represented a financial adviser in arranging permanent financing for the owner of an airplane hangar in Oklahoma
Represented two banks in the assumption by a new borrower of two portfolios of loans secured by properties leased to a major drug store chain
Represented mortgage lenders in the assumption by a publicly traded REIT of $837 million in existing mortgage debt in connection with the REIT’s acquisition of a privately held seniors housing operator; transaction involved 118 senior living communities across the country and more than 120 commercial mortgage loans
Represented a financial adviser in arranging financing for the construction and long-term operation of a 1.5 million-square-foot manufacturing and research facility, totaling $687 million
Represented a mortgage lender in connection with the financing for the rehabilitation of an affordable-housing project in the Bronx, New York
Represented an institutional lender in connection with the permanent financing of a portfolio of industrial warehouses in New Jersey
Represented an institutional lender in connection with the permanent financing of multiple student housing projects located in Charlottesville, Virginia
Represented the servicer in connection with the assumption of 24 mortgage loans secured by 20 manufactured housing properties located in Arizona, , Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Montana and New York

Professional Highlights

Pro Bono Experience

Ben has participated in Wills for Heroes ( www.willsforheroes.org ) events in Rockville and Baltimore, Maryland at which he and other Ballard Spahr attorneys assisted first responders and veterans in completing basic estate planning documentation.

Ben has counseled Baltimore Green Space (a nonprofit land trust that partners with communities to preserve and support community gardens, forest patches, pocket parks, and other community-managed open spaces) in connection with its acquisition of community-managed open spaces in Baltimore City, Maryland.

Ben worked with a team of Ballard Spahr attorneys and the Maryland ACLU in challenging the constitutionality of an Elkton, Maryland, loitering law on behalf of eight homeless individuals whose personal effects were destroyed when the town bulldozed the campsite where they were living. On September 5, 2007, Elkton's town council repealed the loitering law.

Professional Activities

Fellow of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys (ACMA)

American Bar Association:

Member of the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Committee of the Real Property Trusts and Estates Section (RPTE) and Co-Chair of the 2023 RPTE National CLE Conference in Washington, D.C.
Former Chair of the Residential, Multifamily and Special Use Group of RPTE and former chair of the seniors housing subcomittee

Equal Justice Associates, a private-bar fundraising and networking arm of the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau; Former Vice Chair of the Executive Committee

Mortgage Bankers Association, Member

American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL), Member

Recognition & Accomplishments

The Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Law (Baltimore), 2024, 2025

Speaking Engagements

Moderator, "Filling the Gap – Mezz Debt and Preferred Equity" Ballard Spahr's 18th Annual National Housing Symposium, May 10, 2023

Panelist, "Next Steps in Financing – Making the Loan Fit the Project," Fundamentals 2.0 – A Commercial Real Estate Series webinar, American Bar Association, April 18, 2018

Moderator and Panelist, " Financing Multifamily: Market Rate Apartments, Seniors Housing, Affordable Housing, Manufactured Housing, Work-Force Housing, Student Housing and Mixed Use," ABA RPTE Spring Symposia, Denver, CO, April 20, 2017

Board Memberships & Community Service

Baltimore Green Space – an urban land trust; Vice President of the Board, Chair of the Land Transactions Committee and member of the Executive Committee

Beth Am Synagogue; Trustee of the Board of Trustees and member of the Executive Committee

Publications

"Due Diligence in Mortgage Loan Sales and Acquisitions: Defining Process and Achieving Objectives (With Form)," an article in The Practical Real Estate Lawyer, American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education (ALI CLE), Volume 36, Number 2, March 2020

Related Insights

Credentials

Education

University of Baltimore School of Law (J.D. 2008, cum laude)
Staff Member, The University of Baltimore Law Review

University of Maryland (B.S. 2002)

Admissions

Maryland