Jeffrey A. Chester
Partner
New York
Biography
Jeffrey A. Chester has more than 25 years of experience counseling and assisting corporate and real estate clients. His clientele includes Fortune 500 companies, locally prominent real estate development companies, as well as smaller closely held businesses and entrepreneurs. Mr. Chester has also served as counsel to several not-for-profits.
Mr. Chester handles regulatory agency matters (zoning issues, tax abatements, and permits), transactional work (real estate sales, purchases, leases, business organization agreements, and asset purchases and sales), and provides general business counsel and advice. Mr. Chester has a broad range of experience in real estate development, land use, zoning, and related environmental issues, representing prominent retail chains and local developers on these types of matters.
Recent projects that Mr. Chester has handled include the rezoning of a six acre industrial site to allow mixed use development, including a 1,650 seat high school facility (housing four separate high schools) and two residential apartment buildings with ground floor commercial space; a zoning variance for a proposed 56,000 sq. ft. Fairway Market, which was the third in NYC and the first in Queens; the purchase of partnership interest in a $54,000,000 office building in NYC’s Garment District; and rezoning a portion of a significant retail corridor to allow a wider variety of uses. Additional projects have included successfully lobbying the New York City Council to reverse a Landmark Preservation Commission designation of a major bank branch, which was the first reversal in over 15 years; a multi-million dollar tax abatement for the largest commercial office development in Jamaica, Queens; the subdivision and sale of a commercial office condominium located in the Financial District to the City of New York; and negotiating approval for a Transit Authority easement for an Upper East Side residential high rise.
Mr. Chester is a founding and recent member of the City Bar Association’s Zoning and Land Use Committee and acts as General Counsel for the New York State Restaurant Association. He has been a contributing writer for Real Estate Weekly and New York Construction News, and he co-authored Buying & Selling Restaurants, a guide published by the New York State Restaurant Association. Mr. Chester is also an experienced speaker, including as a moderator and panelist, “Zoning and Land Use” seminar, Lorman Educational Services (2007, 2008) and as a panelist “Recent developments in zoning, land use and building controls”, Law Seminars International (2010).
Mr. Chester earned a B.A. at Boston University and his J.D. at Yeshiva University, Cardozo School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Education & Bar Admissions
Education
- Yeshiva University, Cardozo School of Law, J.D.
- Boston University, B.A.
Bar Admissions
- New York
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
