Founded in 1991, Cherry, Edgar & Smith, P.A. is a full-service transactional and development law firm devoted to effectively and efficiently providing quality representation to our clients.  We primarily represent both private and publicly traded developers of master-planned communities, resorts and commercial real estate projects.  Because we have represented clients in all stages of the development process, from land acquisition to the exercise of their desired exit strategy, we have gained a significant amount of experience in identifying possible issues and finding innovative solutions to meet our clients' needs.  Our firm provides counsel to several of the largest real estate development companies in the state of Florida.

In working with our developer clients, we design amenity and infrastructure strategies to achieve their vision for their project.  Among these are community and club structures which both reflect and enhance their marketing methods and goals.  As well, our significant experience with management and operation of residential, mixed-use and resort communities and their amenities enable us not only to foresee and avoid the myriad pitfalls encountered by less experienced practitioners, but also to assist in minimizing the time which developers must spend with non-revenue producing and sometimes disruptive community operating issues.

We recognize that community and resort development is a multi-disciplinary endeavor in which no single team member or project component can succeed without the other. Hence, we work closely with other professionals, including other legal counsel, engineers, surveyors, contractors and management, financial and sales experts. In doing so, we strive to ensure that the end result of our efforts is a development in which all functional elements interact in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Critical in any development design is the developer's long term goals for the project and exit strategy. Often this exit strategy includes the turnover of control of management of the amenities to the members of the club or owners of property in the development, as the case may be. We have successfully represented our clients in the turnover of many homeowners' associations, condominiums, dockominiums and equity membership clubs.

While historically we primarily represented developers, we have also provided representation to member groups, particularly in recent years. We believe that this experience has given us additional insight into the thought processes and dynamics of member groups and that this insight is beneficial in representing both our developer and member clients.

With clubs and community associations, we stress creative means by which to serve often competing interests within the framework of the ever-increasing complexity of the laws governing such groups. Rather than narrow answers often generated by community association law firms, we encourage independent thinking and problem solving in the methods more often used in the larger context of the business environment.

In summary, we view our representation as managing two continuums: one from project conception to final exit and the other across the multitude of physical and financial components and professional disciplines. By having this long-range, non-linear view and yet still being able to focus on details, we serve the client as only a firm as uniquely situated as we can do. We look forward to the opportunity to further discuss our qualifications and services with you.