Stephen G. Stwora-Hail, a prominent real estate attorney with more than 25 years of experience in the Sacramento region, has joined Best Best & Krieger LLP as a partner in its business services practice group.

“Steve is certainly one of the most recognized and successful real estate attorneys in the Sacramento region, and BB&K is proud to have him aboard as part of our business practice,” said Howard Golds, a Riverside-based partner who heads the business services practice group across the firm’s nine offices in California and Washington D.C.

Stwora-Hail has spent his career successfully negotiating key real estate deals on behalf of grocery chains, commercial developers and agricultural clients. He has worked for such well-known businesses as Raley’s, negotiating the acquisition, development and lease agreements for the West Sacramento-based supermarket chain that led to the construction of some 45 shopping centers across Northern California and Nevada that are anchored by the company’s grocery stores. Stwora-Hail also obtained entitlements for the Raley’s Landing Project, a 20-acre mixed-use project along the Sacramento River in West Sacramento.

In addition, Stwora-Hail has helped clients in the development of strip malls and regional shopping centers, and negotiated transactions on their behalf with national retail tenants such as Home Depot, Target, Best Buy and PetSmart, and restaurant chains such as Mimi’s, Panera Bread and In-N-Out Burger.

Stwora-Hail also focuses his legal practice on agricultural clients by helping them to annex their land for residential and commercial uses. In South Sacramento County, he assisted Horizon Dairy with the purchase of a 600-acre farm in which the sale price was augmented by conservation easements Stwora-Hail negotiated with The Nature Conservancy.

Prior to BB&K, Stwora-Hail was with Downey Brand in Sacramento for 28 years. At BB&K, he will focus on the acquisition, development, construction and leasing of retail, warehouses, office buildings and housing projects.

“I have known about BB&K since law school and have always respected the attorneys who work there, so to become part of the law firm is a tremendous honor,” he said.

Stwora-Hail graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1982. He is a former chair of the California State Bar’s Real Property Section and was a member of its executive committee for six years.

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