News
REAL ESTATE AND ROLLER COASTERS
October 26, 2011
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| Crowell & Moring partner Barbara Champoux (center, in red) knew she wanted to be a lawyer since she was 12—thank Perry Masonreruns. While in law school, she worked at Johnnie Cochran's litigation firm—researching, not crime-solving (so it was somewhat lacking in Mason-esque excitement). Barbara didn't find her true CRE calling until she worked part-time as a paralegal at Carro, Spanbock, Kaster & Cuiffo, assisting in shopping center development and mixed-use projects like Robert DiNiro's TriBeCa studios. After positions at real estate firms like Nixon Peabody and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, she's now a partner in Crowell's financial services group, heading the CRE team and concentrating on complex CRE and asset-based transactions for lodging, leisure, and retail and associated businesses. |
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| Above, she joins NYCREW in sharing her experience with 30 girls from Brooklyn's Youth Empowerment Mission. You can describe her biz as a roller coaster—of course, she's been repping Six Flagsfor 15 years. During the past 18 months, she's helped the theme park operator restructure its balance sheet, obtain exit financing, andemerge from bankruptcy, as well as manage its real estate portfolio and operations. And for the past nine months, she's also been counseling Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust—created to facilitate the successful emergence of General Motors from bankruptcy—on real estate and operational matters, as well as supporting infrastructure. RACER's mandate is to remediate, redevelop, and reposition environmentally and economically distressed properties in motor industry cities. |
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| Above, NYCREW members celebrate Barbara receiving the Clarisa Award from the St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters this past August. One of the best spots to find Barbara outside of the office is with other woman execs—in addition to being a founding member ofNYCREW a decade ago, she's steered leadership committees forNational CREW Network and belongs to WX and AREW. Outside of real estate, she loves the three Bs—blues, ballet (Lincoln Center's a favorite spot), and baseball. The avid Red Sox fan jokes the latter makes for fiery back-and-forth with Crowell's Yankees diehards. |
