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Orange County

T(949) 851-5551

M(949) 533-7711

Education

  • J.D., USC Gould School of Law

  • Advanced to Candidacy, Ph.D. , Urban and Regional Planning, University of Southern California

  • M.A., University of California, Los Angeles

  • A.B., with general honors, University of Chicago

Bar Admissions

  • California

Memberships

  • NAIOP, Inland Empire Chapter President (2015), Legislative Affairs Committee

  • Lusk Center for Real Estate, University of Southern California, member of Executive Committee

  • Urban Land Institute (ULI)

John C. Condas

Partner

John helps clients procure the federal, state, regional, and local government approvals they need to develop their real estate projects. He has successfully led legal due diligence and entitlement teams in nearly 200 jurisdictions and before federal, state, and regional agencies for industrial, residential, mixed-use, retail, office, entertainment, self-storage, cannabis cultivation, and other projects throughout California.

Proactive and Practical

John takes a practical approach to help his clients meet their business objectives, efficiently solve environmental and land use challenges, and advance their projects with minimal delays. Equally important, he ensures that their permits are legally defensible to reduce the risk of lawsuits, in particular those based on challenges from environmental groups and others claiming that projects do not meet California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements.

John has successfully secured and defended entitlements for complex projects throughout the state, including serving as lead entitlement counsel for the OCV!be project in Anaheim, a $4 billion, 95-acre mixed-use district featuring entertainment, hospitality, residential, and commercial uses. For a national developer, he oversaw land use entitlement and environmental permitting due diligence and entitlements for its extensive assets throughout Southern California. Similarly, he successfully guided more than 150 projects in Southern and Central California through the entitlement process for the country’s third largest home builder.

A former litigator, John regularly advises clients on litigation as a means for achieving their objectives in a timely and cost-effective manner. He also helps them devise strategies to defend lawsuits—for example when a labor union uses CEQA as a negotiation tactic—and proactively pursue legal action when necessary to rein in an over-reaching government agency.

Statewide Knowledge

John represents public REITs, industrial clients, private and public home builders and apartment developers, and other land developers in securing and defending land use and environmental permits across the state. He has provided entitlement due diligence and counseling for industrial and logistics projects totaling over 65 million square feet, helped home-building clients acquire more than 30,000 residential lots, and was involved in the two largest multiple species habitat plan sales to the Regional Conservation Authority in Riverside County.

Professional Involvement

John is a member of the Board of Directors of Great Ajax Corp., a NYSE-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and served as the 2015 president of the NAIOP Inland Empire Chapter. John taught real estate law for 15 years in the University of Southern California’s MBA and Master of Real Estate Development programs and at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Accolades

  • Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent Rating
  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Real Estate Law (2022 - 2025)

Proactive and Practical

John takes a practical approach to help his clients meet their business objectives, efficiently solve environmental and land use challenges, and advance their projects with minimal delays. Equally important, he ensures that their permits are legally defensible to reduce the risk of lawsuits, in particular those based on challenges from environmental groups and others claiming that projects do not meet California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements.

John has successfully secured and defended entitlements for complex projects throughout the state, including serving as lead entitlement counsel for the OCV!be project in Anaheim, a $4 billion, 95-acre mixed-use district featuring entertainment, hospitality, residential, and commercial uses. For a national developer, he oversaw land use entitlement and environmental permitting due diligence and entitlements for its extensive assets throughout Southern California. Similarly, he successfully guided more than 150 projects in Southern and Central California through the entitlement process for the country’s third largest home builder.

A former litigator, John regularly advises clients on litigation as a means for achieving their objectives in a timely and cost-effective manner. He also helps them devise strategies to defend lawsuits—for example when a labor union uses CEQA as a negotiation tactic—and proactively pursue legal action when necessary to rein in an over-reaching government agency.

Statewide Knowledge

John represents public REITs, industrial clients, private and public home builders and apartment developers, and other land developers in securing and defending land use and environmental permits across the state. He has provided entitlement due diligence and counseling for industrial and logistics projects totaling over 65 million square feet, helped home-building clients acquire more than 30,000 residential lots, and was involved in the two largest multiple species habitat plan sales to the Regional Conservation Authority in Riverside County.

Professional Involvement

John is a member of the Board of Directors of Great Ajax Corp., a NYSE-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and served as the 2015 president of the NAIOP Inland Empire Chapter. John taught real estate law for 15 years in the University of Southern California’s MBA and Master of Real Estate Development programs and at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Accolades

  • Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent Rating
  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Real Estate Law (2022 - 2025)

Industrial Clients

  • Core5 Industrial Partners
  • Hillwood Development
  • IDI Logistics
  • Majestic Realty
  • NorthPoint Development
  • Overton Moore Properties
  • Rockefeller Group
  • Seefried Industrial Properties
  • Watson Land Company
  • Wonderful Companies

Multifamily Clients

  • AvalonBay Communities, Inc
  • Fairfield Residential LLC
  • Legacy Residential

Homebuilder Clients

  • City Ventures
  • Lennar Homes
  • Meritage Homes/Meritage Land Company
  • True Life Companies

Land Developer and Lender/Equity/Investor Clients

  • Anheuser Busch Companies
  • CV Communities
  • Shopoff Entities

Local Jurisdictions

Adelanto     Hesperia Pomona
Aliso Viejo Highland Poway
Anaheim Holister Rancho Cucamonga
Apple Valley Huntington Beach      Rancho Mirage
Arcadia Huntington Park Rancho Palos Verdes
Atascadero Imperial County Rancho Santa Margarita
Azusa Indio Redlands
Bakersfield Industry Redondo Beach
Baldwin Park Inglewood Rialto
Banning Irvine Riverside, City of
Beaumont Irwindale Riverside County
Bell Jurupa Valley Rocklin
Beverly Hills Kern County Rolling Hills Estates
Blythe La Habra Sacramento, City of
Brawley La Habra Heights San Bernardino, City of
Brea La Quinta San Bernardino County
Brentwood Laguna Beach San Clemente
Buena Park Laguna Niguel San Diego, City of
Burbank Lake Elsinore San Diego County
Calexico Lake Forest San Dimas
Calimesa Lakewood San Francisco, City and County
Camarillo Lancaster San Jacinto
Canyon Lake Lathrop San Jose
Carlsbad Lemoore San Juan Capistrano
Carpinteria Loma Linda San Luis Obispo, City of
Carson   Lompoc San Luis Obispo County
Cathedral City Long Beach San Marcos
Chino Los Angeles, City of Santa Ana
Chino Hills Los Angeles County Santa Barbara County
Chula Vista Lynwood Santa Clara
Claremont Madera County Santa Clarita
Clayton Malibu Santa Cruz, City of
Clovis Manhattan Beach Santa Monica
Colton Manteca Santee
Commerce March JPA Seal Beach
Compton Menifee Shafter
Corona Milpitas Sierra Vista, AZ
Costa Mesa Mission Viejo Signal Hill
Covina Monrovia Simi Valley
Cudahy Monterey Park South Gate
Culver City Moorpark Summit County, UT
Dana Point Moraga Temecula
Delano Moreno Valley Thousand Oaks
Desert Hot Springs  Morgan Hill Torrance
Diamond Bar Mountain View Tracy
Downey Murrieta Tucson, AZ
Eastvale Newark Tustin
El Centro Newport Beach Upland
El Monte Norco Valencia
El Segundo Norwalk Ventura, City of
Encinitas Oakland Ventura County
Escondido Oceanside Vernon
Fillmore Ontario Victorville
Fontana Orange, City of Visalia
Fremont Orange County Vista
Fresno, City of Orinda West Covina
Fresno County Oxnard West Hollywood
Garden Grove Palm Desert West Sacramento
Gilroy Palm Springs Westlake Village
Glendale Palmdale Westminster
Glendora Palos Verdes Estates Whittier
Goleta Park City, UT Yucaipa
Grand Terrace Pasadena  
Hawthorne Paso Robles  
Hayward Perris  
Hemet Phoenix, AZ  
Henderson, NV Pico Rivera  

Agencies

  • Bureau of Reclamation
  • Bureau of Land Management
  • California Department of Fish & Wildlife
  • California Dept. of Housing & Community Development
  • Coachella Valley Association of Governments
  • Eastern Municipal Water District
  • Edgemont Community Services District
  • Federal Aviation Administration
  • Lahonton Regional Water Quality Control Board
  • Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
  • Metropolitan Transportation Agency
  • National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
  • Regional Conservation Authority
  • Riverside County Flood Control & Water Conservation District
  • Riverside County Transportation Commission
  • Riverside LAFCO
  • San Bernardino LAFCO
  • San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board
  • Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board
  • San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District
  • South Coast Air Quality Management District
  • Southern California Association of Governments
  • US Army Corps of Engineers
  • US Fish & Wildlife Service
  • Western Municipal Water District

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