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PRINCETON, NJ, April 29, 2024 – Christopher K. Costa, Co-Chair of Stevens & Lee’s Real Estate Department, has been selected as an honoree for the Leaders in Real Estate, Construction and Design Awards presented by NJBIZ.
The Awards recognize individuals and companies changing New Jersey’s commercial real estate landscape through development, design, construction, project management and more. Mr. Costa is distinguished for spearheading complex, high-profile land development approvals and transactions for corporate and industry power players. He has helped major institutions like Bristol Myers Squibb redevelop, expand or upgrade life sciences research campuses and facilities, and has also shaped the revitalization and conversion of underused properties across the state, including the Phillipsburg Mall and Trenton’s historic Roebling Shopping Center.
Mr. Costa co-chairs the firm’s multi-state Real Estate Group, which delivers full-service, strategic assistance to clients across the region’s pharmaceutical, higher education, technology and renewable energy industries. He focuses a substantial portion of his practice on pharmaceutical companies, higher education institutions and other advanced technology companies. This work includes obtaining land use approvals and the sale and leasing of research and development facilities and corporate campuses. In the area of industrial use and logistics, he represents clients in purchasing industrial sites, obtaining variance approvals for warehouses and converting sites zoned for retail and other uses into industrial sites through New Jersey’s Local Redevelopment and Housing Law. His experience also extends to representing lenders and borrowers in the negotiation and closing of commercial loans in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
In addition to his transactional and other land use work, Mr. Costa has successfully defended the rights of religious and educational organizations designated as “inherently beneficial uses” before municipal boards, state courts and federal courts. For many of his clients that are religious institutions, he has successful pursued actions in Federal Court under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act.
