Meet the Lawyer Driving Major Florida Land Deals

The head of a real estate development company pointed to land-use and zoning attorney Alicia Lewis as a key player in convincing Dania Beach residents, who strongly disagreed with a new, nearly 200 apartment project, that it was in their best interests.

“Members of the association would literally come out to meetings with pitchforks,” Larry Baum, managing partner at developer Stellar Communities LLC, said about the Emerald Hills Apartments project. “They came out with 200 people threatening and becoming violent, so they had to pull us out of there. But she helped me turn them around, do a 180 on them. She was great.”

Lewis was successful, Baum said, due to her commitment to the process, which over a period of three years, involved more than just drafting legal documents. For instance, Baum said Lewis stayed at numerous association meetings till nearly midnight, talking with neighbors and resolving any trepidation they had about the projects. He said Lewis was polished, bright and did not “straight out contradict people,” but smoothly changed minds.

And this is just one example of how Lewis, a woman in a male-dominated field, has relied on hard work to prevail for her clients while reaching her current role as a partner and the land-use and zoning section leader at Kelley Kronenberg in Fort Lauderdale.

Lewis represents real estate developers, private property owners, municipalities and private companies before federal, state and local government agencies. And she provides solutions for her clients in obtaining items like land-use plan amendments, rezoning and site plan approvals before these agencies.

Now, Lewis will steer the new Kelley Kronenberg section in a post-COVID-19 world facing questions that include whether interest rates would hurt the South Florida real estate business (She said no), and building the law firm’s practice by using pivotal assets unheard of just a decade ago, like social media.

But Lewis’ journey does not start at Kelley Kronenberg. It began less than three decades ago in Atlanta, where her family said the 8-year-old had some professions in mind. Lewis said being a firewoman, police officer or an attorney were all contenders. But it was not until a few years later when Lewis knew the profession she wanted to pursue.

“Once I learned about Brown v. Board of Education in middle school, understanding that lawyers figured that out and changed the world, it was just so cool,” Lewis said. “I knew I wanted to do it.”

Lewis attended Auburn University and studied political science. Her interest in government administration led her to earn a master’s degree in the subject from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Studying instate led to lower costs to earn the degree, and in order to cover the cost of tuition, Lewis competed in the Miss Alabama program.

“It’s you on stage, even if you don’t like the idea of a woman in a swimsuit, there are years of preparation of working out and improving yourself,” Lewis said, who placed in top spots in each of the four years she competed. “It required looking at yourself, how you present yourself to the world and being involved in your community.”

These skills helped Lewis transition to the University of Alabama School of Law and her ultimate choice to pursue a career as a land-use attorney. Lewis soon worked at Greenspoon Marder, an AM Law 200 firm, but noticed an assumption that other lawyers had about her previous experience and physical appearance.

“As a woman, longevity in your legal career should be based on your skill set, and not how you look,” Lewis said. “When people assume that or treated me as I was trying to utilize my physical appearance to get ahead or practice law, it can create in a woman an assumption that is all I have to offer. Once I don’t look a certain way because everyone gets older, I would have issues continuing to be successful in my career.”

Lewis said the assumption is difficult to deal with as a woman, especially since giving presentations and talking with people is critical to her day-to-day role as a land-use attorney, which is unfair since the opposite gender does not have that problem.

“My male counterparts don’t have to deal or think about that,” Lewis said. “It is almost as if men get better with age and that assumption is always there, and it is not always there for a woman.”

‘Wizard of Oz’

But Lewis does not allow that to impede on her progression as a rising young professional in the legal field.

Lewis worked for six years at Greenspoon Marder, moving up from an associate position to a senior associate role, but she said the law firm chose not to promote her to a partner position. She resigned from the law firm in October and took some time off.

In January, Lewis accepted an offer from Kelley Kronenberg to become a partner in the law firm and lead the land-use group. Since then, among her achievements is her work for Topgolf, a sports entertainment company that opened a Miami Gardens location.

Moving forward, Lewis sees the trend of “living, working and doing everything from their homes” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, will continue to grow in a post-COVID-19 world.

“What the pandemic has done is make the real estate market focus on live, work, play,” Lewis said. “That has created a lot of opportunities for redevelopment because we changed how we lived and access things that we need, that developments, like Pembroke Pines City Center. But then you also have to concentrate on retail and grocery.”

Through Lewis’ use of social media, she connects with the development community while building relationships to bring in new clients. It allows her to create and structure new business deals, which she does not see diminishing due to a rise in interest rates because of a limited inventory of land and a self-sustaining, growing population.

“I don’t see things slowing down as far as development goes, but I do see a change in how properties are assembled,” Lewis said. “Previously, a lot of my clients thought they needed so much land to build something, especially commercial and industrial clients. They are reconfiguring how they build. The need has pushed for more creativity.”

Lewis credits some of her success to word-of-mouth from previous clients, like Larry Baum and his Dania Beach project. For Lewis, she keeps in mind that her assistance, such as with drafting land use documents and real estate contracts, will be needed for decades after she closes a deal.

“Part of the life of a land-use attorney is really being able to understand how a deal works and looking into the future to see that the development is still going to work 20 years from now,” Lewis said. “I feel like I am the ‘Wizard of Oz.’ That’s what I call myself sometimes, as the woman behind the curtain, not the man, because I am working on deals and helping to build our community.”

Alicia J. Lewis

Born: 1983, Canton, Ohio

Education: J.D, University of Alabama; M.P.A. University of Alabama at Birmingham; B.A. Auburn University

Experience: Partner, Kelley Kronenberg, 2021; Senior Attorney, Greenspoon Marder, 2014-2020; Associate Attorney, Counts & Associates, 2014; Associate Attorney, Nowell Sparks, 2012-2014.

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