In our latest roundup, more office space is being demolished/converted than built, Landingplace Hotels launches two conversation brands, developers cite expenses with low-income housing, and more! A new White House directive aims to accelerate federal permitting and unlock financial incentives for large-scale data center builds, along with related energy and…
Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law Blog
Real Estate & Construction News Roundup (7/23/25) – Builders Look for Startups, AI Transforms Real Estate and Interest Rates Stall Construction Momentum
Our latest roundup features adaptive reuse in the hospitality industry, falling home prices in major markets, loan maturity in real estate, and more! Builders are ramping up their own venture funding arms, and they’re looking for startups that are commercial-ready, rather than starting out. (Matthew Thibault, Construction Dive) Adaptive reuse…
From Waste to Wealth: Texas Supreme Court Ruling in Cactus Water Defines Produced Water Ownership, Sets Stage for Clarity on Critical Mineral Markets in Texas
On June 27, 2025, the Texas Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Cactus Water Services, LLC v. COG Operating, LLC, No. 23-0676, resolving a high-stakes dispute over the ownership of produced water—a vexing byproduct of oil and gas production that is increasingly being viewed as a resource rather than…
Pillsbury’s Guide to Data Centers
Pillsbury’s experience with data centers dates to the dot-com era. Since then, we’ve counseled the industry as proprietary centers were supplemented, and in some cases supplanted, by physical and cloud-based systems of larger dedicated enterprises. The data center landscape is now international in scope and diverse in speciation, with edge,…
Texas Clears Penultimate Hurdle to Class VI Primacy: What it Means for CCS and State-Led Permitting
On June 9, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed granting the State of Texas primary enforcement authority—commonly referred to as “primacy”—over the permitting and regulation of Class VI underground injection control (UIC) wells under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This would authorize the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC)…
Resilience: Unlocking Private Debt for Energy and Infrastructure | Episode 6 (6.11.25)
In the newest episode of Resilience, Pillsbury’s Shellka Arora-Cox and Brookfield Asset Management’s Brian Callahan discuss one of the most dynamic corners of the energy and infrastructure market: private debt. (Editor’s note: The following transcript has been edited for clarity.) Shellka Arora-Cox: Welcome to Resilience, the podcast where we explore how grit and innovation…
Investing in Data Centers
It seems like such a simple question. Who owns data centers? Ownership structures in the digital economy are more varied than might appear on the surface. While the largest computing and cloud service providers, such as Apple, Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure) and Google (Cloud)—also known as “hyperscalers”—do own and operate…
Interior Department Streamlines NEPA, ESA, NHPA Reviews for Geothermal Energy Projects
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on May 30 that it will invoke emergency permitting procedures to accelerate environmental review of select geothermal energy projects, with three proposed geothermal projects in Nevada to be among the first projects to undergo expedited review. This action follows President Trump’s January…
Powering Data Centers with Nuclear Generation
The rapid growth of electricity demand from data centers has emerged as a major challenge for the U.S. power sector. Much of this demand is being driven by the deployment of large learning models (LLMs) and generative artificial intelligence (AI). These workloads require large-volume, high-uptime computational infrastructure, and correspondingly large,…
From Shale to Salt: Texas Supreme Court Applies Uniform Rule for Ownership of Subsurface Caverns
In a closely watched opinion issued on May 16, 2025, the Texas Supreme Court in Myers-Woodward, LLC v. Undergrounds Services Markham, LLC, — S.W.3d —, No. 22-0878, 2025 WL 1415892 (Tex. May 16, 2025) resolved a long-uncertain issue of subsurface property rights in the context of salt dome mining. The…