Jonathan Mechanic

Jonathan Mechanic is chairman of Fried Frank’s Real Estate Department. Prior to joining Fried Frank as a partner, he was general counsel and a managing director of HRO International, a real estate development organization responsible for developing more than 2.5 million square feet of office space in Manhattan.

Jon routinely counsels developers, owners, investors, REITs, and lenders in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions. Notably, he represents JP Morgan in connection with its redevelopment of 270 Park Avenue into a new 2.5 million-square-foot headquarters building and Citadel on its master leases of 350 Park Avenue and 40 East 52nd Street as well as on the joint venture with Vornado and Rudin Management to develop a new 1.7 million-square-foot headquarters building on the 350 Park/40 East 52nd Street site where they will lease approximately 850,000 square feet with contraction and expansion rights. Jon has led joint ventures for Park Tower with Brookfield and with Rockefeller Center Development Group on the five multifamily projects that have been constructed or, in the case of Rockefeller Center Development Group, are being constructed in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. He represented CW Capital Asset Management in its sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village to Blackstone Group and Ivanhoé Cambridge. Jon also represents landlords and tenants in commercial leasing and ground lease transactions, including his recent representations of MCR Hotels in its ground lease of the legendary Gramercy Park Hotel; 21st Century Fox and News Corp. on their headquarters leases at 1211 Avenue of Americas; Citigroup in its long-term lease of its global headquarters at 388-390 Greenwich Street and the exercise of its option to purchase the building; Coach in the sale-leaseback of its global headquarters at 10 Hudson Yards; Ernst & Young in its more than 600,000-square-foot lease for its new headquarters at One Manhattan West; Shiseido in its 225,000-square-foot lease at 390 Madison Avenue for its US headquarters; and JP Morgan in its 437,000-square-foot-lease at 390 Madison Avenue. 

Jon has taught the real estate transactions course at Harvard Law School for more than ten years. He also lectures regularly for NYU Law School, the Real Estate Board of New York and the Practising Law Institute, and is a co-author of The Commercial Office Lease Handbook published by the American Bar Association.

Jon was recently awarded the 2023 New York Law Journal Lifetime Achievement Award and profiled for his outstanding contributions by the Financial Times. He was awarded the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award from New York University and the 2016 Chambers USA Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession Award. For a decade, Jon has been recognized by Chambers USA as a “Star Individual” in real estate. He is consistently included on Commercial Observer’s “Power 100” list of the most powerful people in New York real estate and was the only practicing attorney to make the list in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. In 2019, Jon was joined by land use partner Melanie Meyers as the only two practicing attorneys on the list and in 2020 he was one of three practicing attorneys recognized. In 2021 and 2022, Jon was recognized by City & State New York in its “Real Estate Power 100” list and its "Law Power 100" list. In addition, he was named “MVP Lawyer of the Year” by Law360 in 2019, 2013, and 2011. Fried Frank’s Real Estate Department has been recognized as Law360’s Real Estate Group of the Year and was recognized by Chambers USA as the 2019 Real Estate Law Firm of the Year and was awarded the 2018
Real Estate Client Service Award and the 2009 Award for Excellence in Real Estate.

Jon is a member of the Executive Committee, Board of Governors for the Real Estate Board of New York and the Board of Trustees of NYU Law School. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, a member of the Advisory Board of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for the Columbia University Center for Urban Real Estate, and a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

Jon received his JD from New York University School of Law in 1977, where he served as an editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif, and his BA, magna cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1974. 

He is admitted to practice in New York.