Kurt E. Kruckeberg
Attorney
Direct: 206.470.7640
Main: 206.623.1745
Fax: 206.623.7789
Legal Assistant: Vicki Hadley
Phone: 206.470.7641
Professional Overview
Kurt has devoted his career to understanding the challenges faced by developers, lenders, and property owners. Kurt takes great pride in offering an integrated suite of services to his clients, including experience ranging from office, multifamily, industrial, and retail projects. His work often involves sophisticated transactions for clients in the education, technology, and healthcare industries.
Clients appreciate Kurt’s ability to tailor creative solutions for complicated deals, including structuring airspace condominiums, ground leases and leasebacks, and joint ventures for the ownership and development of real estate projects. Kurt is known for his commitment to client service, responsiveness, and ability to get deals done.
In addition to his deep real estate background, Kurt assists lenders and borrowers with commercial, construction, and permanent financing.
Kurt is passionate about enriching and challenging the next generation of lawyers and currently serves as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Washington School of Law where he teaches Civil Procedure.
- Represented a regional healthcare facility restructure its portfolio of off-campus emergency-departments, including negotiating and drafting a complex suite of ground lease, leaseback, purchase-and-sale, and financing documents.
- Represent a real estate investment firm with sale, development, leasing, and operational matters relating to its national portfolio of industrial and commercial properties.
- Represent charter and private school clients with siting and assemblage, financing, purchase, development, and operational matters.
- Represent a regional healthcare network in connection with purchases, sales, and medical-office leasing matters, including the purchase of another regional healthcare network and its real estate assets for more than $400,000,000.
- Represent a church client with air-space condominiumization of its real estate asset and sale of an air-space unit for development of a condominium tower.
- Represent a real estate joint venture in connection with acquisitions of commercial office and mixed-use properties in Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Salt Lake City.
- Represent developers in the preparation of condominium and community governance documents for residential, commercial, and mixed-use projects.
- Represent a regional resort community on a variety of development-related matters.
- Represented the seller of more than 50,000 acres of land to the State of Washington to establish Washington’s first community forest.
- Represented landowner in an eastern-Washington conservation project, including assistance with water-rights adjudication and the division and transfer of water rights.
- Pro bono representation through the Washington Lawyers for the Arts of children’s book authors in a dispute with their publisher.
- Part of the firm’s pro bono team representing a same-sex couple in a nationally prominent discrimination lawsuit against a Washington business, Arlene’s Flowers, that refused to provide flowers for the couple’s wedding.
- Kurt is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Washington School of Law, where he teaches Civil Procedure, 2016 - present.
- Panelist, Understanding Your Legal Rights During COVID-19: Real Estate, Washington Lawyers for the Arts Online Workshop, July 2020.
- Author, Ask a Legal Professional, Puget Sound Business Journal (Form 17 Disclosure Statements), September 2018.
- Author, Ask a Legal Professional, Puget Sound Business Journal (Property Easements and Licenses), October 2017.
- Author, Ask a Legal Professional, Puget Sound Business Journal (Notarizing Amended Lease), August 2016.
- Author, Ask a Legal Professional, Puget Sound Business Journal (Warranty of Seisin), March 2015.
- "Ethical Considerations in Data Security," 2014 Cyber-Risk Management Program for General Business Lawyers, Seattle University Continuing Legal Education.
- "Turn-of-the-Century Disciplinary Notices," NWLawyer, Dec. 2014 - Jan. 2015.
- "Moving Forward: An Interview with Seattle University School of Law Dean Annette Clark," NWLawyer, March 2014.
- Author, Ask a Legal Professional, Puget Sound Business Journal (Easements), March 2014.
- Author, Ask a Legal Professional, Puget Sound Business Journal (Abandoning Commercial Leases), May 2013
- "If You Build It, They Will Sue: Legal Challenges Facing Stadium and Arena Development Projects," 2013 ABA Annual Meeting.
- "Mission-Driven Business, the Social Purpose Corporation, and You," De Novo, Aug. 2012 (with Ben Golden).
- "JOBS Act Changes Business as Usual," HCMP Legislative Alert, April 2012.
- "Washington Welcomes a New Kind of Business Entity: the Social Purpose Corporation," HCMP Legislative Alert, April 2012.
- "Copyright 'Band-Aids' and the Future of Reform," 34 Seattle University Law Review 1545 (2011)
- Washington State Bar Association
Editorial Advisory Committee - King County Bar Association
- QLaw - The GLBT Bar Association of Washington
- Urban Land Institute
- Washington Lawyers for the Arts
- Greater Seattle Business Association
- Winner, Connect Media's 2020 Lawyers in Real Estate Award
- Received a 2021 Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch recognition for Real Estate Law
- Repeatedly recognized as a Rising Star by Washington Super Lawyers, most recently in 2020
- University of Washington School of Law Faculty Excellence in Graduate Education Award, 2019
- King County Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Mentorship Award Finalist, 2016
- King County Bar Association President’s Award, 2015
- J.D., Seattle University School of Law, summa cum laude, 2011
Editor in Chief, Seattle University Law Review, 2010 - 2011
Class of 2011 Recipient of the Dean's Medal
Co-President, Outlaws, 2009 - 2011
Teaching Assistant for First-Year Property Course - M.M., University of Colorado-Boulder, Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy, 2006
- B.A., Luther College, magna cum laude, Music and Sociology, 2003
Pi Kappa Lambda
Regents Scholar
Weston Noble Scholar
I'm originally from Iowa but now call Seattle home. In my spare time, I enjoy listening to and singing classical music; the occasional hike; and curling up to read a book--I'm currently alternating between biographies of the Chief Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and trashy detective novels.