Real estate attorney Jim Shimberg to open Tampa office of boutique law firm
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 8, 2024

One of Tampa’s most prominent real estate attorneys is leaving developer Strategic Property Partners to launch a new venture.

Jim Shimberg, who was Water Street Tampa developer SPP’s general counsel since its founding in 2014, will open the Tampa office of Miami-based Shubin Law Group. Shubin, like Shimberg, specializes in real estate, land use and development law.

Before joining SPP, Shimberg served as Tampa city attorney under former Mayor Bob Buckhorn. Prior to his stint as city attorney, Shimberg spent 26 years as a real estate and land use attorney at Holland & Knight LLP in Tampa.

In the last few years, as Water Street came to life, Shimberg’s role at SPP was reduced, and he’s been spending time on private clients under his own law firm. Joining Shubin, he said, will build on the work he’s been doing on the side and also open the door to working on large-scale projects in South Florida.

SPP is controlled by Cascade Investment LLC, the investment fund of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. In June 2023, Cascade bought out Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik’s managing share of SPP.

As SPP is in the planning stages of Water Street’s second phase, it was a good time for both Vinik and Shimberg to move on from the development firm.

“[Water Street] was the opportunity of a lifetime for me, and it was a natural evolution after leaving the city,” Shimberg told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. “But that project has been amazing, and we’ve changed Tampa. It gave me the ability to be on a different side — it gave me a different perspective, and it rounded out my whole career.”

Shubin Law founder John Shubin is also the founder and CEO of The Euclid Group, a consulting firm specializing in large-scale urban planning and development. Beyond Shimberg, Shubin has also brought on board Sarasota land use attorneys Robert K. Lincoln and Stacy Dillard-Spahn, both of whom are of counsel to the firm.

“The decision to strategically expand our firm to Tampa, motivated by the opportunity to collaborate with Jim, aligns with the region’s robust growth and emerging competitive opportunities,” Shubin said in a statement. “To me, I couldn’t think of a better person to work with us to further our skill set. For what we do, he’s the best person, and we’re delighted to have him on board.”

Shimberg said he’s known Shubin as a family friend for 40 years. The two started talking about collaborating when Shimberg was working for clients under his own firm and started to seriously discuss him joining Shubin in late 2023.

For the near term, Shimberg said, he will continue to work from SPP’s offices in Sparkman Wharf as Shubin sorts out its real estate needs in this market. He envisions growing the firm to four or five attorneys and several consultants in the first two years. He said he’s looking forward to the dynamic of being part of an office versus a solo practitioner.

“That didn’t really fulfill me because I really need interaction with people,” Shimberg said of his private work. “I need to be part of a team. It also excites me to have the opportunity to grow something here.”