Big commercial real estate deals don't happen without behind-the-scenes players. Philip Skinner, a partner at the law firm Arnall Golden Gregory, has been one of them for some of the biggest developments in the city, including Atlantic Station, One Atlantic Center and Crowne Pointe. In his free time, Skinner takes center stage as part of Sound Investment, an a cappella singing group that recently performed at an Atlanta Braves game.

Q: How did you come to your specialization?

Sean Drakes/Special (ENLARGE)

Phil Skinner (left) at rehearsal with members of Sound Investment: (from left) Rob Carter, Bill Stiefel, Collin Weber, Hayes Wilson and Holt Sanders.

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A: It's not, certainly, something that you learn in law school. It was basically a product of coming to a firm [that had a] need for someone willing to get into the practice area.

Q: How was the market different?

A: We're in a cycle now, of course, that anybody would admit was down. ... We were just coming out of a down cycle back then. There was a lot of development occurring due to the increase in population in Atlanta. And we had clients that were funded primarily by Dutch pension funds that were looking to invest in assets across the United States. I got to be thrown into major transactions on acquisitions in New York, L.A., Chicago, Boston, Houston and others cities.

Q: What's the biggest challenge?

A: I don't know if it's a thousand moving parts, but there are a lot of moving parts to the acquisition of major commercial or office properties. It comes to a pretty big crescendo, where everything has to come together at once. Also, there are no shortages of personalities in the development world, and you have to negotiate your way through that territory.

Q: What's your favorite project?

A: Atlantic Station is the poster child for successful mixed-use urban redevelopment in the United States. ... We were, as a firm, pretty visionary to make the decision to move there, to jump the freeway. We were the first office tenant to really validate the developers vision, to say, 'Yeah, we'll move in. We'll become a part of what you are imagining can happen over there.'

Q: What's it like out there now?

A: Money is harder to get. There's a lot of money, but it's not moving right now. ... Commercial real estate deals are just very hard to make. I've had this year, on three occasions, had deals ... terminated or canceled that I would have been virtually certain would have been built in another year. It was a client saying, 'You know what? I'm not going to take this risk right now. I don't have to do something now, and I'm not going to.'

Q: Do you have a sense of when it will improve?

A: People are still reading the tea leaves on that. People are hopeful that the election will provide some sort of turning point in the economy. I think that's hopeful. Maybe true. But that's earlier than I would guess. I think we could well see ourselves into the middle of 2009 before we get the sense that things are turning around. I don't wish that to be the case, however.

Q: How did you get into the singing group?

A: I was working with a client ... and I said, 'What do you do when you're not doing what you do.' And he said, 'I like to sing,' and I said, 'Well, I like to sing.' And he told me about this group, called Sound Investment. ... We rehearse every Monday night except for holidays. The music ranges from 'My Girl' to 'Rawhide' to 'Midnight Train to Georgia.' ... We've all been singing our whole lives, and we're all pretty good at it. It's everything from doctors to lawyers to bankers to builders to lenders to psychiatrists to job counselors. The age range is 27 to 62. ... We've sung to thousands at the biggest venues, like the Braves. The best venues are in someone's home. Most people have never experienced the kind of singing we do.