3 minute read
Jennifer Goodrich Coia
Coia primed to take on legal challenges
Advertisement
BY JENNA PELLETIER | Contributing Writer
AS IN-HOUSE GENERAL COUNSEL
at Providence-based real estate firm Paolino Properties LP, Jennifer Goodrich Coia walks into her office every morning not knowing exactly how she will be putting her legal expertise to use that day.
Coia oversees all legal matters at the firm, which has a diverse portfolio of retail, commercial, residential and hospitality properties in Rhode Island and beyond.
“One day I could be working on a $16 million closing,” Coia said. “But then I might get stopped to discuss how to handle a tenant who is smoking in one of our apartment buildings. Anything you could imagine that could come up related to owning and managing property can wind up on my plate.”
Coia, who has worked for Paolino Properties for about three years, estimates that she oversaw the legal aspects of roughly $75 million of purchases and sales over the past year. These include the $18 million sale of 200 Narragansett Parkway Drive in East Providence and the $6.55 million acquisition of The Westminster Square Building at 10 Dorrance St. in Providence, which had been in receivership.
She also played a large role in Paolino Properties’ development of the 1887 Exchange Building into The Beatrice luxury hotel, which is also home to Bellini restaurant by Ignazio Cipriani of the New York Cipriani restaurant family. Her work included applying for historic tax credits, reviewing contracts with contractors and subcontractors, and negotiating a management agreement with the restaurant group.
In addition, Coia provides legal advice on human resources issues and hires outside counsel when needed for specialized projects.
“It is rare for one employee to touch all areas of the company, but that’s what Jennifer does, and she does it with grace, energy, passion, confidence and, above all, dedication to her work,” Paolino Properties Managing Partner Joseph R. Paolino Jr. said.
Coia says she especially values interacting with the firm’s approximately 50 other employees.
“My office is probably [the company’s] most visited,” Coia said. “I try to get
INSTRUMENTAL ROLE: Jennifer Goodrich Coia, general counsel at Paolino Properties LP in Providence, played a large role in the company’s development of the 1887 Exchange Building into The Beatrice luxury hotel. PBN PHOTO/DAVE HANSEN to know everyone personally, whether I work with them daily or just rarely. Because people come to me for advice, I feel it’s important to make an effort to get to know them as people.” Coia says she’s especially proud of the way she helped the firm and its retail tenants navigate the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had to work very closely with tenants to
‘I don’t think amend their leases to pro vide for terms that could many attorneys help them get through the difficult time,” she said. “I are as happy as was certainly not on the front lines at a hospital, but
I am to go to I felt like I was on the front lines of the retail collapse.” work every day.’ Coia grew up in Narragansett and graduated from
JENNIFER Georgetown University Law Center before working
GOODRICH COIA at the Washington, D.C.,
Paolino Properties LP general counsel and New York offices of the multinational firm Holland & Knight. She returned to Rhode Island when her son and daughter were young.
After her children were born, Coia stepped away from the full-time workforce for many years.
“It was very scary to leave a job at a top law firm, but I didn’t feel that I could do my job, with all of the hours involved, and be a great mom to young children at the same time,” she said.
Once her kids were about 10 years old, she started taking on freelance and contract legal work, and eventually returned to the full-time workforce with her role at Paolino Properties.
Coia first met Paolino in 1989, when he was mayor of Providence and she interned in his press office. They kept in touch, and in recent years, she reached out to see if Paolino’s firm needed additional legal help. Coia says she’s grateful that he didn’t view the gap in her resume as a negative.
“He believed in me and was willing to give me an opportunity to prove myself, which I have,” she said. “I love my job. It’s a difficult profession, with a lot of burnout, and I don’t think many attorneys are as happy as I am to go to work every day.” n
