April 21, 2025
Stearns Weaver Miller News Update
Elise Batsel has tremendous knowledge and the ability to strategically work through problems.
Chambers USA 2026
Overview
Elise Batsel focuses her practice on land use, zoning, and real estate development matters. She represents national and local developers, property owners, investors, and businesses before local, state, and federal governmental agencies on complex land use and development issues.
Elise has extensive experience securing development approvals and entitlements for a wide-range of projects, including multifamily residential, commercial, industrial, hospitality, master-planned, and mixed-use developments. Her practice includes representing clients in matters involving rezonings, variances, comprehensive plan amendments, permitting, licensing, and other related land use approvals. In addition, Elise has significant experience advising clients on complex economic development initiatives and public-private partnerships. Her work frequently involves navigating regulatory frameworks and negotiating development incentives and governmental agreements to facilitate large-scale projects.
In the transactional real estate arena, Elise represents developers and property owners in acquisitions, dispositions, development agreements, and other transactions associated with the planning, entitlement, and development of real property.
Elise is currently on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), Tampa Bay Chapter. She is a past president of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Tampa Bay.
Elise is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. She is instrumental in the leadership, growth and management of the Tampa office, land development group, and overall strategy of the firm.
Areas of Concentration
Land Use & Zoning
- Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code Amendments
- Local Development Order Approvals – Annexation, Comprehensive Plan Amendments, Land Development Code Amendments, Conditional Uses, Variances, Right-of-Way Vacations
- Development Agreements – Public-Private Partnership Agreements, Economic Development, Concurrency and Impact Fee Agreements
- Special Exceptions, Special Uses, Variances, Code Enforcement – Local Code Enforcement Board Defense and Litigation
- Comprehensive Plan Compliance & Consistency Challenges
- Administrative Hearings & Appeals
Environmental & Natural Resources
- Redevelopment of environmentally impacted sites
- Environmental and wetland permitting issues
Real Estate
- Acquisitions and dispositions
- Complex development agreements
Notable Experience
- Represented real estate developer in securing unanimous approval of a 20-year development agreement for a 4.4 million square foot “hyperscale” data center located on more than 1,300 acres in Fort Meade. The project will be the largest data center facility in Florida to date. Despite intense public scrutiny and political opposition, the development agreement reserves the necessary water capacity for the project—a critical milestone that allows the data center to move forward into permitting.
- Represents the leading nonprofit health care provider in the Tampa Bay and West-Central Florida Regions in obtaining all development entitlements for a 773,582 sq. ft. medical facility, including a regional hospital, ambulatory care center, associated medical offices, and commercial outparcels.
- Represents one of the largest home furnishing and accent retailers in Florida in the development of a 1,200,000 sq. ft. warehousing, distribution and regional headquarters, including a regional showroom, for their central Florida operations in Plant City. Lead land use and environmental counsel, working with the City on the annexation of property into the City, comprehensive plan amendments, rezonings and environmental impact and permitting issues.
- Represents a full-service investment and development firm in obtaining a variety of land use approvals for a new mixed-use development located along the Gandy causeway. The waterfront development includes a mix of multi-family, townhome and commercial uses including 376 units, a dry storage marina with 245 slips, retail, restaurant and 225 accessory wet slips.
- Represents a national real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on the acquisition, selective development, redevelopment and management of multifamily projects, in the infill redevelopment of an 18.5 acre parcel to a mixed-use waterfront and retail project, including nearly 500 waterfront units, 14,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space, and a 2,000 foot linear waterfront pedestrian boardwalk.
- Represents real estate developer in a mixed-use project consisting of 243 multi-family residential units, a waterfront restaurant (with public boat slips and outdoor dining options), a 3,959 square foot co-working facility, 8,264 square feet of retail and significant public amenities, including a public park with open space, sidewalks, benches, a waterfront overlook, a new City seawall and enhanced public access to the water.
- Represents a developer of luxury resorts and hotels, upscale resort communities, golf courses, and hotel-serviced residential and recreational properties, as property rights counsel and in numerous land use appeals regarding the development of a 124-acre waterfront property in Naples, Florida. The project is a $2.2 billion mixed-used redevelopment project, including a five-star 220-room Four Seasons Hotel with residential condos, a golf course, spa, tennis center, retail space, a sports park, and various restaurants.
Credentials
Education
- J.D., with honors, University of Florida Levin College of Law, 1997
- B.A., summa cum laude, University of Colorado, 1993
Admissions
- Florida
Professional & Community Involvement
- National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), Tampa Bay Chapter
- Board of Directors, 2024-Present
- Housing Leadership Council of Tampa Bay, Board of Directors, 2024-2025
- Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Tampa Bay
- Past-President, 2024
- President, 2023
- President-Elect, 2022
- National Delegate, 2021
- Board of Directors, 2015-2019, 2021-2024
- University of Florida (UF) Bergstrom Real Estate Advisory Board, 2018-2023
- Hillsborough County Bar Foundation, Board of Trustees, 2022-2023
Recognition
- Chambers USA, Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use (North & Central Florida), 2025-Present
- The Best Lawyers in America®, 2018-Present
- Florida Super Lawyers, 2017-2018, 2020-Present
- Tampa Bay Business Journal, BusinessWoman of the Year Honoree, 2023
- Florida Trend, Legal Elite NOTABLE – Women Leaders in Law, 2023
- Excellence Award, (CREW) Tampa Bay Sales Transactions, 2017