Expertise - Real Estate
The Real Estate department advises on all aspects of real estate: from buying, selling and leasing property to development schemes, joint ventures, investment structures, financing, estate management, licensing, property disputes, litigation and dispute resolution, planning, environment and construction.We advise on the establishment and operation of property investment funds and structured finance schemes with emphasis on tax efficiency. Our clients are diverse – they include UK and overseas private investors, investment funds, developers, pension funds, government and statutory agencies, unit trusts, retailers, service operators, manufacturers, charities, hospital trusts, hotel, pub and leisure operators, financial institutions and professional enterprises.
We also have a specialist Real Estate Recovery Team, advising banks, property owners and occupiers and insolvency practitioners on all issues arising from the distress in the property sector and the economy generally.
We have close links with leading UK surveyors and many of those in the forefront of the property market. We are experienced lawyers with a full understanding of the property industry in which our clients operate and apply our advice accordingly.
The team are described in the legal press as “extremely effective and professional closers” with “experience of highly structured and complex deals often turning deals around in a short time scale”.
Our recent work includes advising:
- Blacks Leisure on their successful Creditors Voluntary Arrangement and the acquisition of 196 Birthdays stores for
- Pinewood Shepperton on their proposed development of a 50 acre site in Buckinghamshire to create a vast "living" film studio
- HIH Global on the circa £40m acquisition of Friary Court, EC3
- Harbert European Real Estate on its £64m acquisition of a portfolio of five modern distribution centres throughout the UK
- Mountgrange Investment Management LLP and Curzon Global Partners on their purchase of a portfolio of 28 properties from Prudential Investment Managers for £140m
- Jaguar Capital on their purchase of 10 Queen Street Place, London for circa £140m
- McAleer & Rushe on their £200m redevelopment of the Swiss Centre in Leicester Square
- Fimalac on their £290m acquisition and agreement for the subsequent construction of 30 North Colonnade in Canary Wharf
- Derwent London on the £111.8m sale of Greenwich Reach
- Criterion Capital on the £200m acquisition of the Queensmere and Observatory Shopping Centre in Slough
