newsletter

The firm has had an extremely successful year and continues to act on numerous projects and deals for key players in the commercial property world.

Deals > Development and Construction > Retail Warehousing > Distribution > Offices

Shopping Centres and Retail > Litigation > Educational Premises > Personnel

Deals

The following are a selection of transactions that we have worked on from Spring 2001 to Spring 2002, including development projects, retail warehousing, distribution centres, offices, shopping centres and educational premises.

The year has been a busy one. For example in the last quarter of 2001 the firm was instructed on over £200million of acquisitions by Royal & Sun Alliance, who increased their weighting in property by over £300million in that period.

During the year we have received instructions from various new clients including UK Land and the Cargill group.

Development and Construction

Mark Bryan, assisted by Kamran Rahman, is advising on Royal & Sun Alliance’s prestigious redevelopment of 1 Bartholomew Lane in the City of London. The site is located adjacent to the Bank of England and the London Stock Exchange and the first stage of the proposed redevelopment will increase the current office space to approximately 95,000 sq ft. A planning application has now been submitted and to date our team’s advice has covered matters such as planning, title,boundaries, rights of light, landlord and tenant issues and highway matters. The development is situated in the Bank Conservation Area.

Morley Fund Management (advised by Declan Power) in a joint venture with The Property Merchant Group is developing a scheme in Maddox Street, London W1. The current buildings provide short term investment income pending development as a larger mixed- use scheme of offices, retail and residential.

Declan Power is acting for Wates Group on a potential office/ mixed use development site in Central London.

Knowle (Bracknell) Limited, a member of the Cargill group of companies, advised by Mark Bryan and James Mobbs sold a 29,000 sq ft development at Bracknell following completion of a letting of the whole to Chesterton International.Mark Bryan is acting for The Churchmanor Estates Company plc on a joint venture arrangement with Churchmanor as development manager for Norwich Union Life & Pensions Limited. The project involves a research park in Chesterford, Cambridge.We are instructed by LandSecuritiesTrillium on a potential development of a large site currently occupied as government offices in Leeds. We continue to provide development advice on a number of long term projects including the extension of the Hill Street Shopping Centre, Middlesbrough, The Parade Shopping Centre, Swindon, St Germain Walk and Chequers Court in Huntingdon towncentre, a retail site in Watford, a mixed-use site in Brighton and offices at Hillingdon Circus.Our construction team has been busy throughout the year providing advice on the construction elements of investment purchases as well as advising on building contracts, consultants’ appointments and warranties for a number of development projects for clients such as Moorfield Group, Royal & Sun Alliance, Morley Fund Management and The Property Merchant Group. In particular, the forward fundings of the retail warehousing schemes referred to over the page involved extensive input from our construction team.

Retail Warehousing

Declan Power and Chris Wilkinson acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on the forward funding of a development at Longfield Road Retail Park, Tunbridge Wells.

The £50 million retail park is pre-let to B& Q, Currys, PC World and DFS. The scheme is to be jointly developed by Castlemore Securities and Dixons Stores Group and completion is scheduled for 23 March 2003. The site’s four units include a 107,300 sq ft B& Q warehouse as well as 500 car parking spaces. Paul Matcham reviewed the construction documentation. The transaction was completed in two weeks, a considerable achievement given the complexity of the matter and the usual time- frame for such projects.

Declan Power and Kamran Rahman acted on the forward purchase of a prime retail warehouse development in Stoke on Trent from Henry Boot Developments Ltd for Royal & Sun Alliance. The unit is 130,000 sq ft and is pre- let to B& Q. The client’s total commitment to the project is approximately £25million. Chris Wilkinson acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on the acquisition for £17million of an operational retail unit occupied by B& Q at Trimdon Street, Sunderland. Paul Matcham carried out a legal audit of the construction documentation prior to the purchase.

Declan Power and James Mobbs acted on the investment purchase of Lancaster City Retail Park from Capital & Regional plc for Royal & Sun Alliance for £16.8 million. The site provides a good opportunity for active management. The scheme has seven retail units occupied by Matalan, JJB Sports, Wickes, MFI, Carpetright and Harveys.

Mark Bryan and Shehrnaz Dolasa acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on the forward funding of a 125,000 sq ft scheme pre-let to B& Q at Roneo Corner, Romford. The property is situated behind a large superstore and detailed consideration needed to be given to arrangements with the adjoining occupier. The client's commitment is £27million.

Distribution
Warehousing Declan Power acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on the purchase of a 239,720 sq ft distribution centre from Green Property, at Huntworth Business Park, Bridgwater for £13.25 million. The centre is let to Somerfield. Chris Wilkinson acted for Rydon Group Limited on a letting to MFI and subsequent sale of three warehouse units in Leatherhead.

Offices
• Declan Power acted for law firm Vizards Wyeth on the lease for around £400,000 per annum of a new office headquarters at Admirals Park, part of Land Securities’ Crossways scheme, the largest mixed- use business park on the M25. • Chris Wilkinson acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on the £7.9 million acquisition from Helical Bar of a recently completed office headquarters in Hammersmith, London W6 fully let to Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Management Limited. • Mark Bryan acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on the purchase of and leaseback of the 178,500 sq ft headquarters office building of a major insurance company in Cheltenham for approximately £28million. The transaction was completed within six working days of receipt of instructions. • Ewen Cameron acted for LandSecuritiesTrillium on the subletting of a number of surplus office premises within the M25. • Nissan Finance advised by Declan Power completed a pre- letting of their new headquarters building at Eagle 2, Watford for a 16 year lease at a rent around £400,000 per annum. • At Pall Mall Court, Manchester Chris Wilkinson acted for Royal & Sun Alliance on a pre- letting to Gainsborough Morrison Limited for the provision of serviced office accommodation of 45,000 sq ft at approximately £850,000 per annum. Our construction partner, Paul Matcham, was involved in the drafting and negotiation of the construction documentation and the appointment of consultants for the extensive refurbishment of the building.		• Ewen Cameron acted for Gort Securities on the purchase of the share capital of St Giles Investment Limited, an SPV. The property held is based in Norwich and is now subject to office and hotel redevelopment. • Lee Mordecai completed two substantial lettings of premises at 18 King William Street, EC3. • Chris Wilkinson acted for the film and television production company Shine Limited on the lease of its new headquarters office premises in London, W8. • Mark Bryan acted for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein on the taking of two leases of property in The Matrix Building, 9 Aldgate High Street. The transaction took place under a very tight timescale. • Declan Power acted for The Cost Reduction Partnership on the lease at around £200,000 per annum of their main offices in Westminster from Mars Pension Trustees. • Ewen Cameron acted for Gort Securities on the purchase of a 3.6 acre industrial site with office development potential in Darlington. • Shehrnaz Dolasa acted for ASA Creditsafe. com on the taking of leases at 100- 106 Leonard Street London, EC2 and Caerphilly Business Park, Wales.

Shopping Centres and General Retail
Mark Bryan and Kamran Rahman are advising Royal & Sun Alliance on The Hill Street Shopping
Centre, Middlesbrough including providing development advice on the proposed extension of the Centre which has involved a number of pre- letting negotiations.

The Churchmanor Estates Company plc is actively managing its centre at St Germain Walk and Chequers Court, Huntingdon and our team led by Mark Bryan provides the legal advice on a whole range of issues.
Mark Bryan and Shehrnaz Dolasa continue to advise Royal & Sun Alliance on their shopping centre of 30 units at The Parade, Swindon.

City & St James Property Limited advised by Chris Wilkinson completed an agreement for lease to Clinton Cards of a large store and connected coffee shop in Bishops Stortford following extensive refurbishment works carried out by the tenant.

Ewen Cameron has acted on the grant of leases of various London high street properties including the lease of retail premises on Kensington High Street to the Outdoor Group at an annual rental of £350,000.

Litigation
Caroline Wort and Malcolm Roger continue to act on a wide variety of property litigation issues including lease renewals, claims for dilapidations and recovery of arrears of rent and service charge for Royal & Sun Alliance, LandSecuritiesTrillium, Gort Securities and the Moorfield Group. The introduction of Parts 55 and 56 of the Civil Procedure Rules inOctober 2001 has seen some benefits, particularly for landlords, on lease renewals and recovery of possession.

Caroline Wort has recently been instructed by Gort Securities on the Health and Safety Executive’s application for a new lease of its offices at Kiln House, Norwich.

Regrettably, the economic climate has seen the return of insolvent tenants for some of our landlord clients. We have been acting on the mitigation of losses suffered. For example, we have taken effective steps to recover possession of premises for a speedy re- let for LandSecuritiesTrillium in relation to a property in London, SW11. We have also successfully pursued an American guarantor on behalf of the Moorfield Group.

Educational Premises
Mark Bryan and James Mobbs are advising North West Kent College of Further Education in connection with matters arising on their Dartford Campus, including advising on a proposed refurbishment.

Paul Matcham acted for the Froebel Institute on the drafting, negotiation and completion of the building contract and the appointment of the consultants involved for a project to build a new junior school at Ibstock Place School, Roehampton.

Personnel
We currently have five commercial property partners, Mark Bryan, Ewen Cameron, Lee Mordecai, Declan Power and Chris Wilkinson. Chris joined the firm from a large City practice in March 2001. He is particularly experienced in property investment and development.We also have five assistant solicitors in the commercial property department,Shehrnaz Dolasa, Louise Jones, James Mobbs, Kamran Rahman and Rebecca Tudor Williams. Paul Matcham, head of construction, continues to be closely involved on a number of our development projects.

Andrew Whittaker is head of commercial property litigation and the firm's managing partner. In this year's busy schedule Andrew provided a number of precedent documents to one of the leading legal guides on mortgages and gave a number of seminars. Andrew also works with assistant solicitors, Caroline Wort and Malcolm Roger, advising on commercial property litigation.