What can I do for you?
I am a partner in the real estate team. I act for a diverse range of clients in connection with the purchase, sale, management, development and regeneration of their commercial real estate.
The breadth of my client base across the private, institutional, corporate and public sectors means that I can probably help you with any real estate project that you are contemplating – whether you are a pension fund, property investor, offshore investor, high net worth individual, developer, local authority or government quango. And if I can’t, our wider real estate team is so large, I will certainly know someone who can.
By way of example, I acted for one client on the acquisition of a multi-tenanted landmark Docklands property investment for £75 million. The project had to be completed against an aggressive timetable. The new-build had serious construction defects and the site on which it was built suffered from environmental contamination. The client exchanged contracts within the agreed deadline and has relied on provisions to deal with the construction and environmental issues to save hundreds of thousands of pounds.
I worked with another client in connection with the compulsory purchase of part of their headquarters also in a prime London location. This seven-year project culminated in the client achieving a settlement substantially higher than they had expected and the completion of an ancillary land-swap, sale and leaseback of part. In addition, they received a grant of a series of easements that together have unlocked a wider area of their site for redevelopment.
Supporting my clients’ objectives
One of my favourite examples of a difficult project that went well was the pre-let to my client, the London Borough of Southwark, of an entire City development scheme for the benefit of their entire back-office function (previously housed in 60 separate locations) under one roof. This involved the negotiation of a suite of complex development documents, ancillary agreements and lease with an initial annual rent of £7.2 million. The transaction had to be concluded in two weeks from first instruction to completion. The project involved our construction, planning, tax and environmental teams. We exchanged within the deadline: the client is now in the building. The fact that we had these specialist teams to call on made this possible.
What do others say?
I was cited by Legal Business as a Top 50 “rainmaker” and am well regarded in Chambers UK. A client said “If it were not for Nick and his team, we would have had to go to London and pay much much more for a comparable service”.
Mark Boyes (LendLease) said of using Nick and his team “it just seemed the right thing to do, and has worked out exceptionally well”. In a recent client survey, the team was praised for being responsive, proactive and providing “very good, commercial advice…an excellent service with a good understanding of our business – it makes my life much easier!”
What else should you know?
I am on the editorial team of our real estate e-newsletter Hot Property, which keeps clients up to speed with current law and practice. (To download the latest copy of this or any of our other publications, see the "Publications and updates" section on the right of this page.)