News & Events | News

Thursday 5th June 2008

European law firm SJ Berwin LLP’s real estate division has advised long standing client British Land on the sale of two Debenhams department stores in Hull and Staines.  Each store was sold for around £16 million.  The Hull store was sold to Danmar Investments Limited and the Staines store was sold to Canada Life Limited.

The SJ Berwin team was led by Jason Tann, assisted by Louise Tainton.  Michael Duffy and Meera Lakhani of Lawrence Graham acted for Canada Life Limited.

This marks the third and fourth sales of Debenhams stores made by British Land over the last 6 months.  SJ Berwin previously advised British Land on the sale of two Debenhams department stores in Luton and Winchester for a combined total of just under £22 million.

For further information please contact:

Jason Tann, Real Estate Associate on +44 (0) 20 7111 2915, or by email jason.tann@sjberwin.com

Jodie Yates, Business Development Assistant on +44 (0) 20 7111 5907, email jodie.yates@sjberwin.com            

Notes to Editors:

SJ Berwin LLP

• On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin LLP, an English limited liability partnership, took over the business of the SJ Berwin general partnership.  SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the Global Chambers Awards 2007 and Private Equity Team of the Year at the Financial News Legal Awards 2007. 
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 150 staff  in London of which 23 are partners (3 of which are tax partners), and over 70 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax.  In addition there are 3 partners specialising in real estate in our Continental European offices.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross departmental activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and also cross border / pan European real estate work, with our European offices.  The division acts for blue chip clients including British Land, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hilton Group, Brixton plc, AXA, The Crown Estate, Marks & Spencer and Gazeley.
• The Real Estate Team was Legal Business Real Estate Team of the Year 2005.  It was also named "Real Estate Team of the Year" in the Lawyer Magazine Awards 2004, following its advice on the RBS/Canary Wharf transaction, the highest-value property investment transaction in the UK in 2004.  It was shortlisted Real Estate team of the Year in this year’s British Legal awards.
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.