News | Real Estate

Thursday 28th February 2008

European law firm SJ Berwin LLP’s real estate division has advised British Land on the sale of Plantation Place South, EC3 to Credit Suisse Asset Management Immobilien Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH on behalf of the open-end real estate fund CS EUROREAL.

The well located 10-storey building close to Fenchurch Street and Cannon Street mainline train and tube stations comprises of 161,000 sq ft of office, retail and ancillary accommodation.  Tenants include Beazley Group, AIG, Arch Insurance, Liberty and Royal and Sun Alliance.

This marks the final sale of the British Land Plantation Estate, originally acquired in 1971 and later redeveloped some 30 years later providing 700,000 sq ft of modern office and retail space.  In 2006, 1 Plantation Place was sold for £527 million, leaving only Plantation Place South remaining.  SJ Berwin also advised on the sale in 2006 of 1 Plantation Place.

The SJ Berwin team was led by partner Lewis Myers and partner Julia Court on construction, assisted by associates Darren Rogers and Anna Ford.  Partner Franc Pena of Clifford Chance assisted by senior associate David Butler advised the purchaser. 

For further information please contact:

Lewis Myers on +44 (0)20 7111 2151, email lewis.myers@sjberwin.com  or Jodie Yates on +44 (0)20 7111 5907, email jodie.yates@sjberwin.com  

• 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.