News | Real Estate

Friday 11th August 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP's real estate department has advised Gazeley on the exchange of contracts to purchase a development site at Wealdon Works, Horsham for £16.5 million.  The site is a former brickworks. The purchase is conditional on Gazeley  obtaining  planning for a distribution warehouse.

Matthew Priday, SJ Berwin associate advised on the deal, with Sue Davidson environment associate on environmental matters.  Tristan Ward of Macfarlanes advised the vendor Wealdon Ltd.

• 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 and Paris.
• SJ Berwin LLP was named 'UK Firm of the Year' at the 2005 Legal Week Awards on 30 November.  The award recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals.
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 118 staff of which 22 are partners (with 3 additional tax partners) and 50 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation and Real Estate Funds.  In addition, there are 3 dedicated real estate tax partners.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate.  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 is 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.