News | Real Estate

Tuesday 2nd May 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP's real estate division has advised the Gazeley/ Met Life Joint Venture on its sale of Unit 2, G Park, Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead to PropInvest Ltd, an entity controlled by property entrepreneur Glen Maude.  The sale price was £28.1 m. The deal was funded by GMAC.

This is the first G Park disposal in Hemel Hempstead by the Gazeley/Met Life JV.  The property was near to the Buncefield blast site and two months ago was vacant.  SJ Berwin advised on both the recent letting to Scottish and Newcastle plc and on the subsequent sale at a strong yield.

The SJ Berwin real estate team was led by Jon Vivian and associate Darren Rogers, with associate Julie Stagg advising on construction.  PropInvest was advised by Richard Vernon, real estate partner at Ashursts assisted by Melanie Jordan.

• 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 (3 of which are tax partners), and 50 assistants, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax.  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.
  
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 23% of the firm's total revenue.