News | Real Estate

Tuesday 4th July 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP's real estate department has advised PAGL Ltd, a property development business whose investment consortium is led by the CPC Group, on its successful bid to buy one of the largest ever West End blocks to have come onto the property market.  The site in North Soho currently houses the former Middlesex Hospital and covers a total of 3 acres in the Borough of the City of Westminster.

The site has been purchased with a view to developing CPC's first ever mixed use development, a £1 billion mixed-use scheme of more than 1 m sq ft , in an exciting and viable development, in line with the City of Westminster's planning brief and attune to the local environment and surrounding areas.  Ken Shuttleworth, formerly of Foster and Partners, and founder of Make, a studio of highly creative and innovative architects and designers, has been commissioned to prepare a master plan for the location.

SJ Berwin client Candy & Candy, the award winning global interior design company, has been appointed as development manager and interior designer for the scheme.

The SJ Berwin team was led by head of real estate and partner Bryan Pickup working with real estate partner Pat Jones, corporate partner Laura O Neill and banking associate Chris Dirckze.  Chris de Pury and Iain Carruthers of Herbert Smith advised the vendors.

 Kaupthing Bank's subsidiary Singer & Friedlander provided debt financing for the transaction and was advised by Mark Chidley of DLA and Gavin Brown and Dermot Rice of Slaughter and May.

• 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 .  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 21 are partners in London 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 and 1 dedicated real estate partner in Paris.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross firm activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and with the international 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 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 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.