News | Real Estate

Monday 22nd May 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin's real estate department has advised The Crown Estate on the sale of a freehold central London estate in Bedford Square, London WC1 to Conygar Investment Company PLC for £54.5 million, a sub 5% yield.

The Grade 1 listed Georgian terrace of 14 properties, all converted to offices, comprises approximately 95,000 sq ft of office accommodation, currently let to nine tenants, including the Secretary of State for the Environment and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  Two of the buildings are currently vacant.  It is expected they will be marketed to high-end residential developers.

Real estate partner Jon Vivian led the SJ Berwin team assisted by associate Rupert Dowdell.  Conygar Investment was advised by Huw Roberts, partner at Wragge & Co.

The deal follows SJ Berwin's recent appointment by The Crown Estate panel for the prestigious Regent Street portfolio in April of this year.

• 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 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 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.