News | Real Estate

Friday 11th August 2006

Corporate and commercial law firm SJ Berwin LLP has advised The Crown Estate Commissioners on the completion of a property swap with Derwent Valley Holdings plc.  Through this, The Crown Estate has acquired the leasehold in Morley House, 314-322 Regent Street, London W1 for £17.5 million and sold its freehold interests in Riverwalk House, 157-166 Millbank SW1 for £13 million and in Argosy House, 215-217 Great Portland Street, W1 for £1.65 million.  Derwent Valley received a balancing payment of £2.85 million.

Morley House totals just over 40,000 sq ft of offices and retail premises on Regent Street and is multi-let, producing a current rent of £1.14 million per annum.  By the deal, The Crown Estate has brought a property in its core Regent Street area under direct control.

The SJ Berwin team was led by property partner Jon Vivian, with associates Helen Sills and Rupert Dowdell, assisting.  Derwent Valley was advised by Richard Grosse, real estate partner at Taylor Wessing. 

• 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.