News & Events | News

Thursday 14th February 2008

European law firm SJ Berwin LLP’s real estate division has advised The Crown Estate on the prospective £130 million sale of the Metropole building at Whitehall Place, near Trafalgar Square.

The former Ministry of Defence building which was also a luxury hotel in the early 20th century is, subject to planning, to be bought by a consortium made up of International Hotel Investments PLC, Nakhell Hotels FZE and LFICO.

The consortium’s successful bid outlines plans to develop the building into mixed use luxury residential accommodation and a 283-bedroom luxury five-star hotel.

The SJ Berwin team was led by partner Bryan Pickup, assisted by associate Rupert Dowdell.

Partner Clifford McAuley assisted by associate Olivia Revelle of Clifford Chance advised the purchaser.

For further information please contact:

Bryan Pickup on +44 (0)20 7111 2468, email bryan.pickup@sjberwin.com  or Jodie Yates on +44 (0)20 7111 5907, email jodie.yates@sjberwin.com  

• 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, Paris and Turin.
  
  
• SJ Berwin LLP was named ‘UK Firm of the Year’ at the Global Chambers Awards 2007 and Private Equity Team of the Year at the Financial News Legal Awards 2007. 
  
  
• SJ Berwin's Real Estate Division totals 150 staff  in London of which 23 are partners (3 of which are tax partners), and over 70 associates, encompassing the disciplines of Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Planning & Environment, Property Litigation, Real Estate Funds and Tax.  In addition there are 3 partners specialising in real estate in our Continental European offices.  There is an increasing emphasis on cross departmental activity with related areas of Banking and Corporate and also cross border / pan European real estate work, with our European 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 was 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. It was shortlisted Real Estate team of the Year in this year’s British Legal awards.
  
  
• Revenue from Real Estate represents approximately 21% of the firm's total revenue in London.