Property Development
A large part of our work concerns property development, whether the acquisition or disposal of development sites, or the development itself. Consequently, we have advised on complex site assembly, infrastructure projects, regeneration projects, public/private partnerships, private joint ventures, overage, options, conditional contracts, pre-emption agreements, planning promotion agreements, and works agreements. The practice has rich expertise in tax, environmental, planning, and regulatory considerations. Especially in larger projects, our experience is invaluable in structuring a development in an efficient and commercially-astute way. This represents just one example of Land Law’s capability to advise on high-value, bespoke deals where smaller departments within multi-specialist firms would struggle.
Recent work includes:
Advising on aspects of a proposed redevelopment worth up to £50m of an active airfield. Our advice ensured Civil Aviation Authority compliance, and the protection of the airfield’s operation and income stream until development takes place.
The division on long leasehold terms of a chemical manufacturing plant valued at £80m, including amendments to service supply agreements and the allocation of expansion land for construction of an additional manufacturing facility.
A £33m joint venture sale of land for the development of 600 homes and business units. The transaction including the release of rights of way, overage provisions, section 106 Agreement advice, a collaboration agreement in respect of ransom strips, and a promotion agreement.
A £14m disposal of a residential development site to two parties, making provision for the differing requirements of the two buyers.
Advising a joint venture on the negotiation of a £9.4m conditional contract for the acquisition of a 2.3 acre city-centre development site.
Structuring the financing of a £4m development using a mixture of public and private funding. This involved three sets of documentation, each with different conditions and requiring coordination against a strict deadline.
In addition, our property litigation team has recently advised on the following contentious matters regarding development sites:
Advising on a contentious matter between two parties to a joint venture regarding the alleged undervalue of a joint venture property sold for £2m.
Eviction of adverse possessors from a tenanted development site, including instructing High Court Enforcement Officers to remove the vehicles from the land, secure the site and recover the costs from the individual in question.
Providing tactical advice to obtain vacant possession of a development site subject to a protected tenancy. The tenant issued proceedings, which were discontinued following the evidence we produced in support of our client.