30/05/2023
Property experts from Bevan Brittan’s Leeds office have advised a local authority in London on two significant deals that form part of a strategic partnership with a university.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest has exchanged on a development agreement with investor/developer Northchild for the occupation of part of its high profile Juniper House development on Hoe Street, Walthamstow.
The agreement relates to the lower and upper ground floors of Juniper House, which will be let as part of a hub for the University of Portsmouth. The majority of the rest of the newly constructed 16-storey building is for residential use.
Bevan Brittan has also assisted London Borough of Waltham Forest with the sale of Central House to a joint venture between a developer and the university. The site was originally bought by the Council in 2021, but it will now be part of an arrangement to promote the university moving into the area.
Simon Jackson, a Leeds-based real estate partner with Bevan Brittan, led the wider team that advised the local authority on all matters.
He said: “This is an exciting development for the Borough and restores a key part of Walthamstow town centre. Both deals are a crucial part of our client’s strategic partnership with the University of Portsmouth and regeneration of the area.
“As a key legal advisor for London Borough of Waltham Forest on property matters, we look forward to supporting the Council on this and their wider projects. These were complicated transactions to manage and realise, but with clear commercial input from the client married up with our legal experience we reached this milestone.”
Peter Mitchell, Director of Commercial Estates & Investment at London Borough of Waltham Forest, said: “These transactions secure the primary phases of University of Portsmouth’s London Campus. This will bring 3,000 students to the Borough with a further 3,000 in the pipeline, securing inward investment but initiating growth in a key area of London.
“Bevan Brittan has assisted the Council in complicated linked transactions which we believe will secure over £34m of improvements to the local economy in the next few years and see students from January 2024.
“The deals involved frantic and problematic activity, where work that is often more widely un-noticed needs to get done to progress and details need close attention – areas where Bevan Brittan excelled.
“The deals will get the Borough known to a wider audience and Waltham Forest ‘on the map’ in a different way than has ever been done before. Bevan Brittan’s part in this has been well appreciated.”
More information on the project can be found here.
The Bevan Brittan team that worked on the deals included Simon Jackson, Senior Associate Alex Dunne, Solicitors Kajal Patel and Daniella Baker, and Trainee Legal Executive James Moore.
Bevan Brittan, which has an office in Leeds, has a leading property practice advising public and private sector clients on the full range of property law, including landlord and tenant and property finance, both in Yorkshire and nationally.
