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I am a real estate lawyer specialising in housing/mixed-use development and commercial property development relating to nationally significant infrastructure projects (involving the exercise of compulsory acquisition powers).
My clients include both developers in the private sector (ranging from small to national FTSE public companies) and registered providers of social housing; and both quasi-public and private promoters of nationally significant infrastructure projects.
I have experience in a wide variety of real estate development matters, which include: property due diligence, negotiation of options, purchase and sale agreements (on conditional and unconditional basis), leases, licences, site servicing requirements (e.g. easements, infrastructure agreements, releases of covenants, etc.), Section 106 (and other planning related agreements), and matters including overage and other onerous post-completion obligations. I also have experience advising on the exercise and implementation of compulsory acquisitions powers under various compulsory purchase legislation and working with valuers/surveyors to negotiate advance compensation payments and deeds in full and final settlement in accordance with the compensation code.
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- Acting on the acquisition, servicing, and disposal of residentially let and mixed use development sites (primarily for a top 5 residential developer) with an aggregate development value in excess of £500m.
- Acquisition of a whole development site (market and affordable housing units) on behalf of a residential provider of social housing, which included a £9m development financing loan secured from a local authority; and the securing of vacant possession of the site under an agreement to surrender relating to an existing commercial tenancy for consideration in excess of £1m.
- Acting for a private developer in securing in a development loan in excess of £9m which included the variation of an existing forward funding agreement with multiple parties.
- Acting on the real estate elements of the acquisition of a development site held within a corporate SPV for a residential provider of social housing which included the new post-completion Section 106 Agreement to provide for a 100% affordable housing scheme (with rent to buy and other affordable housing tenure).
- Advising on the real estate elements of two novel Development Consent Orders relating to the development of an airport and a next-generation entertainment resort.
- Advising on the interpretation of, and exercising, compulsory acquisition powers; and assisting with the settlement of compensation matters under the compensation code, in relation to the extension of a Manchester tram system.
- Negotiating and exercising option agreements; and advising on the implementation of the infrastructure needed for the transmission of electricity from the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, under an electricity transmission Development Consent Order.
- Assisting on the real estate elements of a proposed Development Consent Order for a £6.8 billion pound new road scheme, which is part of the biggest investment in the country’s road network for a generation and would (if granted) result in 14 miles of new road and comprise the longest road tunnel in the UK.
