Property Asset Management

Simon specialises in commercial real estate, with a particular emphasis on occupiers with property portfolios as well as institutional clients. He has extensive business leadership experience, setting up and subsequently heading up BDB’s Cambridge office. He manages teams of lawyers with the breadth and depth to conduct work more cost effectively and to deliver robust resourcing across large scale property portfolios.

Relevant experience

• acting for a national retail portfolio with in excess of 100 units negotiating agreements for lease, leases, licences and rent deposit deeds, where the leases include innovative turn over provisions requiring detailed and technical negotiation;
• acting for an institutional landlord with a portfolio of over 90 properties including offices, retail and industrial estates, buildings and units to include all landlord and tenant aspects along with redevelopment and a strategic re-alignment of the portfolio; and
• acting for a fund of 12 assets and 60 plus tenants with a focus on industrials around the UK.

Simon also works with clients who are establishing their property portfolio for the first time, with the support and expertise of the specialist teams throughout the firm.

Jess specialises in commercial real estate. She acts for both landlord and tenant clients in investment and retail sectors, negotiating and advising on leasehold transactions in London and the regions.

Jess has experience carrying out large-scale due diligence projects (including the preparation of title and lease reports).

She also assists clients with their ongoing asset management work.

Relevant experience

• Managing junior lawyers on asset management transactions.
• Acting for large well-known and smaller retail and office tenants on the grant of agreement for leases, leases, rent concession agreements, licences to alter and 1954 Act renewals.
• Acting on ongoing management matters for institutional clients dealing with leases, licences to underlet, assign and vary and side letters in respect of their portfolio of properties.
• Undertaking a secondment at Historic England in 2018 and advising both Historic England and English Heritage on various land arrangements including acting for them in a tenant capacity on leases and licences and supporting the wider in-house legal team with more general legal queries.

Cath specialises in commercial real estate, in particular landlord and tenant work. She works with institutional landlords on acquisitions of industrial estate portfolios and undertakes asset management work to support their ongoing management.

Cath also works with corporate occupiers on lettings in a range of different sectors, including retail, biotech and charity.

Relevant experience

• assisting an industrial landlord with the disposal of a number of its industrial sites, including dealing with due diligence and landlord and tenant matters;
• acting for a retailer on numerous lettings in large regional shopping centres, including negotiating leases, reversionary leases, licences to assign and side letters relating to Covid concessions, as well as dealing with post-completion work;
• acting for a biotech client on new lettings in science parks, including negotiating leases and licences to alter as well as dealing with environmental issues and issues relating to permitted use;
• acting for a corporate occupier on the grant of a new lease of a large gym in London, involving the negotiation of complex rights of pre-emption;
• acting for a charity client in the negotiation of new leases at a science park in a very short time frame and involving complicated service charge provisions; and
• acting for a kitchen retail client in the negotation of new leases of high street premises for new kitchen showrooms.