Clifford Chance has advised GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, on both the purchase of a 50% interest in the Broadgate Estate from Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe III and Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI and on GIC's 50:50 joint venture with British Land to enable the future development of the Estate.
The joint venture’s strategy will focus on broadening Broadgate's appeal from a traditional City-focused occupier base to cater for the growing creative district centred around Shoreditch and the emerging tech-focused area around Old Street. Plans for the next stage of investment are already underway and include a major refurbishment of 100 Liverpool Street along with a significant expansion of the retail offer around Broadgate South. Delivery of this development is expected to coincide with the opening of Crossrail.
British Land's 2013 annual report cites the portfolio value of Broadgate as £3.042 billion.
British Land will provide asset management for the joint venture. Broadgate Estates, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Land, will also continue to provide day to day property management and occupier services.
The legal work involved complex corporate, real estate, construction and finance due diligence, the negotiation of the new joint venture, asset management and development management arrangements between British Land and GIC. The negotiation of complex arrangements around the new UBS 710,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate which is currently under construction as well as the sale purchase agreement and associated arrangements between GIC and Blackstone.
Mark Poulton, the lead partner on this transaction comments: "We were delighted to advise GIC on this major real estate acquisition and were able to field a multi disciplinary team in order to meet the client's requirements. This type of complex corporate real estate transaction is where we can really add value to our clients by bringing together our corporate, real estate, real estate tax, real estate finance specialists from across our real estate sector group."
The multi disciplinary Clifford Chance team included: Matthew Layton, Global Head of Corporate and GIC Client Relationship partner; Partner Mark Poulton who led the transaction assisted by Senior Associates Gareth Camp, Nick Spurrel and Nisha Shah. Jonathan Solomon, Partner and London Head of Real Estate led on real estate and was assisted by Senior Associates Anthea Bamford, Sarah Dawson, Anna Budd and Associate Catherine Rolfe. Corporate Partner Adrian Levy was assisted by Sakshi Gupta. Partner Jane Cheong Tung Sing advised on Real Estate Finance assisted by Senior Associate Renae Suttor. Director Marianne Toghill assisted by Ed Bretherton advised on Construction. Partner Nigel Howorth advised on Planning assisted by Elizabeth Hardacre. Partners David Saleh Head of Real Estate Tax and Dan Neidle advised on Tax assisted by Alistair Alderton, Alex Tostevin and Hardeep Irish. Partner Steve Curtis advised on Capital Markets assisted by Maggie Zhao and Thomas Picton. Partner Greg Olsen advised on Antitrust assisted by Ghosh Chandralekha.
Simpson Thacher and Berwin Leighton Paisner advised Blackstone.
