Leading legal business DWF has advised Newcastle-based charitable theatre company Live Theatre on the acquisition, development and letting of its landmark Live Works building, located on Newcastle’s Quayside.

The entire space has recently been let to pioneering North East visualisation specialist ZeroLight which will add to the diverse, cultural and creative community that’s growing around Live Theatre and the Live Works development on the Quayside. Live Works has been described as filling the “missing gap” in the façade of the city’s creative Quayside area and the landmark building is a finalist in the New and Old category of the World Architecture Festival 2016.

The DWF team in Newcastle has supported Live Theatre in relation to Live Works from site acquisition, through the development and funding process and now on to letting of the building. The deal team was led by Newcastle executive partner and local head of real estate Adam Heather with support from associate Lee Pickett and solicitor Helen Walton in real estate, director of charities Catherine Rustomji, construction director Shaun Hill the construction work, associate Jay Mehta advised on State Aid issues and solicitor Danielle Kelly dealt with banking and corporate aspects.

Adam says: “Working with clients in the arts and charity sectors is always rewarding. Helping Live Theatre to deliver a successful and complex development, which will provide it income to further its charitable objectives, is testament to the team’s ability to deliver the expert technical advice clients expect from large national firms combined with the local knowledge needed to complete this deal.”

DWF’s circa 200-strong national real estate team has been involved in a number of high-profile real estate deals recently, including advising Arch Northumberland on its largest deal of the year, the £78million purchase of Manor Walks Shopping Centre in Cramlington.