Our projects team has advised Aviva Commercial Finance on all aspects of its latest student accommodation project at the University of York. The project reached financial close on 23 July. Aviva provided £28.5 million senior debt to Student Accommodation Provision Three LLP, a joint venture between Evans Property Group and the University of York, who will be building and developing a third college for the University at its Heslington East campus.

This is the third large student accommodation project we have advised Aviva on, following major projects at University of Essex and Reading University.

Raith Pickup, partner and head of our projects team, said: “We are delighted to have once again been able to assist Aviva with successfully completing a project in this fast growing and very exciting sector. The project’s unique JV structure made the process even more interesting than usual”.

Kevin Sale, Director of Commercial Finance at Aviva, said: “The funding of this project is another strong addition to our student accommodation lending portfolio. It represents a good long term investment for Aviva and for our annuity customers, and it will benefit the community and local economy of York, with which Aviva has close links. The Mills & Reeve team has once again pulled out all the stops to ensure a successful project.”

The Mills & Reeve team was lead by Raith Pickup who was supported by Andrew Wood, Jens Henniker Heaton, Deborah Watts and Peter Collins.