A multi-disciplinary team from Clifford Chance has advised long-standing client Helical Bar plc on the development joint venture and forward funding with Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) of Creechurch Place and associated arrangements with the City of London Corporation.

Creechurch Place, formerly known as One Mitre Square, is to be developed into 271,000 sq ft of Category ‘A’ office space and 2,000 sq ft of retail space in the City of London.

Hogan Lovells advised American Homes 4 Rent, the nation’s largest publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focusing on single-family rental homes, in its underwritten public offering of 5.50% Series C Participating Preferred Shares. The offering, and a concurrent private placement, raised total gross proceeds of approximately US$190 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and estimated offering expenses.

DLA Piper represented Columbia Property Trust Inc. in its purchase of an office tower in downtown San Francisco for US$228.8 million from Beacon Capital Partners LLC.

Columbia is one of the country’s largest office REITs and its acquisition of the 16-story, 387,943 square-foot building allows the company to achieve its objective of expanding in a high-performing, select primary market. Columbia holds US$5.1 billion in assets among 59 properties.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Leighton Properties and Devine Limited on the sale of their jointly-owned KSD1 and Central Retail Buildings in Brisbane to 360 Capital Office Fund for A$62m.

The buildings offer a combined 9,300sqm net lettable area within the Hamilton Harbour development- in Brisbane’s inner north. Hamilton Harbour is a joint venture, 50%-owned by Leighton Properties and 50% owned by Devine Limited. The buildings’ tenants include Woolworths, Flight Centre, The Coffee Club and the corporate headquarters of both Domino's Pizza and Devine.

Shoosmiths has acted for McKay Securities PLC on two key property acquisitions in London and Surrey. A team of real estate, planning and construction lawyers from the firm's real estate group have advised on circa £25 million of acquisitions of The Mille, Brentford and Ashcombe House, Leatherhead.

Hogan Lovells has advised Ivanhoé Cambridge on the disposal of a European portfolio of 18 hotels. Ivanhoé Cambridge is a real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, and has total assets of CDN$40 billion across Canada, the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia.  Its portfolio consists mainly of shopping centres, office and multiresidential properties and its operations include real estate investment, development, asset management, leasing and operations.

Herbert Smith Freehills has advised its longstanding client and leading European real estate portfolio and asset managers, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers ("AXA Real Estate"), on the letting of 165,000 square feet of space at its King's Cross office development scheme to Google on a 15 year lease.

Shearman & Sterling represented City Office REIT, Inc. in its $72.5 million initial public offering of common stock on the New York Stock Exchange. City Office REIT Inc., a newly organized corporation formed to acquire, own and operate high-quality office properties located within the United States, was sponsored by Canadian private equity firm Second City Capital Partners, a multi-fund private equity firm that invests in real estate and conventional private equity. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Wunderlich Securities, Inc. and Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Clifford Chance has advised IMMOFINANZ AG and BUWOG AG in connection with the spin-off of BUWOG AG from IMMOFINANZ AG and the listing of the shares of BUWOG AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the Vienna Stock Exchange and the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin has advised longstanding client British Land in supporting Blackstone’s disposal of its 50% interest in the flagship Broadgate development in conjunction with establishing a new joint venture between British Land and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

The deal involving Broadgate, a 30 acre City of London office campus, is one of the highest profile corporate real estate transactions ever seen and is GIC’s largest real estate investment in Europe to date.