Hogan Lovells has advised on a series of transactions in the student accommodation sector in the first quarter of 2014, completing three acquisitions for LaSalle Investment Management.

At the turn of the year, Hogan Lovells advised LaSalle on the acquisition of the 435 bedroom Victoria Hall complex in Wembley; followed by the acquisition from a joint venture between Bridges Ventures and Chancerygate of The Curve, a 350 bedroom development in Aldgate; and most recently the acquisition of Darley Bank, a 405 bedroom facility in Derby developed by Watkin Jones Group.

Clifford Chance has advised Allianz Real Estate, Stuttgart, on the acquisition of Düsseldorf's "Kö-Galerie" for several insurance companies belonging to Allianz Group. The sellers are investment funds managed by US investment company Blackstone as well as ECE; Hamburg, a company specialized in operating shopping centres. The purchase price amounts to approx. EUR 300 million. The transaction is subject to the approval by the competent antitrust authorities.

Osborne Clarke’s French office has advised KP Investments on the disposal of the Domus shopping centre on the east side of Paris. The purchaser was an investment fund, Orion European Real Estate Fund IV.

Domus is a shopping centre exclusively dedicated to home furnishing, decoration and organisation. The centre feature stores such as Alinéa, Boulanger, Truffaut, Roche Bobois, Natuzzi and BoConcept, with fast-growing creative decoration store Zodio set to open a shop before the end of April. Domus is managed by Accessite.

Macfarlanes has advised property investor and developer Development Securities on the construction aspects of 12 Hammersmith Grove, which was recently forward-financed by SWIP Property Trust with a commitment of £92m.

Irwin Mitchell In Sheffield Advises On Sale And Development of First Site. Construction work on the first phase of a £300m mixed use regeneration project in Chesterfield is set to go ahead after the organisation behind the scheme completed its first development agreement for the site.

The land off Brimington Road was previously owned by Arnold Laver Group and is part of the 40 acre Chesterfield Waterside development. Following the deal, the area will be used to build 19 affordable homes for a housing association.

Paul Hastings represented Forterra Trust, a Singapore-listed real estate fund, in its disposition of the property in Beijing known as Beijing Logistics Park, to Singapore-listed real estate fund Global Logistic Properties Limited.

Beijing Logistics Park is a logistics warehouse located in Beijing’s Shunyi District, adjacent to Beijing International Airport. It was completed in April 2012 and had an occupancy rate of 100% as at December 31, 2013.

The Paul Hastings team was led by partner Wayne Ma with support from associates Elyn He and Kay Cai.

Clifford Chance has advised Investa Immobiliengruppe, Munich, on the sale of a new property in the centre of Düsseldorf to a current private placement of real estate company Dereco, Cologne. A six-floor Holiday Inn Express Hotel is due to be built on the site, with completion expected by mid-2015. The hotel will be run by the Foremost Group, Berlin, which has a 20-year lease on the property. Foremost specialises in the development and management of branded hotels throughout Germany and Europe.

Hill Dickinson has advised NewRiver Retail, one of the UK’s leading REITs and the UK’s third largest owner of shopping centres, on the leasing of 54 public houses (pubs) to The Co-Operative Group for its convenience stores format. The pubs were part of the public house portfolio which was acquired last year by NewRiver Retail in their joint venture partnership with a fund managed by Pacific Investment Management Company.

Slaughter and May advised SEGRO plc (SEGRO) on its new and amended bank facilities totalling EUR 460 million. The facilities, which completed on 14 April 2014, comprise a new EUR 225 million revolving multi-currency, five year syndicated bank facility, replacing existing facilities totalling EUR 395 million; and amending an existing revolving multi-currency syndicated bank facility to reduce the size of the facility from EUR 385 million to EUR 235 million and extend its maturity by 18 months to May 2018.

Clifford Chance is advising the Italian group Risanamento in relation to the €1.225bn sale of its French real estate portfolio representing one of the most significant transactions in France since 2007.