Allen & Overy in Moscow has advised on the acquisition from the Petropavlovsk Group of a project company that is going to build and operate a Russia-China border crossing over the Amur River.

The project was initially agreed upon at the intergovernmental level. It secures a logistical connection between natural resources producing locations in the Russian Far East and the key consumer markets in China and is strategic for both Russia and China.

Via its real estate company NRW.URBAN, North Rhine-Westphalia sold properties on the former industrial complex of coal mine Zollverein I/II/VIII, where the new Folkwang University of the Arts will be built for the state from 2015. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia will rent the buildings. Buyer and landlord is Essen-based Welterbe Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG – a merger of RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH and project developers Kölbl Kruse GmbH of Essen.

Dentons represented Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. in its 100 year management contact negotiations related to its $1.95 billion sale of the iconic Waldorf Astoria New York hotel to Beijing-based Anbang Insurance Group.

Slaughter and May advised ITV on the sale of ITV Cymru Wales' headquarters at Culverhouse Cross to Bellway Homes for £14.5 million. The 7.7 hectare site was sold with outline planning permission for a residential development of up to 243 new homes. ITV Cymru Wales has moved its operations to modern broadcasting facilities in Cardiff Bay.

CONTACTS

Real Estate: Jane Edwarde (partner), Samantha Brady (associate); Planning: Sarah Tolley (associate).

Law firm Irwin Mitchell’s Real Estate team in London has advised British Land on the completion of the sale of 52 Poland Street in Soho to Amazon Property for £26 million.  The deal saw Amazon Property in a joint venture acquire the freehold of the building.
 
52 Poland Street is a 20,500 sq ft multi-let building over basement, ground and seven upper office floors. The ground and basement floors are occupied by Yo! Sushi and Lucky Voice karaoke bar.
 

Taylor Wessing has advised its client, Zolfo Cooper, on the sale of 43 Strada restaurants to Strada Trading Limited, a subsidiary of SCP Sugar Limited (an entity within Sun Capital Partners). The sale forms a major part of the restructuring of the Tragus Group, which previously owned Strada.

As well as acquiring the sites, Strada Trading Limited will also employ all associated restaurant and head office staff.

Nick Moser, Head of Restructuring & Corporate Recovery at Taylor Wessing said:

Ashurst has advised KordaMentha (receivers and managers of the Gunns group of companies) on the sale of the Gunns Tasmanian Forestry Estate to New Forests.

The Gunns Tasmanian Forestry Estate is approximately 175,000 hectares of freehold land and road infrastructure, 100,000 hectares of premium hardwood and softwood plantations, with access to the Burnie and Tamar wood-chipping mill and port facilities, a large scale nursery at Somerset, timber fibre technology laboratory facilities at Ridgley and a fully operational forestry business.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Santander Group on the sale of a stake in a 10MW solar park located in the Municipality of Serre (Province of Salerno, Campania Region) to Italian investor Finanziaria Internazionale Investments (“FII”). The park is situated on land belonging to the Italian Ministry of Defence.

Dechert LLP advised KGAL GmbH & Co. KG, one of Germany’s leading asset management companies, on the US regulatory and tax structuring of the sale of equity investments in 12 Airbus A319 airplanes with leases attached to a US investor as part of share deals. Held mainly through a retail fund and funds with individual investors, the sale led to a capital gain for the investors after an investment period of about one year.

Clifford Chance has advised CCPIII, the core plus fund advised by pan-European real estate manager Tristan Capital Partners, on the sale of "Dieterich Karree" residential/retail complex in downtown Düsseldorf's Pempelfort district.

Bayerische Versorgungskammer is the purchaser. The purchase price is 70.5 million Euros which corresponds to a 5.2% initial yield.