Taylor Wessing has advised Cain Hoy Finance Limited, a private investment company, on a deal to forward finance the redevelopment of the iconic Shell Centre on London's South Bank. The deal marks Cain Hoy out as a significant player in the European real estate lending market and at over £550 million, is the largest property deal ever completed on London’s South Bank.

One and Two Southbank Place will provide 572,616 sq. ft of Grade A office space in two buildings when completed in 2018. The buildings form part of the 1.5m sq. ft. Southbank Place redevelopment, being undertaken by Braeburn Estates, which occupies a prime five and half acre site on the south side of the River Thames, opposite Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament. One and Two Southbank Place are adjacent to London Waterloo station, which is London’s busiest mainline station serving more than 98 million passengers each year.

One Southbank Place will be a new landmark headquarters for Shell International’s downstream business. It is fully pre-let to Shell for 20 years and consists of 272,938 sq. ft of office space and two retail units on the ground floor.

Two Southbank place is a 297,678 sq. ft. speculative office and retail development that Almacantar will market and lease to occupiers. The office accommodation will have five winter gardens, a roof terrace and entertaining space with panoramic views over the River Thames. It will be ready for occupation during 2018.

Capital will be drawn down in tranches throughout its construction before handing over the offices to Almacantar on completion.

Jonathan Marks, partner in Taylor Wessing's Finance group who led the cross-firm team said:

"This deal marks Cain Hoy out as a significant player in the real estate lending market. This particular deal involved a number of parties, stakeholders and funders and negotiations were complex. We are delighted to have advised Cain Hoy on such an exciting redevelopment, which will play an integral part of the transformation of London's iconic South Bank."

BLP and Clifford Chance acted for Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar, Ashursts and Freshfields acted for Almacantar and Allen & Overy acted for other members of the syndicate.

 The team consisted of Keith Barnett (partner, Real Estate), Raman Sharma (partner, Real Estate), Jonathan Marks (partner, Finance), Matthew Jones (partner, Construction), Alistair Watson (partner, Planning and Environment), Christina Kelly (senior counsel, Finance), Maddalena Padrin (senior counsel, Real Estate), Edward Manser (senior associate, Finance) and Nash Adjaye (associate, Real Estate).