recent projects

Independent Cafe
Covent Garden

We were instructed by an independent cafe with premises on the edge of Covent Garden. Their unprotected lease was coming to an end 12 months after we first met with them, but they were keen to invest in the premises and wanted to secure a new lease swiftly. 
 
We entered into negotiations with the landlord, quickly establishing that there was, at the time, a relatively buoyant market for premises such as this one, but that the landlord liked what this tenant brought to tenant mix in the neighbourhood.  

We therefore convinced the landlord to commit to a new lease for our client ahead of the lease expiry date for a term of ten years, but with periodic break options in favour of the tenant, giving our client flexibility for the future.  We also secured a rent free period, despite this not being the norm at renewal.  
 
The client was happy to have secured the longer term commitment with break options, enabling them to have certainty and flexibility for the foreseeable future, and also the comfort they needed to invest in their premises and their business for the future. 
 

High Street Retailer's estate
UK wide

We were retained by a High Street retailer with a total of 158 leases across their estate, comprising predominantly retail units, as well as warehouses, offices and storage units across the United Kingdom.  

We take responsibility for managing the lease renewal and rent review processes, monitoring forthcoming break options and maintaining a rolling programme of lease events to ensure that the estate is in tight control.  We also oversee a programme of business rates valuations and appeals, dilapidations claims, and legal disputes through specialist suppliers in each of those areas.  

Our role also involves assessing potential target towns to ensure that the estate is constantly developing to meet the client’s needs.   Similarly, as required, we seek opportunities for surrenders of leases which no longer form part of the long term plans for the brand.  We oversee a team of consultants advising on specific specialist tasks such as dilapidations and service charging.
 
Our role requires us to work extremely closely with the property director and estates team, and involves reporting into board-level directors on a monthly basis.  To that end we work hard to be adaptable to the changing requirements of the client and always a trusted part of their in-house team.  
 
 

Rent Review
London

We were instructed to deal with a rent review of premises on a busy retail street in London on behalf of the landlord, effective from December 2019.

Rental evidence supported an uplift in rent of up  to 15%, which we were able to agree.  However, before the review could be documented, the Covid-19 crisis hit, and the tenant’s cashflow was severely impacted.
 
We were able to agree the rent review at the target rent for our landlord client, and get this documented without the need for the intervention of the appointed arbitrator.  We also agreed the terms of a side letter for our client and the tenant to enter into which set out the terms of a short rent holiday, and staged repayments for the tenant to help with their cash flow and manage our client’s income during the months of lockdown.  

Mixed Use estate Portfolio Audit
London

We were approached by a landlord with a medium sized mixed use estate and asked to work with them to audit their existing portfolio.  
 
Over the course of three months, we analysed all the legal documentation held by the client’s lawyers to identify asset management opportunities, and to ensure consistency in lease form and style going forwards.  
 
We helped to identify short, medium and long term goals for their estate, and establish strategies to ensure that leasing policy going forwards would help achieve those goals.  We worked with the client to put protocols in place to ensure that records and information were maintained in a consistent “house” style and that the focus and message across the estate, and between asset managers was consistent.