Corporate real estate

Russell-Cooke fields a full-service commercial property department, which is adept in handling investments, landlord and tenant work, finance transactions and development projects. The practice is particularly active in the corporate occupier space.

Corporate real estate transactions have advanced in their scale and complexity enormously in the last ten years. Our clients demand lawyers who reflect this and their need for driven, decisive and timely advice.

Our team of specialist corporate and real estate lawyers, supported by tax and structuring advisers, deliver a service which ensures corporate aspects of the project are effectively addressed, without ever losing sight of the underlying real estate issues which drive the transaction commercially.

Acquisitions and disposals

Deals which are fundamentally driven by the transfer of real estate will generally involve ownership of property moving from seller to buyer. However, for a variety of reasons the buyer and seller may prefer to structure the deal as the transfer of ownership of a company or other structure which already owns the property assets.

As well as offering the type of technical excellence many law firms are able to provide in relation to both corporate and property law, our extensive experience of providing corporate and commercial advice to clients in the real estate sector means we provide a more focused and commercial service on this type of transaction.

Dealing with corporate lawyers who understand the real estate market, and real estate lawyers who understand corporate issues, means that we identify and resolve issues at an early stage. Our advice is always based on a pragmatic and commercial approach.

We handle deals of varying levels of size and complexity - from nine-figure purchases of pure property SPV companies, to deals with a smaller price tag but other complicating factors such as large groups of individual selling shareholders.

Real estate finance

Our experienced team of specialist real estate and corporate lawyers are able to assist you in funding any asset. We act for lenders (institutional lenders, private and foreign banks, development funders) and borrowers of all types across a wide range of property classes and sectors.

Working together, we provide seamless advice on structuring any form of debt facility secured against any type of UK property. We have experience in acting for both senior and mezzanine lenders and are well-used to dealing with cross-border transactions.

Our pragmatic and commercial advice ensures that transactions of every level of value and complexity are dealt with quickly and efficiently. We welcome the opportunity to talk to you about your real estate financing needs.

We act on complex, multi-dimensional and multi-jurisdictional matters on a regular basis. We take a measured and unstuffy approach to solving problems. We consider ourselves to be part of our clients’ professional inner circles and have a wide network of international advisers that allows us to seamlessly project manage transactions involving other jurisdictions.

We often advise our clients at an early stage on structuring and tactical issues in preliminary negotiations. We would be delighted to talk to you then, or at whatever stage your project has reached.