Giovanni Castronovo

Giovanni is a Managing Associate in the Commercial Real Estate team.

Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2013, Giovanni has advised clients across all sectors on a full range of real estate transactions, including sales and purchases, landlord and tenant matters, financings and development projects (including subject to planning deals and forward fundings). Giovanni has also advised on real estate aspects of corporate transactions.

Giovanni is a mentor for GROW, a charity aiming to advance social mobility, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, as well as a regular speaker to University students considering a career in law. Giovanni also has a lead role in Mishcon de Reya's Gender Committee.

Key Experience

• Fusion Students: Advising the specialist student accommodation provider on a number of projects across the UK, including:
  • the real estate aspects of the £500m loan facility with Maslow Capital, reported as being one of the largest single-lender debt packages arranged for UK purpose-built student accommodation;
  • the acquisition of its second site at London's Brent Cross Town, a reported £275m GDV project forming part of Related Argent's regeneration scheme;
  • the acquisition and proposed redevelopment of Longcross Court, Cardiff; and
  • the grant of a lease and forward funding of a site to a registered provider.
• Tri7: Advising Tri7 (now part of the Fusion Group) on the purchase and proposed redevelopment of various UK sites, including 2 Rivergate, Bristol and Portswood Centre, Southampton.
• DC01UK: Advising on the sale of their South Mimms site to Equinix, one of the largest data centre companies and operators. The 85-acre site has a projected total investment value of around £3.9 billion.
• ASK: Advising on the real estate aspects of a senior loan facility to support the refinancing of a UK-based specialist care and education group. The transaction, ASK's first corporate loan to the value of approximately £90m, represented a significant milestone in ASK's growth as a lender.
• SevenCitiesLdn: Advising on the acquisition and financing of Hodge House, Cardiff (multi-let office and retail), the firm's first investment under its prime regional office strategy, in the region of £30m.
• edyn: Advising edyn, a Brookfield group company, in connection with the acquisition of 162 serviced apartments in Landmark Pinnacle, Canary Wharf, the tallest residential building in Europe at that time. Since acquisition, advising edyn on the real estate aspects of two re-financings of this asset, including acting as lead counsel for a number of law firms advising the client on other assets forming part of the financing portfolio.
• PGIM Real Estate: Part of the team advising PGIM Real Estate on the real estate elements of a variety of funding transactions.
• Nan Fung Group/Endurance Land: Advising the Hong Kong based investor on the grant of leases at 138 Cheapside, London to various office and retail tenants, including Costa Coffee and Blank Street Coffee.
• Joint administrators of London Capital & Finance PLC ("LCF"): In December 2024, the High Court handed down judgment in favour of the joint administrators of LCF.  The value of the judgment was in excess of £300m. In the period since then, advising the administrators on enforcement and realisation steps in respect of real estate assets, including the sale of various high value commercial properties.
• Advising an aviation services company on the lease of their head office in Central London and a worldwide lifestyles brand on the lease of their head office and flagship store in Spitalfields, London.
• Advising a Russell Group university on the development constraints in connection with its proposed re-development of its university campus.
• Advising an overseas listed REIT on its proposed development strategy for sites in the UK (including option agreements and promotion agreements).
• Acting for a property company on the refinancing of a 40 unit shopping centre for circa £50 million.
• Acting for a public body on the sale and proposed re-development of its existing headquarters, involving a land swap of adjoining property with an unconnected third party, various leasebacks, pre-emption rights and overage.

Career History

Managing Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Associate, Trowers & Hamlins LLP
Solicitor, Trowers & Hamlins LLP
Trainee Solicitor, Trowers & Hamlins LLP
Kaplan Law School, LPC
University of Southampton, LLB Law (recipient of the Swords Prize for highest dissertation result in the undergraduate LLB course)