Matt is a Partner in the Real Estate department with extensive experience in all aspects of commercial property investment, development and management work. He acts for institutional investors and high net worth individuals on a wide range of acquisitions and disposals, including portfolio transactions. In addition, he undertakes asset management and development work for a number of landlords and tenants. He also regularly advises lenders and borrowers on real estate financing transactions.
Matt deals with all asset types, including retail, office and mixed-use schemes, and has particular experience in the high-value central London office and retail market. He has acted for a number of the UK's largest property investors including Shaftesbury Capital, Great Portland Estates, Land Securities, LaSalle Investment Management, O&H Properties, Schroders and Threadneedle Investments. Matt also acts for a number of large corporate occupiers providing assistance and advice in relation to their property requirements in the UK and throughout Europe.
Matt was selected as one of London Super Lawyers' rising stars in 2015.
Key Experience
- Acting for Minerva on the retail lettings and then subsequent sale of the Walbrook Building in the City of London to Taiwan’s Cathay Life Insurance Co. for £575m, believed to be the biggest single-asset transaction in the UK in 2015
- Acting for Shaftesbury Capital in relation to the ongoing letting and development of their Covent Garden estate to premium and luxury retailers and restaurateurs.
- Advising Delancey and Qatari Diar on the purchase, development and long-term management of the Olympic Village, Stratford.
- Acting for a European fund on their £37 million acquisition and subsequent financing of The Cube in Birmingham, a 450,000 sq ft development consisting of office, retail, residential and hotel uses. This was a complex distressed asset purchase from LPA receivers and involved the purchase of a long-leasehold interest followed by a conditional put and call option for the freehold.
- Advising an international visual effects and media production company on the pre-let of their West End headquarters. The letting was conditional upon a landlord’s full redevelopment to a design to be specified by the tenant.
- Acting for a UK fund on the sale of a development site at Wembley Stadium to a student housing provider. The sale was conditional upon multiple planning conditions and vacant possession with overage, profit share and CIL clawback arrangements.
- Acting on a number of joint ventures between a European fund and third-party investors for the acquisition of several flagship buildings throughout Europe, together with the negotiation of asset management agreements for the management of those properties on behalf of the joint ventures.
- Acting for institutional investors on the purchase and leasebacks of portfolios of RBS banks, Co-op, Somerfield and Wickes stores;
- Acting on the £442m purchase of Telford Shopping Centre, comprising 1 million sq ft of floor space, with over 170 retail units
Career History
Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Legal Director, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Associate, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Solicitor, Nabarro LLP
Trainee, Nabarro LLP
Guildford College of Law, LPC
University of East Anglia, Law