Matthew Bowles

Matt is a Partner in the Commercial Real Estate department with extensive experience in all aspects of commercial property investment, financing, development and management work. In particular, Matt is a corporate occupier specialist and advises some of the UK's largest corporate occupiers on their property requirements in the UK and throughout Europe and has led on the acquisition, development and occupation of several large campus schemes.

Matt also focuses on managing large 'destination' retail estates and has experience dealing with retail-specific estate covenants such as tenant mix policies, exclusivities and development restrictions. Matt also leads on all estate acquisition and development work.

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. Throughout his career he has acted for a number of the UK's largest property investors including Brookfield Properties, Shaftesbury Capital, Land Securities and Threadneedle Investments.

Key Experience

• Acting for Delancey on the sale of the iconic Royal Mint Court site to the People's Republic of China for £255m. The property benefitted from planning permission to build a 600,000 square foot, £750m office scheme but will be redeveloped as China's new UK embassy.
• 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
• Managing a FTSE100 global advertising agency's London and regional UK portfolio and international campus projects including:
  • a c. £200 million development funding agreement for a long lease of a 150,000 sq ft central London office building which is being redeveloped to create a bespoke 250,000 sq ft scheme.
  • a c. £190 million deal for the refurbishment and extension of a 157,000 sq ft central London office building.
  • the pre-let of an 86,000 sq ft building forming part of Allied London 's £1.35 billion Enterprise City masterplan for the former Granada Television Studios site in Manchester.
• 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 and joint venture agreements.
• Acting on the £442m purchase of Telford Shopping Centre, comprising 1 million sq ft of floor space, with over 170 retail units
• Acting for a number of institutional clients on their retail portfolios, including Shaftesbury Capital's Covent Garden estate and Brookfield Properties' out of town retail park portfolio.

Career History

Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Legal Director, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Associate, Stephenson Harwood LLP
Solicitor, Nabarro LLP
Trainee, Nabarro LLP
College of Law, Guildford, LPC
University of East Anglia, Law