Expertise
Acting for a number of regional and national clients, Ian is involved in all aspects of commercial property work, including sales and purchases (especially for institutional investors), complex development projects, and disposals which maximise value, acting for public bodies and landlord and tenant work (particularly in the retail sector).
Ian leads our real estate teams in Leeds for a number of major clients, including Sainsbury's, Columbia Threadneedle, Skanska, a major oil and gas company, Hobbs and Muse Developments.
Ian is described by The Legal 500 UK directory as "an excellent lawyer who blends legal knowledge, commercial awareness and enthusiasm" and has twice been nominated by Sainsbury's as its panel lawyer of the year for work acting on its large-scale depot and supermarket developments.
Case study
A current project Ian is leading on is acting for Muse on its £250 million development at an existing production facility of a FTSE 100 multinational manufacturing business in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. The development is a mixed greenfield/brownfield site and includes 900 homes and 900,000 sq ft of employment space across 150 acres which will take about ten years to complete.
Our role covers all legal aspects such as:
- A sophisticated conditional/phased purchase development agreement with the land owner
- Complex land/works agreements with landowners and two councils
- Onward conditional sale/development agreements with two separate residential developers
- A full suite of planning, highways and utilities infrastructure agreements.
The project is highly collaborative with the public sector (involving three different councils variously contributing land, carrying out works and receiving overage in addition to usual planning and highways functions).
