The retail sector in the UK is currently in the process of profound and rapid change.


In the grocery trade, new value entrants are providing significant challenge to the major supermarket operators. The "convenience" shop format and home deliveries have grown massively at the cost of large format supermarkets leaving operators with the challenge of what to do with the surplus space.

Shopping centres and high streets are both coming to terms with the growth in online sales. They are being forced to deliver stores and built environments that cater for increasingly sophisticated requirements of retailers and shoppers alike (to coin a British Land phrase) are "places that people prefer".

Our retail team have significant experience in acting for retailers, developers and investors including Sainsbury, Primark, British Land, Standard Life and the Stadium Group. Their wide knowledge and great understanding of the sector allows them to deliver insightful advice with real commercial value. This extends to different legal structures that are becoming more common in mixed use schemes involving retail, leisure and residential uses.

Extensive experience
  • Acting for Sainsbury's on the real estate aspects of its tie up with Argos
  • Acting for British Land on its largest retail asset, the 1.5m square feet Meadowhall Shopping Centre Sheffield, which attracts 24 million shoppers a year
  • Acting on numerous Primark stores including its new megastore at the Pavilions in Birmingham which will deliver a 150,000 sq ft store when completed in 2018
  • Acting for Standard Life on the sale and leaseback to Tesco of several stores at a combined value of £211m
  • Advising HS1 on its transformation of St Pancras Station into a retail destination including lettings to Jo Malone, John Lewis and Mac
  • Acting for the Lateral Group on it new Axiom retail park of over 500,000 sq ft together with a country park and rugby league stadium
Thought Leadership and Credentials
Our experience in the Real Estate - Retail sector

Our real estate retail team has significant experience in acting for retailers, developers and investors. Their wide knowledge and great understanding of the sector allows them to deliver insightful advice with real commercial value.

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OM5G: The impact on Real Estate

The report features contributions from over 80 industry experts, and thought leadership pieces on how 5G will impact cities, housing, offices, retail and logistics.

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Real Estate Brochure

We are proud of our award-winning Real Estate Practice. As one of the largest offerings in the market we are built to effectively manage the property asset lifecycle from acquisition to exit. We’d like to share with you some of those highlights.

Download our Real Estate brochure here

Retail's Digital Future (2015)

Discover how emerging technology trends could affect the retail and real estate sectors (report published by AG in partnership with the British Council of Shopping Centres).

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Key contact

Meet the team
Joe Maitland

Joe Maitland

Partner, Real Estate
United Kingdom

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Addi Spiers

Addi Spiers

Partner, Restructuring/Finance
Edinburgh, UK

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