SJ Berwin - Retail - UK's Largest Single-Purchaser Property Transaction

Date: 04 Nov 1999

SJ Berwin & Co acted for The British Land Company PLC on the exercise of its call option ("the Option") granted on 8 July 1999, to acquire the companies owning the Meadowhall Shopping Centre at Sheffield, the UK's fourth largest shopping centre, valued at £1.17 billion. Completion of the acquisition took place on 1 November 1999.

The Centre Consists of 1.25 million square feet of retail. leisure and ancillary space on a 125 acre site, and is almost fully let to 300 tenants. It is in a catchment of 1.9 million people within 30 minutes drive time and attracts an estimated 30 million visitors each year One of the vendors, Mr Eddie Healy, has agreed to become President of Meadowhall Holdings Limited on exercise of the Option.

The vendors of Meadowhall own 48 acres of potential development land adjacent to the Centre British Land's acquisition of Meadowhall includes an option to acquire these sites within five years of the completion of the acquisition. If the sites are developed, the price will be at a discounted investment value If they are underdeveloped, the price will be the industrial land value.

Team leader Jonathan Metliss said "This is yet another substantial assignment undertaken by S J Berwin & Co on behalf of British Land, to add to the Broadgate work and the various joint ventures with Great Universal Stores, Tesco, Rank, Railtrack and Cherrywood in Ireland".

The S J Berwin & Co team was led by corporate partner Jonathan Metliss with property partners Stephen Willson and Jeff Smith, corporate partners Michael Goldberg and John Williams, tax partner Heather Corben and banking partner Gillian Smith.

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