Petrol Stations
The Commercial Property team recently acted for a foreign investor in the acquisition of the freehold reversion of a portfolio of petrol stations. The transaction was structured through a series of separate off-shore registered SPVs. The transaction involved extensive arrangements for environmental cleanup together with redevelopment arrangements with nationwide supermarkets.

MyGoodness
The Hotels team acted for long time client MyHotel in connection with the in house restaurant provision in its award winning hotels in Brighton and Bloomsbury as well as lease negotiations at its beautiful boutique hotel in Chelsea.

Yusuf
The firm greatly enjoyed its outing to the Albert Hall to watch Yusuf in concert and wishes him every success with Roadsinger and with Moonshadow. The firm has been proud to advise in respect of a number of projects undertaken by charities in respect of which Yusuf or his family have an involvement.

Cut Price Homes
Having advised a non-domiciled purchaser in connection with the acquisition of a three bedroom flat in Central London at a purchase price in excess of £12M, the geographical variation in values was starkly demonstrated when the residential team found themselves acting the following week in connection with the purchase of a family home in the West Country. The price tag was little more than a tenth of the flat but the home consists of a dozen bedrooms with extensive grounds, shooting rights, grazing and agricultural tenancies and even a private water source. Long walk to Harvey Nichols though.

Michelin Stardom
All at Woodroffes are exceedingly proud to have acted for many years for the proprietor of the Harwood Arms, the UK’s first Gastro Pub to be awarded a coveted Michelin Star. Woodroffes offers its congratulations and looks forwarded to the growing and well deserved success of the group.

Hostelry
Roger acted for a large national Islamic charity in connection with the development and leasing of a high quality youth hostel and budget accommodation which after six months development opened to excellent reviews.

Woolworths not Worthless
Despite dire predictions of the end of the UK High Street, John has settled terms for reletting the last of an extensive portfolio of freehold properties formerly occupied by Woolworths. Some creative marketing has been necessary in places with the subdivision of some larger units, Landlord’s development works and/or Tenant concessions toward extensive refitting. Nevertheless the capital value of the units ought largely to have been maintained for the various differing freeholders despite the loss of a long established household name covenant.

Facebook and Twitter
With almost every business using social media, Sherree has been busy training a number of our clients in reducing the risks associated with these types of activities. Some of our clients, including hotels or restaurants with a direct on-line booking procedure, find that sensible guidelines and policies for staff and an awareness of some of the key risks (such as IP infringement and defamation) have been sufficient whilst others with a more sophisticated on-line presence have found they need to amend and adapt their online terms of business to reflect greater interaction with users and more extensive publication of user generated content.