Real estate lawyers advise on largest UK office letting of the year

Allen & Overy (A&O) and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) have landed key advisory roles as Japanese investment house Nomura prepares to move in to new premises in the City.

The pair have advised on a 20-year lease arrangement, likely to be the largest UK office letting in 2009, which gives Nomura a six-year, rent-free period on the newly constructed Watermark Place building near Cannon Street.

A&O was drafted to advise longstanding client Nomura, with real estate head Adam Cleal taking the lead role, assisted by real estate counsels Trevor Cosgrove and Ben Eaton.

The magic circle firm worked alongside Nomura European general counsel Mark Chapman on the deal, which will see Nomura paying an initial rate of £40 per sq ft from 2015 for the 12-storey 525,000 sq ft building. The bank, which has been growing since acquiring parts of defunct bank Lehman Brothers in Europe and the Middle East, expects to move up to 4,000 staff into the new building.

Watermark Place was developed by Oxford Properties, which turned to BLP for advice with a team led by London commercial real estate partners Alan Wight and Richard Hopkinson-Woolley.

Oxford Properties, a subsidiary of Canadian pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, will act as the landlord and has entered into a joint venture rent share agreement with freeholders UBS South East Recovery Partnership, which also instructed BLP.

Cleal commented: "This deal will take a large amount of available grade-A space out of the City office market, which will help the recovery."