New Aquitaine House Theale
Berkshire – Distribution

New Aquitaine House is a high specification warehouse and office building occupied by Direct Wines – their brands include Sunday Times Wine Club and Virgin Wines.  Theale is an established warehouse and office location to the west of Reading.  We considered that the existing rent did not properly reflect the attributes of the building - in particular the high office content and the low site cover.  After negotiations we were able to achieve an increase in the rent in excess of 10% on behalf of our fund management client.

Bhs Midland Road Bedford
Bedfordshire – Retail

This property is the best large store in Bedford and is opposite the main entrance to the Harpur Centre.  It comprises about 32,500 sq ft on two floors.  This sector of the market had seen significant increases in rental values in recent years and we advised our client (a consortium of Danish investors) that a large increase in the rent could be expected.  We were able to translate our advice into reality as we negotiated an increase in the rent from £308,500 to £357,500 per annum a 16% increase.

Godalming Business Centre Godalming Surrey - Offices es

This is a property on which we undertake the asset management on behalf of the owners. There are eight buildings totalling 36,000 sq ft.  We have undertaken a rolling refurbishment program both internally and externally.  The average rent was £16.00 per sq ft, but after we implemented a series of rent reviews it is now £19.50 per sq ft, an increase of over 20%.

New Bond Street Mayfair London W1 – Offices

There has been considerable rental growth in the West End in recent years. Our client, Mulberry plc occupied 4,200 sq ft of high quality offices and faced a considerable increase in rent when it came up for review recently. Using a combination of our in depth market knowledge and onerous lease clauses we were able to successfully negotiate no increase.

Mulberry King Street Manchester
Greater Manchester – Retail

Our clients, Mulberry, the internationally renowned luxury fashion brand have their Manchester branch on King Street, the city’s premier fashion street.  Other rent reviews in the street had resulted in tenants paying increased rents but it was clear that landlords could only justify increases by referring to other rent review settlements.  Our investigations showed that the true rental value was below the perceived tone.  After negotiations we were able to persuade the landlord that the rent should not be increased – this was the first shop in the street where the rent did not increase upon review.

Queen Street Mayfair London W1 – Offices
Our client, a firm of fund managers occupied a very attractive high quality period building in the heart of Mayfair. The owners of the building delayed implementing the rent review because of the rapidly rising rents in the area. We advised our client on the importance of dealing with the review quickly as rents were increasing. The lease enabled the tenant to instigate the review, which we did. The landlord eventually agreed no increase although he initially sought in excess of 10%.

Lymedale Business Park Newcastle under Lyme
Staffordshire – Distribution
This was a recent rent review of a high quality modern distribution building on one of the regions premier distribution parks. The market evidence for older industrial stock was a lower rent so it was important to build a case for the regional distribution market rather than the local industrial market. We spent a considerable amount of time looking at every similar building in the M6 corridor to give us the information we needed to prove a significant increase. Our client, Good Harvest Group Limited, the owners of the building were very pleased with eventual settlement – and increase of 25%.

Wintersells Road Byfleet Surrey – Distribution/
Car Showroom
Ford uses this building as a service and repair centre as it is adjacent to Byfleet Station. They negotiated hard, despite market evidence of significant rental increases. Our strategy was to apply for the appointment of an Independent Expert to encourage the tenant to make a sensible offer. We were confident that the rent should be higher than the tenant had offered and advised our client to let us make our case to the Independent Expert.  We presented our case by written submission and our decision not to accept the tenants offer was vindicated when the Expert determined a rent 9% above this level and 2% above our offer to the tenant.