Lara Cole

Lara advises on high-value property acquisitions and disposals across commercial, residential, and healthcare sectors, including portfolio sales, due diligence, and complex leasehold transactions for UK and international clients.

• The sale of €10m of prime, multi-let office stock in Paris, France.
• Drafting and negotiating the suite of documents for the sale of residential flats within two tower blocks and ultimate disposal of the freeholds of the towers with a value of circa £10m.
• Due diligence and disposal programme for a £500m commercial property portfolio.
• Acting for one of the largest independent hospitals in the UK on its acquisition of a prime London site, with a value of £7.8m to enable expansion of its business.
• Acting for a leading Partnership with regard its acquisition of a new key outlet in the north of England on a 35-year lease with an initial £1.6m rent p.a. (as well as on various other property matters).

Lara advises lenders, developers, and investors on secured lending and property finance transactions. Her experience includes drafting and negotiating facility and security documentation, refinancing development projects, and supporting complex real estate funding and investment structures.

• The administration process involving two of the Targetfollow Group holding companies, incorporating circa 30 subsidiaries, negotiating a suite of documents under which another company within the Group now manages the portfolios, being a key contact and coordinator with the administrators and also undertaking legal work in relation to the assets subject to the administrations, debt value of circa £700m.
• Successfully amending the CVA proposal for one of the Targetfollow Group’s high-profile tenants, not only preserving the Group’s position as creditor but also giving it preference over other creditors.
• Acting for a Plc with regard all aspects of its property portfolio.

Lara advises on high-value property developments, joint ventures, and site acquisitions. She has extensive experience resolving title and planning issues for major UK and international residential, commercial, and mixed-use projects.

• Acting for a national house builder with regard to its acquisition of development sites and in relation to a JV at Nine Elms, Battersea (acquisition values £4-10m).
• Acting for Aldar, one of the largest investment development companies in Abu Dhabi, with regard to a myriad of matters ranging from a key single let of a 60-storey tower, to a strategic JV (including a transfer of key properties into the newly created JV ventures with layered leases created therefrom), to advising on multiple L&T issues across its diverse commercial and retail portfolio, including office towers and shopping centres, to Waterworld, and upon various hospitality matters and academy issues relating to its portfolio of hotels and group of schools.
• The title investigation and clearance of rights to light issues relating to a Central London development site, land value £15m, GDV circa £150m.
• The title investigation and clearance of restrictive covenants on a 21-acre mixed-use site to prime it for development, land value £15m, GDV circa £35m.
• Drafting the suite of investment documents and dealing with the due diligence and acquisition of a development site (with a value of circa £6 million) for a newly formed joint venture company, including dealing with the clearance of restrictive covenants and rights to light issues, drafting the suite of construction documents and dealing with the refinance for the same development company, followed by site setup and disposal documentation.