International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised BP Pension Fund on three real estate transactions over the past four weeks, two forward funding developments and the disposal of an office building in Hammersmith, West London.

The first matter involved the speculative forward funding development of 200,000 sq ft of B1, B2 and B8 warehouse and manufacturing units in a canal side site in Birmingham with H20 (a national joint venture company owned  by the Canal & River Trust and private developer Bloc).

The second involved the disposal of a multi-let office building in Hammersmith, West London, for just over £59m to Royal London Mutual Insurance Society. The building was let to tenants including Universal Music, Etihad Airways, Western Union and Starbucks.

The third and final matter consisted of the forward funding development of a retail park in Wakefield, West Yorkshire with Kier. The scheme will comprise of 10 retail units of just over 48,600 sq ft retail floor space and 260 car parking spaces already pre-let to various retailers including, Aldi, Iceland and McDonalds.

London real estate and relationship partner Hetan Ganatra led on all three matters.  He was assisted on the first matter by real estate senior associate John Rosmini and by real estate associate Rhian Woodend and senior associate Sahina Jada on the second and third matters respectively. Partner Richard Stephens and senior associate Nick Walker advised on the tax and planning & environmental aspects on all three matters respectively. Senior associate Emmanuel Ninos provided construction law advice on the first and third and second matters, and senior associate Devan Khagram on employment law for the second.

Hetan commented: “It was pleasure to work with BP Pension Fund on these transactions which represent significant investments and disposals for them across the UK”.

Hetan has previously advised BP Pension Fund on similar transactions recently including a speculative forward funding development of 27 industrial units of 581,040 sq ft in Bristol and another forward funding development of four industrial units of 205,000 sq ft in Rochdale.