BCLP Continues Expansion of Corporate Real Estate and Funds Team in London

International law firm BCLP has added partner Luke Mines to the firm’s growing Corporate Real Estate and Funds team in London, who arrives from Morrison Foerster.

Luke is the latest addition to BCLP’s Corporate Real Estate and Funds team and the second partner to join in as many months. This follows the recent arrival of partner Chris Beaumont-McQuillan from Reed Smith, where he led the Corporate Real Estate team in London. Today’s move also continues BCLP’s emphasis on building around partners who can best leverage the firm’s global platform with multi-office, multi-disciplinary practices.

Luke focuses his practice on helping investors, operators and other market participants who do business in the European real estate markets. He represents a wide variety of clients, including some of the world’s largest private equity real estate firms, real estate investors, developers and asset managers.

Luke advises on a wide range of transactions in the real estate sector, including M&A deals (involving real assets, real estate–intensive businesses or operating platforms), joint ventures, club deals and other fund structures, as well as real estate development work and restructurings. His experience covers all the major real estate sectors, including office, life sciences, logistics, retail, hotels, student accommodation and residential. He has acted on deals in most European jurisdictions as well as having significant transactional experience in Asia.

On the hire, BCLP Global Head of Real Estate Chris de Pury said: “We are excited to welcome Luke to BCLP as our Corporate Real Estate and Funds team continues to grow in London. Combined with our steady growth in Germany and France, we’re building one of the top pan-European practices in the world, and Luke is a perfect fit for the types of large, complex matters we’re handling around the globe.”

This appointment continues momentum for BCLP’s Corporate Real Estate and Funds team, which formally launched on January 1 after working together unofficially for a number of years. The team works closely on advising the firm’s Real Estate clients on a variety of mandates ranging from corporate acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and takeovers, through to structuring of investment funds, capital raising, regulatory compliance, restructuring and exit strategies. The team has had led on a number of cutting-edge and high-value deals in the market, including:

• Global investment firm KKR’s £610m investment in UK-wide BTR projects, including their investment into a new £1.7bn BTR JV platform with Apache Capital which is expected to deliver 4,000 homes. 
• The largest UK hotels sale on record – Grange Hotels’ £1bn portfolio sale to Queensgate Investments.
• The formation of a £1.5bn club fund focused on UK build to rent between Long Harbour, PSP Investments and Cadillac Fairview and Long Harbour’s continued expansive investment program.
• One of the 50 largest PE firms in the world, Kayne Anderson’s joint venture with Kinetic to create a new $1 billion debt funding platform for the European student housing financing market.