Real Estate / Construction
Our expertise
Our expertise
We cover all aspects of commercial property law, with a focus on the retail business and the operation of shopping centres. Our clients include both investors and private and institutional lessors, and we have earned recognition representing national and international retailing groups with their development strategies, providing advice and assistance throughout the process (from the drafting and negotiation through to the performance of leases and lease renewals).
What we do
We advise clients on commercial property transactions:
- We help them to design financing schemes, to structure investments and partnerships, to set up companies, and to draw up shareholders' agreements etc.
We provide support to clients entering into leases and other related agreements:
- We draw up and negotiate contracts and their legal and economic clauses.
- We prepare the required technical dossiers.
- We conduct commercial property audits.
We assist clients with lease-related issues and litigation:
- We help them to carry out their lease-related transactions (business transfers, lease assignments, share purchases, other complex operations).
- We assist them with the performance of their leases and other related agreements in case of bankruptcy.
- We deal with rent updating/indexing/revising procedures.
- We represent clients in all lease-related proceedings (general duties of the lessor, works-related provisions, lease renewal and termination).
- We conduct litigation before the commercial property judge and/or the French departmental conciliation committee in case of a dispute over rent following the renewal of the lease, and we assist and represent clients in compensation proceedings following termination.
- We implement collection procedures (formal notices, enforcement of resolutory clauses).
- We enforce our clients' rights (attachment and sale of property, contractual or judicial pledge of a business, execution of guarantees).
- We help creditors (lessors or lessees) to collect from their bankrupt debtors.
We help clients with the contractual aspects of their building construction projects:
- We draw up and negotiate contracts with public bodies (works procurement contracts, authorizations to temporarily occupy and build on public property) and private operators (contracts with project owners, project managers, property developers, contractors, subcontractors, etc.) and the related contractual documentation (special administrative terms and conditions, special technical terms and conditions).
- We advise clients on performance-related issues, we assist them in their dealings with the various contractors, and we help them to enforce financial provisions.
- We attend surveys and expert appraisals.
- We represent clients before the judicial and administrative authorities in connection with contract negotiations and performance.
We secure the required authorizations:
- We apply for planning permission (construction works, public-access building compliance, conversion of residential properties into commercial estate or office space, etc.).
- We represent clients appealing administrative decisions (granting or denying authorizations) or challenging planning documentation (development plan etc.).
- We advise clients on quarry law, on waste disposal regulations, and on the regulatory requirements for installations containing dangerous substances.
- We litigate on behalf of clients in matters of administrative liability and the protection of natural areas.
Among our files
- Drawing-up and negotiating commercial leases for numerous private and institutional lessors in the mass retail sector in particular (shopping and city centres)
- Advising major national and international brands on commercial property management issues
- Regularly conducting litigation relating to the performance, renewal, and termination of commercial leases (termination and rent disputes in particular)
- Advising a leading institutional commercial property lessor on a daily basis
- Bidding with a private operator for the restructuration of a historical building in the centre of Paris
- Advising a restaurant chain following the expropriation of one of its establishments
- Assisting a property developer with the sale of a newly-built shopping centre in Lille and with a development project in a shopping centre in Marseille (built by the Marseille port authority within the framework of an authorization to temporarily occupy and build on public property)
- Advising businesses erecting public or private buildings:
- Construction of the Carpe Diem tower in La Défense
- Extension of the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou in Paris: construction of the building housing the IRCAM (relations with the public body and contractors, handling of all judicial and/or administrative disputes)
- Restructuration of the Quadrilatère Richelieu (35,000 m2)
- Restructuration of the train station Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris within the framework of an authorization to temporarily occupy and build on public property
- Reconfiguration of the Batignolles retail park in Paris
- Assisting clients with the acquisition and construction of warehouses (contracts, authorizations, litigation)