Excellent service given to church

Oct 3 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

LAW firm Sintons has acted for CC Projects, a company wholly owned by the Church Commissioners, in the £18m sale of a St Albans office block.

The Church Commissioners are one of the country’s largest land owners and have more than £1bn of property under management.

The sale of Verulam Point was led by Paul Liddle, partner in Newcastle-based solicitors Sintons’ commercial property department, who has acted for the Church Commissioners in 18 transactions totalling more than £300m over the last three years.

Verulam Point, a 52,000 square feet office block built in 1991, was put on the market through Kings Sturge and attracted considerable interest from a number of buyers.

The price tag of £18m meant a 5.49% net initial yield was achieved, with a reversionary yield in the order of 5.8%. Sale price per square foot was £343.

Paul Clerk, chief surveyor at the Church Commissioners, said “The Church Commissioners is a significant and active investor in property across the UK. Paul Liddle and his team at Sintons provided an excellent service for us on this transaction. Paul also handled the granting of a lease to part of the vacant fourth floor to Agentrics (UK) Limited in parallel to the sale. This added to the complexity of the transaction.”

Paul Liddle, who joined Sintons in 2007, and Sarah King, solicitor in Sintons commercial property department, have also been handling the granting of leases at two other Church Commissioners owned buildings, Imperial House on Kingsway in London and Mannings Heath Retail Park in Poole.

Leases were granted to seven tenants including the Netherlands Board of Tourism, Huntress Search and Carpet Barn. Total annual rental value is over of £500,000.

Sintons also acts for other parts of the Church of England – Jane Lowden is registrar of both the Newcastle and Carlisle dioceses which means advising the Bishops on all legal issues.

The firm, which was founded in 1896, has 20 partners and 150 staff who work at the iconic building The Cube opposite St James’s Park.