Ben acts for market leading corporate and government clients across the commercial, retail, residential and development real estate sectors. Ben delivers advice and transactional legal services with a strong commercial focus, while maintaining technical precision. Recognised in Best Lawyers, Australia for the last three years, Ben is highly regarded in the Sydney legal market and has recently relocated to Edinburgh as an Australian qualified lawyer.
Ben's expertise includes high-value property acquisitions and due diligence, commercial, industrial and retail leasing (including complex agreements for lease and incentive deeds), telecommunications portfolios, infrastructure projects, build-to-rent projects, staged developments, off-the-plan projects and managing commercial and government property portfolios.
For over 15 years, Ben has developed strong relationships with clients at Australian and international industry leaders and major government departments, with both legal and commercial terms and agents / intermediaries. Ben has also acted for a number of foreign investment clients based in the UK, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand and USA and has also successfully completed client secondments.
Ben's willingness to understand his client's specific business practices and industry conditions helps him develop and maintain strong client relationships. His ability to deliver commercially focussed, timely and precise work, coupled with his amicable demeanour, are appreciated and valued by clients.
- Major telecommunications infrastructure provider - Leading a team on the preparation and negotiation of leases of greenfield sites, renewal and option leases, and advising on site access issues in relation to facilities located in both rural and urban areas across numerous Australian jurisdictions;
- Australian build-to-rent (BTR) portfolio - Advising a high-profile Australian BTR developer, with foreign sovereign funding, on the proposed acquisition of development sites for build-to-rent developments in Sydney, including complex transaction structuring advice, exclusivity agreements, call options, development conditions precedent and foreign investment approval.
- Developers - Acting for Frasers Property on the redevelopment of a former hospital site into a staged development of over 700 dwellings, with work including development contracts, subdivision and easement advice, title structuring and conveyancing aspects. Acting on prestigious Sydney harbour luxury developments with work including site acquisition due diligence, site access disputes, agreements with local authorities, conveyancing and purchaser dispute advice. Acting on a large scale residential project development agreement (PDA) for a major Japanese developer on its proposed PDA with a local developer for a site comprising over 1,000 residential lots.
- Amazon - Acting for Amazon on its expansion into the Australian market, including on ground leases for logistics sites, freehold acquisitions and office leases.
- Landlord portfolio - Acting for a Chinese conglomerate entity on its $1 billion AUD (approx) Sydney commercial property portfolio, with Ben acting as the primary solicitor and leading a team of lawyers. Work has included drafting and negotiating complex leases, agreement for lease and incentive deeds, make good dispute advice, bank guarantee claims and disputes, construction contracts, insurance matters and car park management agreements.