Adam Youatt

Expertise

Adam is head of the Real Estate team in Nottingham and a key partner in Gateley’s nationally recognised Real Estate practice. His clients include investment funds, occupiers and both public and private sector organisations involved in regeneration and development schemes of all values. 

He is a real estate investment and development specialist.  His experience includes site assembly, joint venture and profit share arrangements, development agreements, investment acquisitions, funding agreements, property management agreements, the negotiation of institutionally acceptable leases, pre-lets and forward sales as well as general property and landlord and tenant transactions.

How do you help clients?

I am focused on achieving my clients’ objectives. I enjoy working with a client to understand their business and then delivering the commercial outcome they want whilst still protecting their position in the best way possible. I see my role as being to advise on both practical and legal steps that can be taken, or not, to ensure that the transaction can proceed in line with the client’s expectations. I can’t claim to have come up with the theory but I firmly believe that a lawyer needs to be ‘three As’ – Available, Affable and Able.

Experience

1. Advising Custodian REIT Plc in relation to its £650m-plus investment property portfolio, including the acquisition and disposal of numerous completed investments, the forward funding of a variety of schemes, and general asset management advice. A recent example is the acquisition of a 70,160 sq ft retail park consisting of four units for c£15m.
2. Acting for a property investment company on the renewal of two office leases to The Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government, generating an annual rental income of c£600k pa, and the subsequent sale of the investment to a Singaporean PE firm for c£8m.
3. Working with property developer Bildurn on its pre-letting to Domestic & General Services Limited for their new Nottingham headquarters. This was for a proposed new office development of approximately 50,000 sq ft over 5 floors. Subsequently advised on the forward funding of the completed development to a property fund for c£40m.
4. Advising a health property developer, on the acquisition, development and letting of a health centre in Maidstone Kent and another health property developer on the development of a new state of the art primary care medical centre based in Arnold, Nottingham let to a GP practice, pharmacy and primary care providers.
5. Advising biosciences company Sygnature Discovery on its forward commitment to lease 30,000 sq ft of the proposed 50,000 sq ft of purpose-built laboratories and offices now known as the Discovery Building, BioCity.