Queen City Law wishes everyone the very best for 2012 and expects more of the unexpected this year.

Based on the last 12 months in the property sector it is not for the feint hearted and only those who are agile, nimble, focussed and disciplined will do well. A tangible exit to a new project is compulsory and bankers require all basic disciplines in place before funding can be considered.

QCL has 3 well researched initiatives that it executed in 2011 and a top team on deck to further execute these initiatives - when the going gets tough the tough get going so watch this space.

In November 2011 Queen City Law won the Prendos Property and Construction Law Award in New Zealand for the second year running.

The firm had previously won Construction Law Firm of the year in 2008 and 2009 but is thrilled to pick up the combined Property and Construction Law Awards in 2010 and 2011 which is essentially current through to the end of 2012.

Queen City Law has huge passion and substantial experience in these sectors and focuses on adding bottom line VALUE for its clients at all times.

QCL is very proud of these achievements as it is clients who effectively drive the NZ law awards process and we believe it reflects the client-centric philosophy which underpins our firms daily modus operandi.

It appears that our house is in order!

Examples of recent project and other real estate work we are working on or have completed INCLUDE:

Acting as Vendors lawyers providing real estate services for some of the largest development sites and other leading commercial towers in Aucklands CBD.

Recent acquisition of the Metro Centre in Queen St containing 47 tenancies and associated advice in terms of proposed further development of site.

Providing lead in advice on some of the largest proposed CBD projects on the plans in Aucklands CBD in 2012. One project is anticipated to cost $360 M and another some $400 M.

All preliminary work for a new proposed NZ$150M commercial tower in Aucklands CBD.

Advice on a major new highrise tourism development planned for Dunedin in 2012.

Spearheading the Resource Consent process for the project currently known as the Elliott Tower (Auckland CBD). Resource Consent for this proposed NZ$450M project was finally obtained after a contestable process.Queen City Law was intricately involved in the appointment and co-ordination of the team which comprised New Zealands leading architects (Mollers), planners (Barker & Associates), urban designers (Transurban), construction representatives (Brookfield Multiplex), traffic engineers (Connell Wagner and Traffic Planning Consultants Limited), communications experts (Kordia), RMA Barrister Russell Bartlett and others.

The project represents the largest high rise project ever seen in New Zealand (67 levels representing over 90,000m2 of improvements) and our office is conveniently located next to the development site.

This project is now moving in to the building consent phase and it is currently anticipated that the sales, financing and construction phases will be activated in parallel so that construction may commence in 2013.Queen City Law will continue to play a central role.

If this project is of interest to you check out the March 2008 Construction Law paper in the Construction part (page 2) of our QCL Law Library which will take you through a photographic and visual journey of the proposed project to date.

All legal services including negotiations, due diligence, acquisition, leasing, appointment of consultants (Architect- Clark Brown, Preferred Contractor - Multiplex) resource consent and building consent for a NZ$150M project located at 28-32 Shortland Street, Auckland City. This is a mixed use development comprising 36 levels of residential units and 8,000m2 of commercial office space.

Updating what is set out above a leading team of consultants has now been assembled including Mollers Architects, Brookfield Multiplex , Buller George and others and preliminary design work has been completed with a view to turning the site into a 5 star green smart commercial tower with no tokenism....work continues apace and the proposed 33,000m2 office tower will shortly undergo a marketing phase with a view to attracting top calibre corporate tenants - please contact us if of interest.

All legal services prior to settlement relating to the Residences@Fort Street Auckland City, comprising a 40 level residential apartment development of some 400 units with retail premises at ground level.

All legal services for 110 apartment complex constructed at 100 Anzac Avenue, Auckland City.

All legal services for 150 residential units located at 26-32 Eden Crescent, Auckland City.

All legal services for 203 residential unit development known as Victopia, located across the road from TVNZ on Victoria Street, Auckland City.

The acquisition of a development site in Greys Avenue, (over 5,000m2) Auckland. This property is now for sale so again please contact us if of interest.

Construction of the Fiore on Hobson project (Auckland City) built by Canam is now complete and we completed the first wave of settlements in the middle of the Global Credit Crunch ! This project comprises 119 residential units with car parks able to be purchased for each unit. Further details of this project are available at www.fioreapt.co.nz.

Another 100 or so units which we refer to as Hobson 2 are intended to be built in 2012.

Acquisition and all downstream legal attendances for several multimillion dollar land development sites throughout greater Auckland.

The disposal of hotels for one of New Zealands largest hotel owner/operators.

We have also recently acted for a number of the larger Body Corporates in Auckland with the negotiation and completion of construction contracts following settlement being reached. 2 of the larger projects we have acted on in 2011 represent remedial work of some NZ$30 M and we have built up some very strong and unique knowledge in this sector.

Currently we are also doing subdivisional work for projects located in South and West Auckland which represents the development of several hundred new residential homes although this market is currently somewhat stagnant.

All lead in work for a mixed use development in Fiji comprising a 300 room hotel,a water theme park and several hundred retail shops.

Providing opinion and other legal services to developers looking at assorted business immigration schemes, JV options, structuring including Limited Partnership arrangements and suchlike.
Given the state of the world economy having QCL lawyers with fluency in Mandarin, Cantonese , Korean , Japanese, Filipino and Indonesian or Malay is also of course an asset.

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Many of these projects bring into focus the partnerships we have created with our clients. Our lawyers are often in team meetings with say the developer, the cost consultant, the architect, the builder, the project manager and the funder(s).We have often been able to play an extremely hands on role in terms of a lot of these projects (particularly when we are representing off shore interests) and have therefore had much wider involvement than the vaste majority of other lawyers in this sector. This experience has given us a much deeper understanding of property development work and places us in a unique position - it also enables us to add direct value to development projects often with a mark of distinction.

Additionally, our lawyers are also able to assist in terms of due diligence programmes, ascertaining finance requirements and implementing such programmes (which has become increasingly difficult and protracted in the current credit-crunch gridlock), full liaison with Council, introducing other project experts as required from a wide range of relationships that we enjoy, (from architects through to real estate agents), protecting the developers interests at all times, media liaison as required, providing robust trust account solutions to developers selling property off the plans, construction agreements, appointment of consultants, preparation of tailor made sale and purchase agreements, all required negotiations , superb attention to detail and planning in terms of settlement requirements and all associated legal and other matters that inevitably arise during these projects.

Despite the property sector currently being in recessionary times our firm is still able to add bottom line value to clients.

Several of our lawyers are also able to lawfully provide real estate services and we are well placed to provide sound assistance in this regard although we are currently limiting our involvement to transactions over say NZ$5M.

If this area of our work is of interest to you please also take the time to look through our Press Releases , the Construction and Property components of our QCL Law Library and so on.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of what is set out above or require any further information in relation to property development or any other property related matters including real estate or contentious work , please contact marcus@queencitylaw.co.nz or jody@queencitylaw.co.nz or john@queencitylaw.co.nz or ross@queencitylaw.co.nz or tina@queencitylaw.co.nz or jan@queencitylaw.co.nz or bradley@queencitylaw.co.nz .