Hearst had occupied the building for over 35 years, as their UK headquarters, and upon lease expiry, decided to relocate to Panton Street, Leicester Square in 2019.
The Landlord, Shaftesbury, was inevitably planning to undertake a major refurbishment of the building upon vacant possession to maximise value.
However, a substantial full schedule of dilapidations claim was submitted.
Following review all the documents, we discovered a legal technicality, which meant that Hearst could block the prospective refurbishment by a priod of time that would be significantly costly to the landlord, at a nominal cost to Hearst.
This created strong leverage to negotiate, we eventually reached an agreement whereby effectively the entire claim was withdrawn against Hearst.
