James Johnson
Biography
Overview
James Johnson is a partner in our global Real Estate industry group based in London.
James has broad experience and an international practice spanning jurisdictions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. James advises in relation to real estate investment acquisitions and disposals, the property aspects of corporate, project finance and private equity transactions, property financing, landlord and tenant work, real estate management and cross-border transactions.
James has a particular focus on data centres and advises developers, service providers and occupiers in relation to this highly specialised asset class.
Experience
Oaktree Capital Management, on its acquisition and subsequent sale of the SACO property portfolio, 2018
James advised Oaktree Capital Management, a leading global alternative investment management firm, on its acquisition and subsequent sale of the SACO property portfolio, one of the UK's leading providers of serviced apartments with an extensive network of properties around the world, to Brookfield Asset Management.
Blue Horizon Investors on its acquisition of high profile London and Rotterdam assets, 2017/2018
James advised Blue Horizon Investors, which is owned by an Abu Dhabi based family office, in connection with its acquisition of a commercial real estate asset located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, known as Blaak16 for €65 million (2018) and its acquisition of 10 Hammersmith Grove, a marquee commercial mixed use property located in London for £112 million (2017).
Credit Suisse on the cross border sale and leaseback of critical data center facilities, 2018
James advised Credit Suisse on the cross border sale and leaseback of critical data center facilities in both London and Singapore to Iron Mountain.
IO Data Centers, LLC, on the sale of its UK data center groups, 2017
James advised IO Data Centers, LLC, a data center services company, which provides colocation and cloud services to businesses and governments worldwide in connection with its sale of its UK Data Centre Groups to Equinix (UK) Limited.
High profile commercial real estate acquisition of 105 Wigmore Street, London, W1, 2017
James advised on the high profile commercial real estate acquisition of 105 Wigmore Street from Standard Life. Located next to the iconic Selfridges department store in the heart of London's West End retail district, he advised one of the Firm's longstanding family office clients on the successful purchase following a competitive bidding process.
Citibank on the sale and leaseback of its Frankfurt Data Center, 2016
James advised Citibank on the sale and leaseback of its Frankfurt Data Center, the first sale and leaseback of its kind, relating to its Western European data center campus.
Digital Realty in relation to Project Cheetah, 2016
James advised Digital Realty in relation to the acquisition of eight high quality, carrier-neutral data centres across Europe in a deal worth in excess of US$874 million.
Data4Group in relation to it Paris data centres, 2016
James advised Data4Group in relation to the grant of the largest commercial data centre agreements ever to have been completed in France.
Corney & Barrow Bars on the disposal of its London wine bar portfolio, 2016
James advised Corney & Barrow, one of London's leading wine merchants, on the disposal of its London wine bar portfolio.
Digital Realty on its US$1.1 billion acquisition of Sentrum, 2012
James advised Digital Realty on its acquisition of the Sentrum portfolio for approximately US $1.1 billion.
