James Dodsworth
Biography
Overview
James Dodsworth is a partner in our global Real Estate industry group based in London and is Head of the Real Estate, Tax, Employment, Compensation & Benefits and Financial Services Regulatory practices for the EMEA region.
James advises clients on the investment, structuring, leasing and financing of commercial real estate, and is widely acknowledged as an authority on the European data center industry.
James offers a deep understanding of both the UK and international real estate industries, providing clients with access to current market trends and legal thinking, particularly as they relate to private equity investment and related structuring and financing.
James is a regular speaker at data center industry events throughout the UK, Europe and Asia and has authored a number of industry related publications, relating to the legal challenges facing those involved with data centers.
Experience
Representation of Digital Realty, on its US$680 million sale of a portfolio of 11 European data centres to Ascendas Reit, a CapitaLand sponsored REIT (Project Fairway)
Representation on Global Compute Infrastructure LP (Global Compute) on its agreement to acquire ATM S.A (ATM), the leading data center and communications infrastructure business in Poland, from a consortium of funds managed by MCI Capital, one of Poland's leading venture capital and private equity companies, and Mezzanine Management, an independent investment advisory firm
Representation of Infravia, the French infrastructure investor, and NGD's founders on the proposed sale of Next Generation Data (NGD) to Vantage Data Centers. NGD is a data centre business located in Newport, South Wales
Representation of Credit Suisse in relation to the sale and leaseback of its datacenter in New Jersey
Representation of 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
Representation of Oaktree Capital Management, a leading global alternative investment management firm, on its 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
Representation of GIC on its investment in a hyperscale data centre in Jakarta in partnership with Polymer Connected, a Singapore-based data centre start-up operator
Representation of Credit Suisse on the cross border sale and leaseback of critical data center facilities in both London and Singapore to Iron Mountain
Representation of Blue Horizon Investor Limited, which is owned by an Abu Dhabi based family office, in connection with its acquisition of 10 Hammersmith Grove, a marquee commercial mixed use property located in London for £112 million
Representation of Corney & Barrow Bars, one of London's leading wine bar group on the disposal of its London wine bar portfolio
Representation of Citibank on the sale and leaseback of Frankfurt Data Center, the first sale and leaseback of its kind relating to its Western European data center campus
Representation of Digital Realty on their US$874 million acquisition of "Project Cheetah" assets from Equinix, a divestiture directed by the Group's Commission following the acquisition of Telecity plc
Representation of the high profile commercial real estate acquisition of 105 Wigmore Street, London, W1 from Standard Life, located next to the iconic Selfridges department store in the heart of London's West End retail district
Representation of Harrods on their US$1.3 billion real estate financing of the Harrods department store and other related properties
Representation of Digital Realty on its US$1.1 billion acquisition of Sentrum, an owner and operator of wholesale data centre real estate and related services
Representation of Qatari Diar, a sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar focusing on real estate development and investment, and Barwa Real Estate a Qatari publicly listed company, in connection with the US$2.07 billion acquisition by Qatari Diar of Barwa City, a large-scale real estate development project in Doha. The transaction was one of Qatar's largest ever real estate transactions
Representation of a Family Office on a number of office development acquisitions in the West End of London for a combined sum in excess of US$500 million
Representation of Capital & Counties on over US$1 billion of commercial real estate acquisitions relating to London's Covent Garden Estate, its subsequent financing, development and asset management
Representation of Digital Realty on the acquisition, development and letting of its Crawley campus one of the largest data centre sites in Europe
Representation of Hampton Brook Estates on the development, forward funding and pre-letting of "The Pinnacle", a US$165 million development in Milton Keynes
Representation of the London Stock Exchange in relation to its real estate portfolio and related transactions
Data Centres – The alternative investment asset class, March 2018
Data Centres – The linchpins of the new digital economy, February 2015
Leading Individual – Real Estate – Commercial Property: Investment
Legal 500 UK, 2022
"James Dodsworth is extremely bright and accurate on technical matters and has a very pragmatic negotiating style."
Real Estate Big Ticket, Chambers UK 2022
Named in the Power 200 as one of 'The World's Most Influential Data Economy Leaders' of 2019.
"He balances technical awareness with commercial flair."
Chambers UK 2017
His team has been nominated for Real Estate Team of the Year at the 2017 Legal Business Awards.