Benjamin is a commercial real estate specialist based in Melbourne. His practice focuses on commercial property development and investment, with a focus on high value complex structured transactions from large-scale acquisitions and disposals to development projects, corporate real estate advisory, and foreign investment compliance.
With an extensive knowledge of Australia’s foreign investment laws, Benjamin regularly advises offshore investors on their Australian real estate investments. He acts for a diverse client base including listed property funds, institutional investors, superannuation funds, government agencies and private capital groups.
Benjamin has previously worked in Sydney and London, before settling in Melbourne, and uses his cross-jurisdictional experience to generate flexible and innovative solutions for his clients. He was awarded NSW Young Property Lawyer of the Year by the Law Council of Australia and is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria’s Property Law Committee.
Benjamin’s work highlights include the following:
- Infrastructure: on a major Australian port operator in relation to a port redevelopment and its tenure arrangements. Advising a major Australian superannuation fund on the $1.5b purchase of an interest in an Australian airport
- Digital Infrastructure: on DigiCo REIT in relation to data centre acquisitions totalling $2.337b. On the $1.035b sale of the Metronode data centre business to Equinix. Advising major data centre operators in relation to their customer agreements*
- Healthcare: on HealthCo Healthcare and Wellness REIT on the $1.3b acquisition of a portfolio of 11 private hospitals. Advising mRNA Victoria on the establishment of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine research and manufacturing facilities at Clayton and BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine research and manufacturing facilities at Bundoora*
- Energy: on major renewable energy developers and investors in relation to tenure assembly, development, financing and sale of wind and solar farms.* On a major global oil and gas company in relation to its onshore and offshore tenure arrangements
- Property development : on listed and unlisted developers in relation to large scale residential and commercial developments for build to sell and build to rent projects
- Agribusiness: on operators and investors on the sale and purchase of high value agricultural properties, including the purchase of Montague Farms by an offshore investor*
- Capital transactions: on high value real estate transactions including GPT’s sale of Wollongong Central and Intermediate Capital Group plc on the acquisition and forward funding of Jaguar Land Rover's Global Parts and Distribution Facility, Europe's largest-ever single-occupier build-to-suit transaction*
*Work undertaken at a previous firm.
