Richard Sherington

Prior to joining Gerald Eve’s Leeds office, I worked in the Retail Department of our West End office dealing with rating and lease consultancy across the South East of England. I also provide expert witness reports for rent review and lease renewal dispute resolution throughout Yorkshire and the North East. I provide Red Book valuations and advise occupiers for company accounting purposes as well as banks and building societies for secured lending in the retail sector.

I have advised WH Smith, Laura Ashley and Pizza Express on their out of town retail portfolios across the north of England, on issues such as lease consultancy instructions including redevelopment/relocation advice upon lease expiry. I specialise in rent review and lease renewal advice for both landlord and tenant clients, including Costa Coffee, WH Smith, Phones 4u, Laura Ashley, Byron Burgers, Pizza Express, ASK and Zizzi as well as private individuals.

MY RECENT PROJECTS

• I advised WH Smith with regard to their lease renewal advice at the Cleveland Centre, Middlesbrough. This was an oversized store where the retail market has also weakened. Following negotiations with the landlord I reduced the rent from £350,000 pa to £135,000 pa, saving the client £1.075m over the five years of their lease.
• I provided Costa with advice on the re-gear of their store at St Mary’s Place, Newcastle. The property was over-rented and we advised Costa to serve the break notice to renegotiate terms. The landlord agreed to a new lease and reduced the rent by £10,000 pa, saving the client £50,000 over the term of their lease.
• I acted for ASK on their rent review in Durham where the landlord had quoted a significant increase in the rent of 25%. Following extensive negotiations with the landlord we advised our client to proceed to 3^rd party determination. The outcome reduced the increase to only 5%, which saved the client over £75,000 over the remainder of their lease.