A national cold store operator was engaging with a major public entity for the design, build and lease of a large new cold store and logistics centre to be built on the public entity’s land.  The tenant’s needs were complex, so, unusually, the project was to be tenant-led (rather than landlord-led); meaning the parties were in new territory as to how to manage the delivery of the project and payment for it.

Because it would be a tenant-led project, the tenant would manage the spending of the landlord's public entity's development funds.  A development concept was needed whereby the tenant, in conjunction with the landlord, would design the premises, be in charge of the project management and construction and then enter the lease, all while spending the landlord's money, with extensive controls about how the money would be spent.

Mark assisted the tenant with the formulation of the development concept in ways that best protected its interests, would deliver the outcomes needed, and could be accepted by the landlord.  Mark then worked extensively with the parties and the landlord’s lawyers to refine the commercial detail of the project and document it in a binding development agreement, in a form that worked for everybody.  Much novel legal drafting was needed to deal with the unusual development model and project costs management.