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Steve Morris, Construction Partner at Acuity Law

Contact Details

[email protected]

+44 (0)7717 681 737

Cardiff

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Words From Our Clients

"Steve Morris is excellent, always supportive and knowledgeable. This leads to excellent outcomes."

“Clear concise communication underpinned by commercial awareness.”

Top ranked in the property market for his ‘user-friendly’ approach and for ‘analysing a multitude of interlocking issues across all disciplines’, Steve is recognised in peer journals for being ‘an excellent communicator who has a good legal brain, and explains things in a very clear manner’.

"Stephen is very knowledgeable and knows our business." 

“Steve Morris is a star. He engages strongly with the business and has the feel of a senior employee of our company. He has strong general knowledge and is always able to recommend a person if he cannot help personally.”

MEET THE TEAM

Steve Morris

Partner

Real Estate Team

About
Expertise
Recent Work
Accolades

Steve co-leads Acuity’s award-winning Real Estate team alongside Gareth Baker.

Steve enjoys an impressive reputation for advising on high-value property-backed financings and was named as one of the most influential people in property and construction in the Wales Insider Media Property Power List 2022. He is ranked by both The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.

Working with a portfolio of both developers and lenders, Steve is well-known for his strong technical skills and extensive market knowledge. He has a specialism in large-scale real estate projects encompassing elements of structuring, finance, planning and procurement.

A well-established general development lawyer for both commercial and residential schemes, his clients include major local and national developers, investors with portfolio management needs, technology giants, financiers, public and third sector organisations. He acts for such names as Sony, Lloyds Banking Group, Principality Building Society, Hodge Bank and West Sussex and Wolverhampton County Councils.

In recent years, Steve has led teams on some of the largest, highest profile property deals in London and South Wales, including acting for a major Cardiff developer in the development, construction and letting to the BBC and HMRC of their new Welsh HQs, and the new Welsh Valleys HQ of the Department of Work and Pensions. He continues to act on some of the largest deals in Wales and around the UK.

Steve has played a key part in the growth of the Acuity Law Real Estate team. He is noted for his client-centric approach, and his ability to analyse a multitude of complex interlocking issues across a wide range of disciplines are often key reasons why clients instruct him.

Steve regularly hosts seminars and workshops in England and Wales on planning matters and delivers lectures for RICS Wales and the Brownfield Land Wales conference.

  • Commercial property deals and transactions – acquisitions and disposals of freehold and leasehold land, landlord and tenant, placing of security, securitisation of assets
  • Real estate development projects – from site assembly to land acquisition, site due diligence, procurement, finance and advice on planning applications and appeals
  • Complex land assembly and split financing projects
  • Property finance – negotiation of forward funding and property development finance agreements, drafting of security agreements, collateral guarantees, and complex facility arrangements
  • Planning – from assessment of the site and application process through to negotiation and drafting of detailed planning agreements (including viability and affordable housing delivery) with advice on divergences between England and Wales in statute and policy
  • Insolvency and effect on ownership of property – protecting tenanted properties
  • Advising Principality Building Society in connection with its involvement in funding the development of the Mill, Cardiff, an ambitious £100 million residential-led urban regeneration project on the site of an old paper mill
  • Acting for UK-wide marina operator Boatfolk Marinas Limited in various acquisitions of commercial interests and management of its property portfolio, requiring bespoke and targeted advice in a specialist area
  • Acting for Private Energy Partners (a Quinbrook affiliate) in securing exclusive development rights from renewable energy firm SIMEC Atlantis Energy to develop one of the largest battery storage systems in the UK. This involved advising on the option agreement, lease, and associated documentation to locate the development on the former Uskmouth coal-fired power station site
  • Advising Eden Living Properties Limited, backed by Warwick Capital Partners, on the launch of an innovative private rented sector business, focusing on the acquisition and subsequent letting of newly built housing in South Wales and the South West of England
  • Acting for Greenhill Investments (Vale) Limited, the owners and developers of a 50-acre industrial site in Sully, Vale of Glamorgan in its development of an industrial park. The matter involved the sale of parcels of land to various developers and managing the funding structures and securities
  • Acting for ADF in its acquisition of Location One Ltd, the UK’s largest supplier of location supplies to the Film & TV industry. The acquisition included operating sites at Barking, Woking, Manchester, Bristol, Newport and Newcastle
  • Acting for Premier Forest in its acquisition of Decorpanel, a specialised panel processing business. This involved the acquisition of the operating site, a four-acre property comprising 76,000sq ft of warehouse and factory space, and employing 63 staff
  • Securing the instruction to act for BVI-based funder Marshal European Investment Co I Sarl in its funding of development sites within the UK
  • Steve is listed as a leading individual in The Legal 500
  • Steve is ranked Band 2 by Chambers and Partners
  • Steve is named in Insider Media’s Property Power List 2022
  • The Real Estate Team is ranked Band 1 by Chambers and Partners
  • The Commercial Property Team is ranked Tier 2 in The Legal 500
  • The Construction Team is ranked Band 2 by Chambers and Partners
  • The Construction Team is ranked Tier 3 in The Legal 500
  • The Social Housing Team is ranked Tier 2 in The Legal 500

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