About

Oxford Properties is a leading global real estate owner, manager and developer. Its corporate legal team is based in Toronto and focuses primarily on transactional legal work, including highly complex acquisitions, dispositions, re-organisations, secured financings and real estate development across the globe that often feature multiple stakeholders. Bob Aziz, executive vice president of legal, leads the legal function as well as, specifically, the corporate legal team. The corporate team is involved with drafting and negotiating letters of intent, purchase agreements, credit agreements, construction and development services agreements and security documentation in pursuit of Oxford’s overarching enterprise goal of connecting people to exceptional places. Oxford’s real estate management (REM) legal team, led by vice president of legal Nancy Prenevost, is a centralised department that supports Oxford’s real estate management, leasing and national programmes teams across Canada. Legal counsel forming part of the REM group lead various teams comprised of lawyers and paralegals who are responsible for the preparation, negotiation and execution of thousands of contracts per year, the majority of which are commercial leases and ancillary lease documents. In addition to document preparation and negotiation, the REM legal team is responsible for the oversight of commercial leases, construction contracts, procurement and building service contracts and provides ongoing legal advice on contract interpretation, legislative changes, contract disputes and litigation management as they relate to commercial assets under management. Oxford’s corporate legal team has recently been involved with a number of significant mandates domestically and abroad. For example, Oxford was the successful bidder for a take-private acquisition of Investa Office Fund, an ASX-list Australian office real estate investment trust valued at $3.3bn AUD representing Oxford’s maiden public markets takeover, and single largest transaction to date. Oxford is also participating in a new co-investment platform focused on the build-to-rent market in London, called Delancey Oxford Residential (DOOR). In the US, Oxford continues to pursue core office and retail assets and in 2019 Oxford is anticipating the grand opening of Hudson Yards, a Manhattan neighbourhood developed by Related Companies and Oxford, containing more than 18 million square feet of commercial and residential space. Aziz highlights that, ‘domestically, Oxford celebrated the opening of EY Tower, a 40 story trophy asset located in the financial district of Toronto. The opening of EY Tower assisted Oxford with its return to the top of the annual Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark ranking in the North American diversified retail and office assets category’. The REM legal team has also recently negotiated several significant development leases which have been instrumental in the growth of Oxford’s portfolio including leases with high profile tenants such as Amazon, EY and DLA Piper in Vancouver, as well as ongoing negotiations with large Canadian institutions and retailers in Eastern Canada which will culminate in another Oxford developed asset.