Lui Scipioni

Practice Areas

Lui is responsible for Gadens’ retail leasing practice, and has extensive experience in conducting numerous large due diligence investigations for buyers and sellers in relation to industrial property, commercial property, redevelopments of major retail and industrial sites and the leasing and management of large retail centres and office buildings.

Career

Lui has an excellent record of achieving commercial results for clients, particularly where complex legal issues are involved. Lui is known for his plain English style and commerciality. In addition, he has a number of private property logistics clients who have also been very active in recent years. Lui continues to act for a majority of Australia’s largest shopping centre owners and managers including Dexus, 151 Property, ISPT, QIC, Stockland and Vicinity Centres, which has led to his involvement in the most significant shopping centre redevelopments in the last 5 years including Karrinyup Shopping Centre.

Lui has been ranked since 2019 as a Recognised Practitioner in Real Estate listed in Chambers & Partners Asia Pacific Edition.

Clients

Lui continues to act for a majority of Australia’s largest shopping centre owners and managers including Dexus, 151 Property, ISPT, QIC, Stockland and Vicinity Centres, which has led to his involvement in the most significant shopping centre redevelopments in the last 5 years including Karrinyup Shopping Centre.

Professional Memberships

Shopping Centre Council Australia, CPA

Work Highlights

Gibb Group (Developer) and 3 Myer Place Pty Ltd (Seller)

Lui lead a team that advised Gibb Group on the development of an industrial and office use property situated in Rowville, Victoria, owned by 3 Myer Place Pty Ltd. Our role included advising:

• 3 Myer Place Pty Ltd with regards to negotiations with the existing tenant (Sigma) for early surrender and a new Works Deed and long term Lease entered into with Good Food Partners Pty Ltd (Arnott's);

• On various planning aspects of the transaction resulting from substantially increasing the footprint of the property (including an additional warehouse) to accommodate for Good Food Partners Pty Ltd's highly technical manufacturing requirements;

• Negotiating the building contract and related documentation entered into with Spectre Construction (Aust) Pty Ltd; and

• Reviewing and negotiating the contract of Sale Development Agreement entered into with Charter Hall (Buyer) on a forward funded basis involving early purchase and funding of building costs.

This work is significant because it related to a multiple party transaction which involved complex legal drafting which is part of the nature of forward funding arrangements, each document being heavily reliant on the others. The deal needed to be documented and finalised in a short space of time. Given the economic circumstances at the time many aspects of the deal changed very quickly with resultant changes required to other documents. This meant our team had to be very responsive and efficient in order to ensure the timely delivery of the documents.

The completed development will represent a blue chip investment for Charter Hall and a consolidation of Good Foods' manufacturing operations in Victoria, together with large manufacturing efficiencies to be gained with 3 separate production lines all housed in the one property.

The completed project will create a significant number of new employment opportunities for the local area both during the construction phase and long term manufacturing phase.

For Gibb Group, this development represents one of the largest transactions the company has entered into and a great rate of return for the investors in 3 Myer Place Pty Ltd.

Hesperia Property Group (Seller and Developer)

Lui lead a team that advised Hesperia on the partial development of a large, multi-tenanted industrial park on Roe Highway, Kenwick Western Australia, known as the Roe Highway Logistic Park (RHLP) that they own. Our role involved advising Hesperia on all aspects of :

• Complex AFLs and long term Leases with different Tenants covering different parcels of land

• Building Contract and related documentation entered into with different builders relating to the AFLs and Leases

• Charter Hall's purchase of the relevant portion of RHLP via a forward funding arrangement involving early purchase pursuant to 8 separate Contracts of Sale and 12 different Development Agreements all requiring ongoing funding by Charter Hall of all progress claims relating to the build.

This was a multiple party transaction which involved complex legal drafting which is part of the nature of forward funding arrangements, each document being heavily reliant on the others. The deal needed to be documented and finalised in a short space of time. Gadens was chosen for its recognised expertise in the area, its practical approach to problem solving, its depth of senior lawyers and its ability to meet tight deadlines.

A unique aspect of this transaction was the large number of contracts of sale and development agreements involved. It is highly unusual to have such a high volume of individual transactions all combined into the one deal. There was a layer of complexity added due to the many different parties and interdependent agreements.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Australia

Education

Awards