Team size: two

Key team members: Sally Anne Sherry (General counsel), Louise Cunningham and Kate Twomey

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Bartra, a privately-owned international real estate company founded in 2016, has over €2bn of property at various stages. General counsel Sally Anne Sherry, along with Louise Cunningham and Kate Twomey lead Bartra’s legal team – which is integral to the business, acting as a key advisor on all transactions, guided by Sally Anne’s position on the senior management team.

Bartra operates in several areas – commercial real estate, social housing, and healthcare – resulting in the legal team working across a broad spectrum of specialisms. These specialisms include real estate acquisitions, finance, governance, and litigation, among others. The legal team’s breadth of talent and pragmatic advice is the key to Bartra’s continued growth and success.

In the past year, the Bartra legal team has been instrumental in several key business transactions. In August 2022, Bartra sold a portfolio of four nursing homes to Aedifica in a €161m sale and leaseback deal. Bartra entirely developed the nursing homes and continues to run them under long-term leases.

Under a development agreement with Dublin City Council, Bartra has commenced development on 1,044 A-rated social, affordable, and private homes at O’Devaney Gardens, as part of what will be one of Europe’s most sustainable residential developments. 400 jobs will be created in the construction phase alone.

Bartra entered a joint venture partnership with Kajima and secured green finance from AIB for a €100m plus, 258-home residential scheme in Belmayne, North Dublin, and will shortly open the first of four co-living developments in Dublin. Bartra also completed construction on two city centre developments, delivering 62 A-rated social homes to Dublin City Council.

The legal team has advised on both the acquisition of sites and development of individual properties. We have also been involved in advising on the creation of the Niche Living operating team and brand.

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

Our biggest challenge this past year has been the construction price inflation resulting from the ongoing effects of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Soaring costs threatened development across the board, so we had to proactively engage with our development partners to manage project budgets, agree risk sharing procedures, manage supply chain challenges and adopt updated procurement procedures.

Has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities, and if so, how?

Bartra is committed to sustainable, socially responsible investment. Living sustainably means a better future for everyone. We are creating greener, cleaner, low impact places for our residents and tenants to live and work and build a better future for everyone.

Our co-living development, Niche Living Dun Laoghaire, has been LEED Gold and Active Score Platinum accredited. The Sidings, our state-of-the-art office development, will be Ireland’s first triple platinum sustainability accredited building, having achieved LEED, Activescore and Wiredscore Platinum accreditations. Bartra is also the co-founder of Zero Carbon Solutions – an investment platform focused on the protection and restoration of our natural environment. Our legal team is at the forefront of Bartra’s sustainability initiatives, with the general counsel completing a course in Business Sustainability Management at the University of Cambridge last year.