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Mark focuses on major transactions and leasing in all property sectors plus acting for developers of commercial and residential strata title projects. Mark has extensive experience in the investment funds sector having established the Real Estate team at boutique funds management firm McMahon Clarke which he has led for almost two decades.
Mark has over 30 years’ experience spanning the full spectrum of property law, including leasing, property and site acquisition, investment, sale of land and business assets, and redevelopment.
Mark has a deep understanding of the importance of negotiation skills, commerciality, and getting the documents right.
Experience
- Advising Centuria on the $200 million three-phased acquisition of West Village, a unique cultural, retail, commercial, and residential precinct in Brisbane’s West End, involving existing landmark properties as well as assets to be constructed, including the retail mall, the heritage mixed-use Peter’s Ice Cream Factory buildings, the health and medical building, and the recently constructed South Pavilion.
- Advising Forza Capital on negotiations for the $86 million acquisition of a 17-storey commercial office tower at 340 Adelaide Street (Brisbane CBD) and all subsequent leasing work; the acquisition of a large A-grade commercial office building at 10 Browning Street (South Brisbane); the $24 million acquisition of a government tenanted commercial office building located at 55 Russell Street (South Brisbane); the acquisition, leasing and subsequent disposal of a 14 storey commercial office building and ground level retail centre at 420 George Street in the Brisbane CBD; and the $41 million acquisition of a multi-tenanted commercial office building at 200 Creek Street in the Brisbane CBD and the ongoing leasing arrangements.
- Advising development agency Trenert on the acquisition of the former Chalk Hotel at Woolloongabba (Brisbane) along with several surrounding commercial and residential properties with the site intended to be redeveloped for a significant mixed-use development which will be ideally located for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
- Advising StoreInvest, Australia’s largest unlisted self-storage investment group, on acquiring a land and a storage business at Wyoming (NSW); the development of their portfolio, including at Noosaville and Kawana (Queensland) and Narre Warren (Victoria); and the acquisition of vacant sites at Pakenham (Victoria) and Capalaba (Queensland) for the construction of new storage facilities.
- Advising Chauvel Capital on the acquisition of a $150 million portfolio of retail shopping centre and childcare development sites across South East Queensland, such as the Queen Street Village shopping precinct in Southport (Gold Coast), including advising on legal due diligence, complex contract negotiation and conveyancing, retail leasing, development management and construction documentation, and finance facility.
- Advising Universal Self Storage Funds Management on the sale of self-storage facilities and businesses (located at Albion and Kelvin Grove in Brisbane and Canterbury in Melbourne) in a single transaction, including negotiating a complex suite of business sale and land sale contracts, plus negotiating the completion of the construction contract at the Melbourne site, and advising on the purchase of four self-storage sites (in various stages of construction) at Redland Bay, Willawong, Bundamba, and Burpengary in Queensland.
- Advising Tomkins Property Investments on site acquisitions, development projects and design and lease arrangements, including the acquisition of sites in newly developed industrial precincts in Yarrabilba and North Lakes (Brisbane) and infill industrial sites in Nundah (Brisbane), including the site acquisition, planning and other approval process, initial negotiations with tenants, drafting agreements to lease, and finalising documentation through to completion.
- Advising Friday Group on the sale of Flinders Street Tower, a commercial office building in Townsville, including negotiations dealing with a large government authority tenant and the potential leasing up of vacant space after the exchange of contracts, with a contingent floating price mechanism, as well as dealing with contamination remediation and combustible cladding issues.
- Advising Primewest Group (now Centuria) on complex negotiations for the purchase of the Robina Home + Life homemaker centre, a multi-tenanted retail centre at Robina (Gold Coast), including handling the initial tender process.
- Advising MAAS Group on the acquisitions of commercial freehold land with an operating quarry site in Luscombe (South-East Queensland); the Castle Creek and Fairview Quarries quarry businesses in Central Queensland via the purchase of company shares; and multiple operating quarry and sand mining businesses in Central Queensland.
- Advising McConaghy Funds Management on the acquisition of the Toowoomba Plaza shopping centre and the Ridge Shopping World at Toowoomba, two multi-tenanted retail shopping centres, including negotiations of a put and call option deed and contract.
- Advising Telane Pty Ltd on the complex restructuring of the leasing arrangement for the John Maddison Tower located at Goulburn Street, Sydney (crown leasehold and subleased to the Department of Justice), including negotiating and documenting reconfiguration of the head lease, amending the existing financing arrangement, negotiating and finalising a new sublease and then advising on the purchase of the rental stream deriving from the sublease on a net present value basis by ANZ through a structured receivables purchase facility.
- Advising Seven Fields and Abbotsleigh Citrus on the sale of land and business assets valued at $90 million to a Hong Kong-based investment company and the Nutrano Produce Group.
- Advising a division of FK Gardner on redeveloping a number of service station sites with a multi-national energy company.
Awards and Recognition
Best Lawyers in Australia 2021-2025
Real Property Law
Doyle’s Guide to the Australian Legal Profession 2022 & 2024
Property & Real Estate and Leasing Lawyer (QLD)
Chambers Asia Pacific 2022
Real Estate
Memberships
- Property Funds Association