Tom Baines

Bio

Tom Baines is a Partner specialising in commercial real estate development and investment.

He acts for property companies, developers, occupiers and technology companies, particularly on industrial & logistics, office and energy-related development projects.

Tom is also a key member of the firm's data centre group, leading multi-disciplinary teams on site acquisitions and development projects.He also leads on the real estate aspects of major financing and corporate restructuring projects.

Tom recognises the value that his clients place on their commercial relationships and that quick, pragmatic advice is crucial to ensuring transactions are executed on time and on budget. His wide-ranging experience affords him perspective on parties' commercial drivers and what is "institutional" in the market.

Experience

Advising an international tech company on its pre-let of a 700,000 sq ft manufacturing and distribution centre with an option to purchase. Subsequently acting on the acquisition and financing of the facility, before going on to sell to a listed REIT with a leaseback arrangement.
Acting for Moulding Capital on the £180 million sale of its 1m sq ft Icon Logistics Campus at Manchester Airport to RN3 Partners (the largest industrial & logistics transaction in the North of England in 2024).
Advising global construction technology firm MiTek on the acquisition, development and funding of its new EMEA headquarters and 280,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, the largest pre-sale in Worcestershire for more than 20 years.
Acting for Virtus Data Centres on the acquisition and development of a new 75MW AI-ready data centre campus in Saunderton, Buckinghamshire, leading a full service team advising on real estate, grid connection, planning, construction and corporate matters.
Advising international, national and regional property companies and developers on long term strategic option agreements to bring forward industrial, logistics, data centre and mixed-use schemes.
Acting for a US-based real estate company on its entry into the UK property market, including the acquisition and redevelopment of sites for over 350,000 sq ft of last-mile logistics in the Greater London area.
Advising Peel Group on bringing forward Protos, a market-leading 134 acre strategic energy and resource estate and home to one of the first carbon capture storage projects in the UK.
Acting for an industrial and logistics company on a £200 million development facility with one of the world's largest private equity investors to fund its construction pipeline.
Leading a cross-border team on the international group reorganisation and re-gearing of a FTSE250 company, involving over forty assets across four jurisdictions.

Career & education

Career highlights

2023

Gowling WLG (UK), partner

2016

Gowling WLG (UK), principal associate

2016

Gowling WLG (UK), senior associate

2014

Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co, associate

2013

Wragge & Co LLP, associate

2008

Solicitor of England & Wales

2008

Browne Jacobson LLP, solicitor

2006

Browne Jacobson LLP, trainee solicitor

Education

2005

Nottingham Law School, Legal Practice Course

2002

University of Nottingham, BA Law with Politics

Languages

English

Languages

English

Tom Baines

Partner

Bio

Bio

Experience

Experience

Career & education

Career & education

Career highlights

Education

Languages

Languages

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