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Roland is Of Counsel in the Scottish Real Estate and Hotels & Leisure teams, and is head of our Scottish Hotels & Leisure team.

He specialises in hotels, student accommodation and high end commercial property work.

Roland has acted for a number of high profile clients including Nuveen Real Estate, Accor, the UK’s largest student accommodation provider Unite Students, Fattal Hotels, The City of Edinburgh Council, Aberdeen, Oaktree Capital, Ernst & Young, Columbia Threadneedle, Tesco and Rockspring.
He has over 25 years experience in all aspects of commercial real estate, including sales, purchases, development, property financing, options, leases and hotel management and franchise agreements, acting for clients including institutions, funders, developers, tenants and operators.

He has been a Scottish qualified lawyer since 1999, and has also been qualified in English law for many years.

Memberships & Roles

  • Nuveen Real Estate on the St James Quarter development in Edinburgh - in particular, on the hotel management agreements for the UK's second W Hotel (opened November 2023), which is the centrepiece of the development, a pre-let to Roomzzz of a 74 bed aparthotel (opened 2023), and the 2025 sale of the W Edinburgh Hotel (the largest single-asset hotel transaction ever recorded in the Edinburgh market).
  • Unite Students on Scottish real estate aspects of their 2025 GBP 400m refinancing with Rothesay involving 23 purpose-built student accommodation assets located across 15 UK cities.
  • Unite Students on Scottish real estate aspects of their 2025 GBP 212m sale of nine student accommodation assets to Lone Star Funds.
  • Aberdeen on the forward funding of a new 300 bedroom Maldron hotel development in Glasgow (opened 2021) and November 2024 sale.
  • Jewel Hotels on the disposal of all of their Scottish hotels, including the December 2023 sale of the 77 bed Waverley Castle Hotel, Montrose, and the 2024 sales of the 66 bed Portpatrick Hotel, Stranraer, 134 bed Highland Hotel, Strathpeffer, 73 bedroom Pitlochry Hydro Hotel, 81 bed Caledonian Hotel, Fort William and 79 bed Great Western Hotel, Oban.
  • The City of Edinburgh Council on the 2023 letting of the nationally significant former Royal High School on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill.
  • Henderson Park on Scottish real aspects of their 2021 acquisition of four Scottish Hilton-brand hotels, including Hilton Edinburgh Carlton and DoubleTree by Hilton Edinburgh Airport.
  • Sircle Collection and The Entourage Group on the hotel and F&B management agreements for a proposed new luxury lifestyle EDITION Milan hotel in Italy.
  • High profile steakhouse Hawskmoor on the legal agreements for their first Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh's St Andrew Square.
  • Leading on the Scottish real estate aspects of Accor's demerger of Accor S.A. into a hotel management/brand franchise arm and investment arm.
  • Oaktree on their sales of (1) the Doubletree by Hilton hotels known as Aberdeen Treetops, Edinburgh Airport and Strathclyde and (2) Dunkeld House Hotel.
  • Barclays on hotel agreement aspects of their financing of the Courtyard by Marriott Edinburgh city centre.
  • Polish bank BGK on hotel agreement aspects of their financing of the Courtyard by Marriott Edinburgh West hotel.
  • EY on their lease of their Edinburgh office at Atria One, Edinburgh).
  • Aberdeen on the Scottish property aspects of a forward-funding deal with brewer Marston’s for a GBP 28m regional pubs portfolio.
  • Unite Students on the Scottish real estate aspects of its acquisition of Sugarhouse Close, Edinburgh as part of a 2,904 bed student accommodation portfolio acquisition.

Education

  • 1997 – Diploma in Legal Practice, University of Glasgow, Glasgow
  • 1996 – LLB Hons, University of Glasgow, Glasgow 

Further reading

  • Consumers’ appetite for shopping hold key

  • Who owns Scotland? – Scottish Government launches consultation on Register of Controlling Interests

  • Action it now: new energy efficiency obligations for landlord/sellers in Scotland

  • What could Brexit mean for the Scottish real estate sector?

  • A secure position? – Enforceability of standard securities

  • Beware of the Signs

  • Hotel market responds to traveller demands

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