Ben Acheson

Practice Areas

Ben heads up Hill Dickinson’s Real Estate team in Birmingham. He trained at Macfarlanes and was admitted as a solicitor in September 2003. Ben became a Partner in 2013 and he joined Hill Dickinson as a Partner in 2024 with his team.

He advises on a wide range of regeneration and development schemes, dealing with the site assembly of complex brownfield sites, and negotiating joint ventures and funding arrangements to facilitate delivery of major real estate and infrastructure projects.

Ben also advises investors and landlords on their acquisitions and portfolio management, lenders in the real estate sector and corporate occupiers on their portfolios.

Career

Ben joined Macfarlanes as a trainee in 2001 and qualified into the Commercial Property team in 2003. Ben worked at Macfarlanes until 2012 until he relocated from London to the Midlands for family reasons and joined Eversheds as a Principal Associate. Ben became a Partner in 2013 when joined Weightmans to launch a Real Estate team in their Birmingham office. After 2 years Irwin Mitchell approached Ben having seen the progress at Weightmans and asked Ben to launch a new real estate team in Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham office. Ben built the team over the years that followed to be one of the best teams in the Birmingham market for real estate work. In 2024 Ben joined Hill Dickinson with his team (alongside 3 other partners and their teams) to launch the Birmingham office of Hill Dickinson.

Professional Memberships

Member of the Law Society.

Personal

utside of work Ben is married with 2 children. Ben is a passionate Norwich City fun and spends his time following them up and down the country. He is also heavily involved in the running of Lullington Park Cricket Club, including as junior chairman, championing the opportunity for young girls and boys from all backgrounds to play cricket.

Clients

1. Developer clients:

Godwin Developments

Henry Davidson Developments

A.C. Lloyd

Rotherhill Developments

Angle Property

Owl Homes

Winvic

Soller Group

2. Investor/landowner clients:

Euro Property Investments

G W Padley

Mersenne Investments

Packington Estate and the Sherborne Estate

Wood Abbey Investments

Pierpont Rose Holdings

KEA Investments

3. Corporate occupiers:

Rank Group

Knights Chemist

MJ Quinn Integrated Services

Optimised Care

Work Highlights

Recent projects include:

• Acting for the developer on the proposed development of Albert and Swedish Wharves on the banks of the Thames in London. The proposal is to develop a new, block of 250 flats with a new commercial facility for the Port of London Authority. The development will bring substantial amount of new housing to this area of London and will see the regeneration of one of the last remaining industrial sites by the banks of the Thames in London.

• Acting for the landowners on the delivery of the Arden Cross development (a £3.2bn opportunity to drive substantial growth across the West Midlands and national economy).

• Acting for the developer on acquisition and new development at Teal Park, Nottingham on a scheme including the development, letting and forward funding of new trade and industrial units with a value in excess of c£20 million; the development and sale of new supermarket unit and the development, letting and sale of a parade of retail shops; the development, letting and sale of a new drive thru unit and collaboration agreements with residential developer to ensure the delivery of c900 new homes alongside the commercial development.

Industry Sector Expertise

Ben’s particular interest is in advising on regeneration and development schemes, dealing with the site assembly of complex brownfield sites, and negotiating joint ventures and funding arrangements to facilitate delivery of major real estate and infrastructure projects. His work includes strategic option structures, long term urban regeneration schemes, multi developer collaboration agreements, strategic urban extensions and tax efficient landowner collaboration arrangements.

Ben also advises investors and landlords on their acquisitions and portfolio management, lenders in the real estate sector and corporate occupiers on their portfolios.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

England and Wales

Languages Spoken

French – fluent.

Spanish – conversational.

Experience

Ben has over 20 years’ experience acting for investors, landowners, developers and occupiers in respect of all of their real estate requirements. Ben also works closely with his colleagues in other teams to ensure Hill Dickinson delivers a seamless, cross team service to all clients whatever their requirements.

Education