Marrache & Co lands Rock’s prime property development

Gibraltar law firm Marrache & Co has scooped the legal work on one of the largest property developments in the offshore legal sector in recent times.

Ben Marrache, the firm’s managing partner, is acting in the highly lucrative property deal on behalf of a consortium comprising Multiplex, the Australian contractor/developer currently also contracted to redevelop Wembley Stadium, and Chelsfield International, which is owned by high-profile property developer Elliott Bernerd.

The consortium is due to start work in the near future on the £300m ‘East Side’ project, comprising a 500-yacht marina, at least two hotels, several hundred homes and tourist and leisure facilities. Lord Foster is its designer.

Although Marrache & Co has remained small in the highly competitive, albeit relatively young, Gibraltar legal market, it has proved itself as an adventurous and groundbreaking firm. It was the first firm on The Rock to set up a London office and since then has set up offices in Lisbon and Marbella.

The East Side transaction is a coup not just because of the size of the work (it is the island’s largest property development since its West Side development a year ago). Marrache & Co is ranked sixth among recommended firms in Gibraltar for commercial property, according to legal directories. The island’s largest firm, Hassans, is the most recommended by the directories, but this instruction is expected to move the entrepreneurial Marrache up the pecking order in the island’s property legal sector.

Gibraltar firm Triay & Triay is acting for the government of Gibraltar. The island’s chief minister, Peter Caruana, is promoting the project as a major political coup. Royal Bank of Scotland is understood to be providing the financing.