A complex West Midland property deal which involved sourcing an existing office block, building another, and selling and leasing back both, has taken top spot in Lambert Smith Hampton's annual deal of the year competition.

The transaction, in which the Birmingham office of the commercial property consultancy advised TUI Northern Europe (NE), which includes TUI UK - the UK's largest holiday company which has the Lunn Poly and Thomson travel brands - on finding a new headquarters building in Coventry, beat off all other commercial property deals done by Lambert Smith Hampton throughout the UK.

In a series of linked deals, Lambert Smith Hampton's office agency, led by Jacqui Bayliss, identified and acquired the freehold of an existing 50,000 sq ft grade A office building at Westwood Business Park near Coventry, along with eight acres of land on the  neighbouring site.

Its development team, headed by Robin Atack, then sourced a developer to build a new 60,000 sq ft office building on the adjoining land and advised TUI NE on the appointment of Stoford Developments. Lambert Smith Hampton's investment team, directed by Tim Sandford, then completed the sale and leaseback of both buildings on a 20-year lease to a privately owned Manchester property company, which paid more than #20 million at a yield of 6.5 per cent.

The new office space is due for completion by Christmas. Once complete more than 700 people will be working in the office buildings near Coventry, and according to TUI UK's Head of Property, Adrian Coleman, an option on the adjoining land could be used for a third building if Coventry City Council agrees with Lambert Smith Hampton's recommendations.

"We have worked closely with the council in acquiring the new site for this development and we are just waiting for them to review the traffic situation before making any commitment to further development," said Mr Coleman.

Craig Bales, Birmingham-based chief executive of Lambert Smith Hampton's western region, said: "We worked very closely with TUI's property team, sharing all information and considering all the options to ensure that we came up with the best solution.

"We met TUI's office needs and provided it with certainty on its property costs for the future."

With more than 600 specialists in more than 30 offices across the UK and Europe, Lambert Smith Hampton has the widest geographical spread of any UK based commercial property consultancy, providing market driven solutions for its clients.