We advised Sainsbury's in respect of their town centre store in Bedford, a purpose-built supermarket arranged on ground, first and second floors. The property was held on a 99-year lease from December 1982 subject to review with effect from December 2002 and 5-yearly thereafter. The lease contained a number of onerous restrictions, particularly with regard to alienation. Sainsbury's wished to assign their interest a year before the rent review, and we negotiated an early settlement of the rent review coupled with a Deed of Variation allowing flexible alienation and user provisions following which the lease was successfully assigned to Peacock Stores.