A 148,000-square-foot power shopping centre in New Sudbury has a new owner.
CT (Canadian Tire) Real Estate Investment Trust is acquiring the Sudbury Place mall from RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust in a $200-million deal involving seven retail properties in Collingwood, Hamilton, Orillia, St. Catharines; Yorkton, Sask. and Oliver, B.C.
All the properties in the package of close to 1.3 million square feet of leasable space include a Canadian Tire store.
The Sudbury property, located near the corner of Barry Downe Road and LaSalle Boulevard, also includes a Real Canadian Superstore.
The transaction is expected to close in December or the first quarter of 2018 at the latest.
The annualized income from this package of properties for first nine months of this year is approximately $12 million.
“We are delighted to be purchasing these well-located properties, each of which is tenanted by Canadian Tire, and in some cases, other members of the Canadian Tire Family of Companies," said CT REIT president Ken Silver in a Nov. 28 news release.
"With the insight we have into retail store performance as well as the attractive fundamentals of the markets in which these properties are located, we are extremely pleased with these additions to our growing portfolio."
The RioCan sale is the first transaction in its announced plan in October to begin a nation-wide sell-off of 100 malls and power centres in secondary markets over the next two years.
Canada’s largest real-estate investment trust wants to focus on its investments in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, which it sees as having greater growth potential.
The sale reduces RioCan’s stable of 294 properties with an aggregate leasable space of 45 million square feet.
“We are very pleased to report good progress on the execution of our accelerated strategy in such a short time,” said RioCan CEO Edward Sonshine in a statement.
“This transaction reinforces the quality and anticipated value of the properties allocated for sale, which are largely highly stable assets that appeal to a wide range of buyers. We have been very pleased with the initial response to the announcement, and we are in various stages of negotiations on several transactions representing properties that we expect to be able to provide more details on in the first quarter of 2018.”
RioCan plans to use the proceeds to pay down its debt, buy back RioCan units and invest more than $300 million on its developments in Canada’s six largest cities.
