Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust’s $375 million deal to buy a mall and surrounding properties east of Toronto was Canada’s largest real estate transaction during the first quarter, making it one of the top deals recognized in the latest CoStar Power Broker quarterly awards.

Toronto-based Primaris, looking to expand its retail shopping mall empire, bought seven properties as part of its deal to acquire the Oshawa Centre, located just east of Canada’s largest city.

“The transactions improve the overall quality of our enclosed shopping centre portfolio,” said Primaris CEO Alex Avery in announcing the deal in Oshawa, the same day his REIT also bought a stake in another regional mall, Southgate Centre in Edmonton.

The deal for the seven Oshawa properties, located at 400 Gibb Street, 410 Gibb Street, 255 Stevenson Road S., and the mall at 419 King Street W., closed on Jan. 31 and included 1,215,200 square feet of retail space, pricing the mall and adjacent properties at $308.59 per square foot.

Including the 50% interest purchase of Southgate Centre in Edmonton, Primaris paid $585 million, which included $335 million in cash, $75 million units of the trust, and $175 million in 6.25% exchangeable preferred units of a newly formed subsidiary limited partnership.

Avery has noted that the REIT has recently partnered with five of Canada’s 10 largest pension funds, with the vendors taking back equity and exchangeable preferred equity investments.

Ivanhoe Cambridge, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, was the seller in the Oshawa Centre and Southgate Centre deals. The listing brokers were with TD Securities and included Elliot Medoff, director of investment banking and real estate; Ashley Martis, managing director and head of property brokerage; Jason Murison, managing director and Martha McIvor, investment banking associate.

The buyer brokers with CBRE included Hillel L. Abergel, vice chairman, and Peter Senst, president of Canadian capital markets.

Here is a look at other top deals completed in the three months ending Mar. 31.

TOP OFFICE LEASE

AstraZeneca signs first quarter’s top office lease to expand Mississauga R&D hub

The first quarter’s top office lease was AstraZeneca PLC’s move to occupy 247,500 square feet in Mississauga. The move is part of the company’s plans to spend $820 million to expand its Mississauga-based Research & Development Hub and establish a new Alexion Development Hub focused on developing medicines for treating rare diseases.

The lease at 5115 Creekbank Road in Toronto’s airport submarket reflects the pharmaceutical giant’s ongoing investment in its Canadian operations. The new space is set to support the company’s goal of reaching US$80 billion in total revenue by 2030 and its plans to deliver 20 new medicines globally.

Located near major highways and Pearson International Airport, the large office building owned by Chicago-based Oak Street Real Estate Capital offers key logistical advantages for the company’s growing workforce. The property is part of a modern business park known for its sustainability features and access to nearby amenities.

AstraZeneca signed the full-building lease on Mar. 1 with a start date of Oct. 1, 2026.

“This move supports our growth as a strategic global research and multi-functional hub within AstraZeneca,” the pharmaceutical company said in a social media post. “We are excited to be staying in the great city of Mississauga and joining a vibrant campus alongside Bell Canada.”

The leasing representative contacts on the deal were from Cushman & Wakefield and include Senior Vice President Katya Shabanova, Vice President of Office Leasing Fay Goveas and Senior Vice President of Office Leasing Craig Trenholm.

TOP RETAIL LEASE

MTL Pickleball becomes one of the largest tenants at Centre RioCan in Kirkland

MTL Pickleball signed the top retail lease of the quarter for a new enclosed location with 11 regulation courts in the Centre RioCan Kirkland, a large retail complex located just off the Trans-Canada Highway on the Island of Montreal.

Signed on Jan. 9, the 30,27-square-foot lease kicked in on February 1, making MTL Pickleball one of the largest tenants in the Montreal retail centre owned by RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. Other retailers at the 314,442-square-foot centre include Dollarama, Cineplex and Winners.

According to MTL Pickleball’s social media posting, the facility will have 11 courts. “As players, we wanted to create a facility that other players would enjoy playing in,” the group said.

Pickleball tenants have proven popular among retail centre owners for bringing additional foot traffic.

Real estate firm Harden served as the landlord’s leasing representative on the deal, which was led by Assistant Vice President of Leasing Gina Mastromonaco and Marketing Director Manon Patenaude. The tenant was self-represented.

TOP INDUSTRIAL LEASE

IEM’s two-building industrial lease in Surrey is a top first-quarter deal

The top industrial lease of the quarter was signed by global firm Industrial Electric Manufacturing in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.

One of North America’s largest independent electrical distribution and control systems manufacturers, IEM pre-leased the new two-building industrial facility at 19125 28 Avenue and 2955 192 St. in the Latimer Lake Logistics Park for a combined total of nearly 727,000 square feet.

The firm is expanding beyond Silicon Valley to supply specialized electrical equipment throughout the U.S. and Canada, offering such specialized products as paralleling switchgear systems and fully front-accessible arc-resistant switchgear.

After leasing the first building earlier, IEM leased the second and largest building in the Latimer Lake Logistics Park.

Situated on the corner of 192nd Street and 28th Avenue, each building includes warehouse and office space and rooftop parking.

The leasing representatives from Colliers were Executive Vice President of Industrial Chris Morrison, Senior Vice President Vito Decicco, Senior Vice President of Industrial Pat Phillips and Associate Nick Repchuk in a direct deal with IEM.

Source CoStar. Click here for the full story.

Vancouver shopping centre owner Weihong Ruby Liu has followed through on her promise to grab part of the iconic Hudson’s Bay department store empire, saying she struck a deal to take over 28 HBC leases in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. With the locations secured, Liu says she’ll launch a “new modern department store concept in Canada.”

Liu offered few details about the new concept.

Liu, who owns the Central Walk mall in Vancouver and Mayfair Centre in Victoria, Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo, and Tsawwassen Mills near Vancouver, attracted attention when she announced she intended to bid on Hudson’s Bay stores after the chain filed for creditor protection in March, citing over $1 billion in debt.

The lease purchases are conditional upon approval by the landlords of the properties where the stores are located and by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The location of the stores were not revealed but they are expected to include the three retail outlets in malls that Liu owns in British Columbia.

Before it filed for protection from its creditors, HBC operated 32 stores in Ontario, 16 in British Columbia, 13 in Quebec, 13 in Alberta and two each in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. HBC also operated 16 stores as Saks Off 5th and Saks Fifth Avenue under a licensing agreement.

HBC leased most of its stores but also owned a handful of retail properties its stores occupied in a joint venture with RioCan REIT, including prominent downtown standalone structures in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Not all of the HBC leases attracted offers, as court-appointed bankruptcy monitor Alvarez and Marsal oversaw a bidding process in which 62 Hudson’s Bay leases failed to receive any qualified bids.

Although the closing of the HBC stores represents a loss of rental revenue for shopping centre owners, some landlords have expressed optimism for the future prospects of their centres without HBC as tenants, including Primaris REIT.

Primaris regains some control

Meanwhile, Primaris said this week that five of the nine leases it held with HBC received no bids.

As a result, on June 16, Primaris said it will take control of the HBC-leased properties at Medicine Hat Mall, in Medicine Hat, Alberta; Sunridge Mall in Calgary, and Les Galeries de la Capitale in Quebec City. The real estate investment trust said it will also take control of HBC leases at a pair of shopping centres Primaris owns a half-interest in; including Cataraqui Town Centre in Kingston, Ontario, and Place d’Orleans Shopping Centre in Orleans, Ontario.

The HBC outlets filled over half a million square feet of space, almost one-sixth of the total leasable area of the shopping centres. The two largest were in Calgary and Quebec City, measuring a little over 160,000 square feet each.

The HBC vacancies will cost Primaris $5.5 million in lower annualized revenue and roughly $50 million to $60 million in repurposing fees, the company said. The termination of the leases frees Primaris of its obligation to supply 13 acres of land in parking to HBC, or 1,866 parking spaces, and releases it from no-build restrictions on 71 acres of land, including nine acres filled by HBC stores, the company added.

Primaris President and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Sullivan said this week that some HBC stores could be subdivided and leased to new commercial tenants or even demolished to allow for redevelopment.

“There is strong tenant demand for our HBC boxes, and we are in discussions with strong covenant, high-quality national retailers, including large format tenants,” Sullivan said in a statement.

Source CoStar. Click here for the full story.

It was once a centrepiece of the economy in a General Motors-dominated town east of Toronto, and the redevelopment of the hotel property in Oshawa has become part of the city’s downtown revitalization story.

The Genosha Hotel first opened its doors in 1929 and welcomed numerous high-profile guests from business executives to politicians visiting the bustling city. Humming with activity, the building housed the bus terminal, radio station and several shops. The hotel was considered the centrepiece of downtown Oshawa, then considered to be “Canada’s Motor City.” As downtown’s social hub, The Genosha hosted banquets, weddings, dinners and dancing at its prominent corner location on King and Mary streets.

But suburban sprawl resulted in the slow decline of downtown Oshawa as the hotel went from luxury to a boarding house and finally a strip club before being abandoned in 2003.

The Genosha was saved from demolition due to a 2005 designated heritage status for its Chicago Art styling.

The property changed hands multiple times through failed attempts by developers to repurpose the property until Oshawa-based Summers & Co. Developments Inc., under the leadership of its founder and CEO Rick Summers, jumped in with a vision to restore the property’s status.

The project, now branded as the Market at 70King has earned a 2025 CoStar Impact Award for redevelopment in Toronto, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.

About the project: Summers & Co. implemented a plan to create 86 luxury rental units and a nine-restaurant culinary destination that would draw people back downtown. Working closely with Heritage Oshawa, the developer restored the exterior of The Genosha’s original brickwork. The bricked-in main floor was opened back to its original form, the original limestone cladding was recreated, and the upper give floors repurposed into a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom rental units.

In 2019, the units were fully leased, a rooftop solar farm was brought online, and cashflow stabilized, with the building refinanced to prepare for a nine-restaurant food hall.

While larger, more-established restaurant franchises would have offered more stabilized buildouts and leases, Summers adopted for local owner-operated restaurants, creating a diverse space that focused on attracting local business downtown.

To overcome skepticism of the downtown location and inspire belief in the viability of the overall project, Summers & Co. built out the base restaurant pods and hosted an exclusive pitch night that secured the first five leases, which allowed them to gain momentum and lease the remaining space.

The restaurant owners’ vision was coordinated with architectural, engineering and design packages. A particularly difficult element was crafting an exhaust hood system that serviced all restaurants while navigating an existing heritage structure and mitigating its impact on the final design aesthetic.

Summers & Co. also took on the roles of project management and general contracting on the buildout of each restaurant to ensure a coordinated grand opening.

A specialized elevator known by LULA was deployed to create fully accessible space. This elevator leads to basement preparation areas for the restaurants and a speak-easy-themed event space that references the prohibition period during which The Genosha was built.

Summers & Co. also worked with the city to reclaim a traffic lane to create two permanent sidewalk patios through an encroachment agreement.

The residential and commercial spaces are now fully leased, with a waiting list of restaurants seeking to join the building’s food hall.

Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter has widely praised this development declaring: “The Genosha Hotel redevelopment project is the last piece of the puzzle. Picking up where others failed, Summers & Co. has built on the success of their past projects in the city and revitalized the historic building, which I believe will be the cornerstone of downtown development.”

What the judges said: “This redevelopment is impactful and worthy of the award because it delivers a highly desirable mixed-use project at a significant scale and in a node that provides many community benefits. This project succeeded where others had failed in converting a very undesirable use into something more meaningful and beneficial for the city,” said Paul Macchione, senior vice president of Industrial with Cadillac Fairview Corp.

“A really good reuse of an older building in a challenged market (downtown Oshawa),” said Chris Langstaff, Canada head of research and strategy with LaSalle Investment Management.

“I know Oshawa well enough to remember the eyesore that used to be there. This is an excellent project. I love seeing the rejuvenation of this asset. I know the building and I am so happy to see it restored and reactivated. The kitchen area looks amazing,” said Allen Grinberg, principal at Avison Young.

“The Market at 70King is the most impactful of the projects we considered, from its history to its transformation to a mixed-use development in a much-needed area of downtown Oshawa. Taking influences from art deco Chicago brings vibrancy to the project. The revitalization of the downtown core has a direct impact on the larger community. Accessibility and sustainability are key themes that stand out in this development,” added Alanna Cantkier, national vice president of retail leasing at JLL.

They made it happen: The development team at Summers & Co. Developments Inc. that rescued The Genosha was led by CEO Richard Summers and included Jeff Steffen, chief operator officer, David Lee, director of operations of Summers & Co., as well as Joel Gerber, principal of Joel Gerber Architects; Michelle Peer, a principal of 2Co, Jude Kamal, Principal of Sansa Interiors, and Evan Kim, principal at EK Engineering.

Source CoStar. Click here for the full story.

Toronto-based Slate Asset Management is increasing its presence in Germany with a deal to buy 45 retail properties as it further shifts its investment focus to essential properties such as grocery stores.

Slate said the properties are near major populations and are fully leased under long-term agreements to some of Germany’s largest grocery and everyday goods distributors including REWE Group, Schwarz Group, Edeka Group, and Aldi. Slate did not provide details about the individual properties it’s acquiring but said the assets were held in four individual portfolios.

“In a muted transaction environment, our European team has successfully executed nearly half a billion euros of essential real estate transactions in the first three months of the year,” said Sven Vollenbruch, the Slate managing director who leads its European investments, in a statement. “These portfolios of high-quality, stabilized grocery properties are underpinned by Germany’s leading food and essential goods distributors.”

The Toronto-based global investor and asset manager has turned its focus on essential real estate and infrastructure assets as part of its growth plan. The company has $10 billion in assets under management in North America and Europe and 10 global offices.

“Slate has firmly established itself as a leading owner and operator of essential real estate in Germany, and we believe the strong pipeline of opportunities we have cultivated in this sector will drive our continued growth in Germany and across broader Europe,” said Vollenbruch.

Slate’s European essential real estate strategy is focused on acquiring, owning, and operating cash-yielding essential real estate assets, such as grocery and affiliated warehouses and logistics assets. The company operates a portfolio of over 500 essential real estate assets across Europe that Slate and its capital partners own.

Subject to standard closing conditions, the transactions are expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

Source CoStar. Click here for the full story.

Canada’s various real estate markets are facing myriad crises. Office landlords are reckoning with the erosion of net operating incomes, condo developers are sitting on landbanks unable to get development financing, ringing alarm bells for future unemployment in the construction industry, and the country faces the lurking threat of a tariff war with its biggest trading partner.

Each issue threatens the economy independently, but a more collaborative approach to addressing them may offer a mutually beneficial opportunity. To understand the potential opportunity, let’s examine each challenge individually.

As office vacancy increases, so do the landlord’s expenses, as costs that would have been covered by a tenant, such as insurance and maintenance, become the building owner’s responsibility. A well-capitalized investor, such as an institutional pension fund, may be able to weather the storm. Still, the financial reality of this situation is coming into sharper focus as office occupancy appears to be plateauing well below pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the supply and demand mismatch in residential markets, which should bolster increased development, the current economic environment renders new residential development relatively unattractive.

Speaking at a recent event at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School, Brad Lamb, a prominent condo developer in Toronto, noted that a sale price of about $1,600 per square foot is required to get shovels in the ground for new developments in the Greater Toronto Area. At the same time, existing stock is selling for about $500 per square foot less than the construction-feasible price. This means that construction starts are grinding to a halt even as demand for units continues to grow.

The slowdown in housing construction is likely to exacerbate affordability and availability concerns and will also increase unemployment in the construction trades as projects are completed and no new ones commence construction.

Simply put, large-scale office landlords need an off-ramp for some of their assets while the government needs to ramp up housing production and underpin construction employment.

If approached proactively, these current weaknesses can offset each other. Converting office spaces to residential units, though often seen as not financially viable, offers a faster and less expensive solution than building new residential structures from scratch.

Residential developers in Toronto lament the cost of development levies, suggesting they can account for up to 30% of the building cost or $70,000 per door. However, these levies have already been paid for existing office buildings. By aligning the needs of these three issues, housing can be produced quickly and with financial efficiency.

Furthermore, office conversion opens the door to a new type of residential development. Over the last decade, many residential units were designed for investors instead of occupants. Modern office floor plates have larger ‘core to window depth’ than conventional residential high rises, limiting fenestration. This creates an opportunity to create larger units, which may include considerable storage, separate workspaces and utility rooms—luxuries currently reserved for homeowners with a picket fence around their yard.

Municipalities could collaborate with large-scale office landlords to make these conversions financially viable, fast-tracking the release of much-needed housing. Moreover, the current tariff environment may result in a surplus of building materials, which are too expensive to export to American markets. These materials could be redirected to support conversion projects in Canada.

This would help strengthen our pension funds, benefitting all working Canadians, by mitigating financial losses that result from shifting asset allocations from office to multifamily. It would also fast-track housing production, nurture employment within the construction industry, and drive economic growth within national borders.

In strong, growing markets, it can be difficult to identify the point of financial compromise needed in deal-making. When all parties want to maximize their respective profits, division is common. Conversely, mutual attempts to limit losses can have a unifying impact.

As Charles Darwin once pointed out, “In the long history of humankind (and animalkind, too), those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Source CoStar. Click here for the full story.

Canada’s federal government has purchased an office property in downtown Ottawa after vowing to sell off or repurpose up to half of the office properties it owns in the national capital area.

The Canadian federal government paid about $51 million for a two-building portfolio containing the Chambers, a 14-floor office tower at 40 Elgin St., and a four-floor office building from the late 1800s at 46 Elgin St. The Chambers, completed in 1994, contains just over 200,000 square feet of office space.

Toronto-based Allied REIT was the seller. Following the deal, it no longer owns properties in the Ottawa area.

Last May, the federal government stated it aimed to sell or repurpose up to half of its office properties in Ottawa and Gatineau, Quebec, over the next decade in the capital area as part of what it called “responsible government spending.”

The new acquisition does not jibe with that plan, said one watchdog group.

“Taxpayers have every right to scratch their heads at this news,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in an email to CoStar News. “The government said it was getting rid of offices but buying new offices sure sounds like a silly way to get rid of offices.

“Taxpayers need and deserve a clear explanation from the government outlining why bureaucrats need new office buildings when they’re supposed to be selling off buildings.”

The purchase of 40 and 46 Elgin will result in a $67 million savings for the federal government, a government media representative told CoStar News in an email. Now that it owns the properties, the government will not have to pay to rent space at 40 Elgin.

“Since 1998, PSPC (Public Services and Procurement Canada) has leased space in the Chambers building, located at 40 Elgin Street, to serve as long-term administrative office space for the Senate of Canada,” media relations representative Jeremy Link said in an email. “The building is currently being fit-up to provide swing space for the Block 2 redevelopment project and will be used to accommodate members of the Senate.”

The Canadian Senate is a body made of 105 senators appointed by the governor general on advice from the prime minister. Senate approval is required for bills to become law, although the body rarely invokes its power of rejection.

The office complex is located a short distance from the National War Memorial, Confederation Square, the Office of the Prime Minister and Parliament Hill.

The availability rate for office properties in downtown Ottawa rose from 14.9% to 15.7% in the fourth quarter, according to an Avison Young report that noted that the downtown area has 23,000 square feet of vacant Class A office space, more than all of the nearby suburbs combined. The average rate for a downtown Ottawa office property is just over $24 per square foot per year, while suburban equivalents are in the range of $13 to $14 per square foot in the Ottawa region.

Allied REIT did not immediately reply to telephone and email messages from CoStar News asking for comment.

Source CoStar. Click here for the full story.