Ravelin Properties REIT, a Toronto-based landlord that recently rebranded after previously trading as Slate Office, is selling another property as it looks to pay down debt and strengthen its balance sheet amid liquidity concerns.
Ravelin, a real estate investment trust with about 50 commercial properties in Canada, the United States, and Ireland, sold 1189 Colonel Sam Dr., a single-tenant office building in Oshawa, east of Toronto, for $16.5 million, or about 11.8 U.S. dollars. The REIT said it sold the building after its first quarter ended on March 31.
The net cash proceeds from the disposition were fully used to reduce borrowings from the REIT’s Canadian revolving credit facility, Ravelin said.
The REIT has been working to rebound from several rough quarters and a wider loss with the support of activist investor and Chair George Armoyan.
Last month, G2S2 Capital Inc., the Halifax-based investment company controlled by Armoyan, purchased $600 million, or about 419 million U.S. dollars, of the debt and obligations of Ravelin Properties REIT as part of Armoyan’s plan to turn around the office owner.
Occupancy at Ravelin’s portfolio as of March 31 was 76.7%, the REIT said. That’s down slightly from 76.8% at the end of the previous quarter. The company had a net quarterly loss of $11,189,000 compared to a quarterly loss of $22,571,000 a year earlier.
At the end of 2024, the REIT arranged the early termination of its external management agreement with Slate Asset Management, which initially sponsored Slate Office REIT.
Ravelin said that in the first quarter, it achieved cost savings of $3 million by eliminating management fees and focusing more on overhead expense management.
Ravelin also said it has notified its external property manager of its Chicago properties of its decision to terminate their existing agreement, effective June 1. The REIT’s Chicago holdings include 20 South Clark, 120 South LaSalle and 275 N Field Dr..
The REIT said it will internalize property management and property-level accounting functions for these investment properties in Chicago.
Ravelin did not provide details on the buyer of the Oshawa building the REIT sold, but CoStar data indicates that Ontario Power Generation, or OPG, bought the property on April 25. Also per CoStar data, the 103,179-square-foot office building is leased by Concentrix Canada, a provider of outsourced call center and tech support operations.
OPG, a provincial Crown Corporation responsible for about half of the electricity generation in Ontario, already has a major presence in the area, having bought the former General Motors of Canada’s building and surrounding land at 1908 Colonel Sam Drive in Oshawa.
Officials with OPG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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