Ivanhoé Cambridge Sells Interest in Two Ontario Shopping Centers

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Ivanhoé Cambridge has completed repositioning its retail portfolio in Canada with the sale of its remaining 50 percent interest in two Ontario shopping centers for C$240 million to a healthcare pension plan.

The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, which serves Ontario’s hospital and community-based healthcare sector with more than 470 participating employers, acquired Quinte Mall in Belleville and Devonshire Mall in Windsor. The two Ontario shopping centers were built between 1970 and 1971 and each have more than 100 tenants with occupancy rates ranging from 96 to 98 percent. The Devonshire Mall has 1,084,817 square feet of space and Quinte Mall has 628,476 square feet.

“The Devonshire and Quinte Malls are excellent additions to our portfolio,” Stephen Taylor, vice president of HOOPP Real Estate, said in a release. “These acquisitions are consistent with HOOPP’s strategy to own market-dominated malls, and assets such as these provide strong, stable returns to meet our pension promise to members.”

As part of the deal, 20 Ivanhoé Cambridge employees will continue their employment with 20Vic, the properties’ manager for HOOPP.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate subsidiary of a leading Canadian institutional fund manager, has been selling some of retail assets in the past year as it repositions the portfolio in Canada.

“We are now focused on expanding our Canadian retail platform through organic growth in key properties across the country, and through our new Outlet Collection and Mills development projects in key Canadian markets,” Arthur Lloyd, executive vice president, Global Investments, at Ivanhoé Cambridge, said in the release.

Last May, Ivanhoé Cambridge opened its first Outlet Collection at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. The 520,000-square-foot outlet center has 102 retailers. On Jan. 21, Ivanhoé Cambridge and Edmonton International Airport in Alberta, unveiled plans to develop the Outlet Collection at EIA, which will have 415,000 square feet when it opens in 2017. Also scheduled to open in 2017, will be the 385,000-square-foot Outlet Collection at Winnipeg in Manitoba.

In one large disposition during 2014, Ivanhoé Cambridge sold 14 properties in Québec and Ontario to Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust for $1.2 billion. The portfolio consisted of 10 retail properties, three office properties and one industrial and mixed-use property with a total of 5.7 million square feet of gross leasable space.

Ivanhoé Cambridge’s portfolio is spread across Canada, the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia and consists mainly of retail, office and multi-family properties. Within two days last week, the firm made two announcements about multi-family assets in San Francisco. On Thursday, construction began on a mixed-use project at 2198 Market St. developed with Greystar Real Estate Partners that will have 87 residential units and 5,000 square feet of retail. A day earlier, Ivanhoé Cambridge said it and a partner, Veritas Investments, Inc., had acquired 11 multi-family properties for more than $190 million, boosting their joint holdings in the city to 20 apartment buildings with nearly 600 units.