160 John St has sold for $6.3M, we learned first this morning from Ashlar Urban's Tim Kennedy. And despite what everyone's mother says about keeping secrets, it's an off-market deal.

The anonymous sellers owned and had their offices at the Downtown West mixed-use building near Queen St. W for 30 years. But over the past decade, it has become more of an investment property for them. Tim (left), who's part of Ashlar Urban’s investment team, and the leasing team of Clarke Struthers and Tony Hamilton, got together to educate the vendor on how to take advantage of the significant capital in the marketplace. The vendor’s preference was to quietly complete a transaction. (Here's how good they are: The way they're standing subliminally makes us believe that their revenue is heading up.)

The Pearl Group bought the 22k SF, five-storey building, and retained Ashlar to lease up the one remaining vacant floor. Tim cites Ashlar’s long-term relationships and in-house collaboration in getting the deal done. He says the vendor was able to get out of its holding at the top of the market, and the purchaser can reposition an exceptional character building "while adding value through the one vacancy and future renewals,” he says.