RioCan REIT reached a settlement with Target Corp and has received a $132M payment to compensate the trust and its co-owners for losses incurred by Target Canada's abrupt departure last year. Target had 26 locations under lease with RioCan when it closed all its Canadian stores. Leases at seven RioCan locations were assigned to other tenants (six to Lowe’s and one to Canadian Tire), and the trust said in an update this week that it “continues to work diligently negotiating with potential tenants to backfill the premises” at the remaining 19 properties, aiming to utilize the space “optimally” and increase revenues.
There’s “strong momentum” behind the trust’s leasing efforts, with 14 done deals for 448k SF, two conditional offers, and 16 leases in the advanced stages of negotiation, RioCan said. Collectively, these 32 leases represent $10.3M, or 94% of the total rental revenue lost through Target's departure. At RioCan’s Stockyards property, it's signed Nations Fresh Foods to occupy the entire 153k SF former Target space. At Lawrence Square (above), RioCan has backfilled most of the 89k SF Target with HomeSense (23k SF), Marshalls (28k SF) and PetSmart (12k SF). Redevelopment work began at the site last quarter.
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