After 15 years as partners RioCan REIT and Kimco Realty announced this morning they’re unwinding their venture, with RioCan set to acquire a portfolio of 22 jointly owned Canadian properties for $715M. This includes Toronto's RioCan Marketplace and Shopper's World Danforth (above). RioCan CEO Edward Sonshine said the deal represents an “exceptionally rare opportunity” to acquire properties from a portfolio of this scale, and increases the concentration of its holdings in Canada's six largest markets, the GTA especially, where there are nine sites.

The portfolio includes three former Target properties (to be dealt with at a future date, RioCan said) and nine institutional-quality retail assets that the partners want to sell (783k SF total), RioCan Thickson Ridge in Whitby (above) among them. Kimco CEO Dave Henry said offloading assets enables his firm to “continue simplifying its operations” by reducing how many properties it has in JVs, “including those that we do not manage,” and provides capital for redevelopment. In March RioCan acquired Kimco's 50% stake in Grand Park in Mississauga and RioCan Leaside Centre.