GTA retail recorded its best investment sales performance in nearly two years last quarter, with $755M in property deals contributing to a $1.1B first-half total, according to Avison Young. Here are Q2’s top transactions by dollar volume.
1. Woodbine Centre
Purchase price: $104M
Buyer: Woodbine Mall Holdings
Vendor: Fishman Real Estate Group
Worth noting: The sale of the 678k SF Rexdale retail centre—which includes the 58k SF Fantasy Fair indoor amusement park, Ontario’s biggest, boasting a 50-foot Ferris wheel—was the GTA’s largest retail trade in almost a year. The mall, with 160 retailers, is anchored by Hudson’s Bay and Sears.
2. Market Street Portfolio
Properties: 87 Front St E; 8-26 Market St; 118 The Esplanade
Purchase price: $50.5M
Buyer: Northam Realty Advisors
Vendor: Woodcliffe Landmark Properties
Worth noting: This row of restaurants across from St. Lawrence Market—heritage structures painstakingly restored by Woodcliffe—has won oodles of awards. The sale is part of a Woodcliffe portfolio disposition as it takes on new projects, namely the Waterworks Building redevelopment.
3. 680 Longworth St | Bronte Village
Purchase price: 680 Longworth: $14.2M | Bronte Village: $32M
Buyer: Crombie REIT
Vendor: Goldmanco Inc
Worth noting: Both Sobeys-anchored sites were part of a 2.5M SF, $508M acquisition spree for Crombie REIT in Q2, which included 35 retail properties. Also last quarter, Crombie invested $59M in the renovation and expansion of 10 existing Sobeys properties.
4. The Shops of Summerhill
Purchase price: $42M
Buyers: Tricon Capital Group / RioCan REIT
Vendor: Woodcliffe Landmark Properties
Worth noting: In addition to buying this 31k SF stretch of revitalized heritage shops at 1095-1103 Yonge St—known as The Five Thieves—Tricon, in a JV with Diamond Corp, paid $43M to acquire the adjacent site, just south of the Summerhill LCBO, where it's planning a mixed-use project.
5. Whitby Mall
Purchase price: $35.75M
Buyers: First Capital Realty / Firm Capital Property Trust
Vendor: Elad Canada
Worth noting: The deal presents “value-enhancing repositioning opportunities” for the 375k SF mixed-use site, according to Primecorp Commercial Realty. The mall is anchored by Sobeys and Bad Boy Furniture, with office space. Elad is moving ahead on its Galleria Mall site development.
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