Madison Pacific Properties' previously reported acquisition of 12 industrial/office buildings across Canada from Argo Ventures for $62M came down to the importance of maintaining and building relationships, even those going back years,we learned from Avison Young principal Rob Gritten (centre, with principal John Lecky and asociate Kevin Kassautzki), whose firm repped the seller. "This deal has been on our radar since 2004," Rob tells Bisnow, when they originally reached out to Taiga, which leases all of the buildings. With AY's involvement, the company sold 17 of their properties across Canada to Argo in 2006, which were leased back by Taiga for 20 years.Â

AY was then approached by Madison in late 2012 to see if AY could help them build their portfolio. "As we had maintained contact with Argo, we approached them with the idea of selling the remainder of the Taiga portfolio," Rob says, after selling five of the properties beforehand. (The rest are shown in the photo). Rob, John, and Kevin, as well as colleague Patricia Lidbetter, worked on the deal.