Manulife Real Estate ends 2014 with a bang, acquiring 180 Wellington plus a 24-building industrial portfolio for its Manulife Canadian Property Portfolio fund. Managing director and fund manager Tim Blair tells us the deals are only the latest in a series of acquisitions over the past year that have added 2.6M SF—or $438M of real estate—to the fund, almost doubling its assets under management. “We’ve had tremendous growth in 2014," he says. The fund is nearing the $1B mark, "and we’re looking to continue to grow next year.”

Manulife was attracted to 180 Wellington—the fund’s first acquisition in the financial district—because of the stability of its tenant profile: it’s 100% leased to Royal Bank of Canada on a long-term deal. Tim notes extensive refurbishment work has been done on the 12-storey, 210k SF tower—which is targeting LEED Gold—so minimal capital needs to be spent on the property at first. “It’s effectively a new building...a great long-term hold.” As for the 1.5M SF industrial portfolio (which Manulife bought off LaSalle Investment Management a few weeks ago), Tim says it “gives the fund significant critical mass.”