Nicola Real Estate ended 2025 on a high note, completing its GTA Industrial Build-to-Hold Program within the Nicola Canadian Real Estate LP with major lease transactions at three Greater Toronto Area properties.

Nicola Real Estate completed leasing at these projects in the latter part of the year:

• 351,591 square feet at 601 Milner Ave. in Scarborough;
• 146,445 square feet at 901 Hopkins St. in Whitby, which was acquired in partnership with First Gulf;
• and 291,325 square feet at Bronte Station Business Park at 625 Bronte Rd. in Oakville, another partnership with First Gulf.

“Industrial plays a large role in our asset composition in Canada, especially in Toronto,” Vancouver-based Nicola Real Estate managing director and head of real estate Mark Hannah told RENX.

“We like industrial outdoor storage, we like small bay and we like mid-bay. We don't do million-square-foot distribution centres because they're so big that if you lose a tenant or they don't renew, it's just so punitive to your fund.”

Leasing picked up in second half of year

Many commercial real estate decisions were put on hold during the first half of last year, largely due to uncertainty regarding United States-imposed tariffs, as well as other factors. But from July on, it seemed that tariff talk changed to trade diversification talk. 

“This is going to be our new reality,” Toronto-based Nicola Real Estate vice-president of leasing and portfolio strategy Adam Sherriff-Scott told RENX in a separate interview. 

“Leases still expire and we need to make strategic decisions in the short term and the long term. We don't have the luxury of waiting for geopolitical things to settle down, because they may not.”

Leasing the three GTA properties

Storage services and fulfillment company PPFD was originally looking for about 60,000 square feet of space but ended up signing on for five years for the remaining 146,445 at the Whitby location. The other half of the building had been leased earlier in the year.

The building was completed in late 2024. It sits on 22.1 acres of land and has a 40-foot clear height, 30 truck-level doors and two drive-in shipping doors.

Washroom accessory and toilet partition company Bobrick leased approximately 110,000 square feet for 15 years at the Scarborough building in the first half of 2025, which left about 240,000 remaining. 

Two companies were interested, but only Element Event Solutions was open to taking all of the space and it signed a 10-year lease. The firm encompasses what was formerly the Chair-man Mills portfolio of event rental brands.

The building was completed in late 2024. It sits on 16.05 acres of land and has a 40-foot clear height, 61 truck-level doors and four drive-in shipping doors.

Two potential tenants were interested in leasing the entire Oakville building, so Nicola Real Estate put them both on the clock. When one couldn’t get its approvals in place quickly enough, logistics solutions provider DP World was able to secure a five-year lease.

The 27.5-acre property, including an existing industrial building, was acquired in 2021. A 236,000-square-foot, multi-tenanted building was added and then this newest facility was completed in late 2023. It has a 40-foot clear height, 65 truck-level doors, two drive-in shipping doors and 237 parking spots.

Lease terms

“If the market is dictating five-year deals, we're happy to do market deals for ourselves, our financial partners and our tenants,” Sherriff-Scott said.

“We're thrilled to have the groups that we did deals with in our assets, and our job is to make sure that they're thrilled to be in our assets — not just from Day One, but for however long they stay.”

“We're getting the right covenant on the right terms, and we did the deals for the right reasons without chasing deals for the wrong reasons,” Hannah added.

King Jane Business Park

King Jane Business Park is another GTA industrial development for Nicola Real Estate, in conjunction with two institutional partners, encompassing 86.67 acres one block from the Highway 400 interchange in King City. 

It will have five 40-foot clear height, zero carbon-designed buildings totalling 1.67 million square feet. They’ll include a combined 267 truck-level doors, 12 drive-in shipping doors and at least 155 trailer parking spaces.

“We made this decision to pursue these new asset types because we had an in-house development team and we could partner with frontline groups as well,” Hannah explained. 

“We knew that if we built it, we could build it in the right location and we can get a great outcome for our investors. As opposed to if we bought it from somebody else who did the work, we'd have to pay full retail. I didn't want to do that.” 

The first building is 418,402 square feet and should be ready for tenant fixturing in 30 days. Construction will begin on another similarly sized building this fall. Colliers is working with Nicola Real Estate in seeking tenants for both of them.

Comfortable with speculative development

“We're having a lot of interest in the project right now, so I think it's going to be a real game-changer when all is said and done,” Sherriff-Scott said.

“You need to have something that the tenants can see and touch and stand inside to really generate interest. The days of leasing off of a plan at some point in the future, I think, are sort of behind us.”

The plan is to construct all of the demisable buildings on a speculative basis. There are no firm timelines in place.

“If someone were to show up and ask for more than one, we can accelerate that and have the ability to do that,” Sheriff-Scott said. “The town has been fantastic to deal with in that regard. They're very keen for us to have tenants in place, as are we.”