Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T) has updated its leasing and tenancies at two major mixed-use developments in Toronto and Vancouver, unveiling Whole Foods Market as the anchor tenant at KING Toronto and expanded leasing at the M4 office project on Vancouver’s Main Alley Campus.

With its partner Westbank Corp., Allied finalized a 20-year lease with Whole Foods at KING Toronto, a striking condo community that has grabbed attention for its architecture of stacked glass blocks placed in peaks and valleys designed to resemble a mountain range.

The grocery store is to be the main retail tenant for the project, which will enable Allied and Westbank to move forward on a leasing plan for remaining commercial component of KING Toronto, Allied said in the Monday morning announcement.

At M4, a nine-storey office building with 204,000 square feet of gross leasable area at the Main Alley Campus, Allied expects to finalize a lease expansion agreement by the end of Q3. That is also when Allied is to close its $89.7-million acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent portion of the project from Westbank, giving Allied 100 per cent ownership.

M4 to be 90 per cent leased

When the lease extension is finalized, M4 will have 90 per cent of its space leased, up from to 77 per cent currently.

Netflix is the principal tenant at M4, with 110,600 square feet being built-out for active occupancy. Rent from the building is scheduled to be generated in early 2026.

“Completing the large, multi-city development pipeline we initiated in 2012 has materially enhanced our ability to serve knowledge-based organizations,” Michael Emory, founder and executive chair of Toronto-based Allied, said in the release.

“We now have a much broader base of high-quality office and retail tenants, an expanded range of workspace options,” he said, “and greater concentration in stronger and larger mixed-use, amenity-rich urban neighbourhoods.”

Both projects are located in office nodes for “knowledge-based organizations” according to Allied — Mount Pleasant in Vancouver and the King West Village in Toronto. In an Allied document published in 2024 that outlines King West Village, the company cites data that found almost 80 per cent of the population in the neighbourhood has university education.

Allied’s KING Toronto, M4 developments

KING Toronto is planned to have 440 condo units, 80,000 square feet of office space on the second and third storeys, and 120,000 square feet of retail space at and below grade. Development is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

Allied’s president and CEO Cecilia Williams said seven other retailers are in negotiations for the remaining commercial space at KING Toronto on a July 30 conference call for the company’s Q2 results.

Main Alley Campus is being developed by Westbank, and is designed to be made up of five buildings. The expectation is for Main Alley to have approximately 500,000 square feet of workspace and 60,000 square feet of industrial or retail space.

M4 will be neighbouring:

• M1, a two-storey office building owned by Westbank and a partner;
• M2, an eight-storey office building owned by San Francisco-based Spear Street;
• M3, a three-storey office building with potential for a data centre, owned by Westbank and a partner; and
• M5, a 25-storey mass timber rental tower, yet to be constructed, which would be on the surface parking lot of M1.

Westbank says M1 and M2 are fully leased, with M3 planned for future expansion, and M4 in pre-leasing.