Acquisitions, dispositions and developments that drove Cadillac Fairview’s asset diversification strategy over the past two years are continuing in 2026, according to president and chief executive officer Sal Iacono.

“Two years ago, our portfolio was primarily retail and enclosed shopping centres across the country along with office in major cities across the country,” Iacono told RENX in an exclusive interview. 

“During the pandemic, we realized that being overweight in office and retail was a little bit more challenging, to put it bluntly. 

“So coming out of it, we decided that we were going to be more exposed to industrial and multifamily. And over the last couple of years, we've sold a certain number of office and retail assets in order to be able to generate resources to be able to redeploy into both multifamily and industrial.”

Cadillac Fairview is wholly owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and has assets under management of $26 billion. It manages approximately 28 million square feet of leasable space at 52 properties across Canada.

In the coming years, Iacono said he would like to see Cadillac Fairview’s portfolio be comprised of 15 to 25 per cent industrial and 20 to 25 per cent multifamily properties.

Industrial acquisitions and developments

Its most recent acquisition moves it one step closer. Cadillac Fairview acquired four newly built, multi-tenant industrial buildings at 2425 and 2475 Meadowpine Blvd., and 2510 and 2520 Royal Windsor Dr. in Mississauga from Carttera earlier this month.

The LEED Silver-certified buildings combine to encompass 550,000 square feet and are 100 per cent leased to a mix of tenants.

“They’re well-leased, well-built, meet modern requirements, have great access to two different highways and, in our estimation, are a little bit less subject to direct competition in terms of new product in those two specific areas,” Iacono explained.

Cadillac Fairview partnered with Hopewell Development to develop a recently completed 132,132-square foot building in the eight-acre Beaver Creek Industrial Park in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto. It’s fully leased to Amico.

The company’s other industrial developments include:

• the 152-acre Rosemont Industrial Park in Balzac, Alta., where design work for the first building is underway;
• and the 169-acre Buttonville Industrial Park in Markham, Ont., where entitlement efforts are ongoing in support of a three-million-square-foot master plan.

“We're finding that currently there are better opportunities, quite frankly, on the acquisition side rather than the development side,” Iacono said. He added that Cadillac Fairview continues to seek industrial asset acquisitions in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Carré Windsor has opened

Cadillac Fairview had its grand opening for Carré Windsor, a 35-storey, 512-unit residential rental development at 1114 Saint-Antoine St. W. in downtown Montreal, on Feb. 19. 

It’s the first rental project to be completed as part of the company’s residential program launched in November 2022.

“I expect it's going to be well in excess of a year to be able to lease it up,” Iacono said of Carré Windsor. “In Montreal's case, there's a traditional moving season and lease-up season, which is atypical in Canada. 

“So the majority of the leasing that we expect to conclude is going to happen between now and July 1, which is the traditional move-in date. There will be also some activity downtown heading into the start of the university season.”

Other multifamily developments and acquisitions

The 288-unit Rideau Registry in downtown Ottawa will have 20- and 21-storey buildings and be integrated with the CF Rideau Centre shopping centre. Occupancy should begin in mid-2026.

Phase I of residential development at CF Carrefour Laval will feature 365 units across 20- and 11-storey buildings over a six-storey podium housing common areas. There will be ground-floor retail, two levels of underground parking and connectivity to the 266-store shopping centre, with occupancy to begin in summer 2027.

Construction started in November on a 61st Avenue development in Calgary between the CF Chinook Centre mall and the Chinook light rail transit station. It encompasses 490 apartments across 20- and 19-storey buildings connected by a multi-storey podium housing residential units and amenities.

Initial occupancy is expected in summer 2028.

“We're also looking at making acquisitions on the multifamily side of the business and we're working on a couple of transactions that we would like to be in a position to maybe announce over the next number of months,” Iacono said.

As with industrial properties, Cadillac Fairview is focusing on Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Retail reinvestment

Cadillac Fairview also plans “sizeable reinvestments in our existing retail portfolio over the next number of years,” Iacono said.

This will include transforming spaces left vacant by last year’s demise of Hudson’s Bay Company. Iacono said it won’t be easy but Cadillac Fairview owns great properties in desirable locations that should appeal to retailers.

“I look to the recent example that we had recasting the Nordstrom box at Toronto Eaton Centre with three great retailers, between Simons, a new Nike flagship store and Eataly.

“That points clearly to our ability to be able to redeploy those vacant former department store boxes into new uses.”

Property dispositions

In addition to the retail properties it has sold over the past two years, Cadillac Fairview has sold two office properties this year: 

• the 26-storey, 495,000-square-foot Tour Deloitte at 1115 Rue Saint-Antoine Ouest in Montreal’s central business district, to German investment bank and asset manager DekaBank;
• and the 657,800-square-foot Yonge Corporate Centre — comprised of three six-storey office buildings, a retail concourse and the Auberge du Pommier restaurant — at 4100-4150 Yonge St. in Toronto to Europro, Arista, Fieldgate Commercial Properties and Paradise Commercial.

“We have another office building currently under contract for sale that should be subject to a closing sometime in early March,” Iacono said.

“We likely will be looking at a couple of additional sales between now and the end of the year, but nothing that we can announce today. But we're much closer to the end of our disposition program than we were a couple years ago.”