CAPREIT has acquired three apartment buildings, comprising 260 units, overlooking the St. Lawrence River in Quebec City. (Courtesy CAPREIT)

Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT) has sold two properties in Toronto for about $143 million, including its one-third managing interest in the downtown King’s Club, and acquired a portfolio of three modern apartment buildings in Quebec City.

The transactions involve:

– the sale of its interest in King’s Club, at 1100 King Street West, to Woodbourne for $90.9 million;

– the sale of 124 Broadway Avenue in mid-town Toronto. The 86-suite building is being sold for its development potential, for $52 million, CAPREIT says;

– and the acquisition of three apartment buildings in a neighbourhood overlooking the St. Lawrence River in Quebec City for $72.8 million.

“We continue to review and assess our entire property portfolio, identifying and acting on assets where we believe we have maximized value and applying the proceeds from such property sales toward more accretive growth opportunities for our unitholders,” said Mark Kenney, CAPREIT’s president and CEO, in the announcement.

CAPREIT (CAR.UN-T) had acquired the one-third managing interest in the 506 apartments which are part of the King’s Club development in 2019 for about $60 million. The REIT had entered into the agreement back in 2015 while the complex was under construction.

The three King’s Club residential towers are located over approximately 160,000 square feet of commercial and retail space anchored by a grocery store and a Canadian Tire store, as well as about 10,000 square feet of office space.

As part of the transaction, CAPREIT will provide a vendor takeback mortgage to Woodbourne to finance 75 per cent of the purchase price at an annual interest rate of three per cent, due in 36 months from closing.

Sale of 124 Broadway

The 124 Broadway Avenue property transaction closed on Sept. 29, and while the buyer was not identified CAPREIT said the firm is a developer. The trust held the operating lease for the building since 2004, and had completed an early buyout in 2019 to own 100 per cent of the property.

CAPREIT is also providing a vendor takeback mortgage for this property for 90 per cent of the price, with an annual interest rate of 2.33 per cent due in 24 months from closing. It includes an option to extend the VTB for an additional year at an interest rate of four per cent.

Quebec City acquisitions

The Quebec City property includes three buildings with a total of 260 apartments. Located in a cluster, the portfolio was 99.6 per cent occupied at closing.

Constructed between 2012 and 2015, the “modern high-quality” properties are located near prominent tourist and shopping destinations. They comprise 24 one-bedroom, 115 two-bedroom and 121 three-bedroom apartments, with an average suite size across the portfolio a 1,260 square feet.

The properties are fully sprinklered, and all appliances in the suites are resident-owned. All suites are also sub-metered for utilities, including water.

About CAPREIT

CAPREIT, which is based in Toronto, is Canada’s largest publicly-traded provider of rental housing.

The trust currently owns or has interests in approximately 70,000 residential apartment suites, townhomes and manufactured housing community sites across Canada, as well as in the Netherlands and Ireland.