Ottawa-based Colonnade BridgePort has been awarded the property management responsibility for 21 industrial buildings and one retail plaza in Burlington, Brampton and Brantford, Ont.

Totalling over 2.3 million square feet, the properties are all owned by Toronto-based Fiera Real Estate. The new mandate officially began on Sept. 1.

“Colonnade BridgePort is evolving and strengthening its core property management services business by identifying opportunities to grow through commercial and residential property management, and leasing management and construction project management services mandates, focusing on institutional owners, and growing our private equity/high-net-worth-owner base,” Colonnade BridgePort's Ron Matheson, senior vice-president, real estate services told RENX via email.

“This is happening in both our existing markets, as well as new underserved Canadian mid-markets.”

Colonnade BridgePort expanded into the Greater Toronto Area, Greater Golden Horseshoe and Southern Ontario in 2018. It also has offices in Toronto and Mississauga.

Over its 35-year history, the company’s property management and leasing business has grown to approximately 12 million square feet of assets across residential, retail, industrial and office classes.

The Fiera industrial properties

The Fiera Burlington portfolio consists of six industrial flex buildings, totalling approximately 250,000 square feet with 50 tenants.

The Brantford portfolio consists of 11 buildings – approximately 1.3 million square feet of industrial properties and a retail plaza – with 23 tenants.

The newly constructed Heart Lake Business Park in Brampton is home to five class-A industrial buildings totalling approximately 750,000 square feet, with tenants being onboarded by Colonnade BridgePort throughout the remainder of the year. The park has quick access to both the 401 and 407 highways servicing Toronto and region.

“Not only do their strategies, processes and procedures help us meet our corporate objectives, but they keep properties in optimal operating condition and exceed the expectations of tenants,” Erin Shirley-Wong, Fiera’s vice-president of asset management, said in the announcement Wednesday morning.

“We are looking forward to having Colonnade BridgePort manage the properties in these portfolios.”

Colonnade and Fiera

Colonnade BridgePort and Fiera have been strategic partners since 2014, starting with the Westboro Connection Phase 1 mixed-use development project at 315-319 McRae Ave. in Ottawa. 

Since then, Matheson told RENX, the relationship has grown on two fronts.

First, on the mixed-use development front in Ottawa at both Westboro Connection Phase 2 at 1960 Scott St., and Hintonburg Connection at 175 Carruthers Ave.

Fiera and Colonnade BridgePort are also partners on the Junction Central development, a five-acre site adjacent to the intercity VIA Rail train station and Tremblay Road LRT stations.

On the property management and leasing services front, Colonnade currently manages over six million square feet of Fiera-owned real estate covering all four of the major real estate asset classes – residential, industrial, retail and office.

"Colonnade BridgePort recognizes that mid-market institutional and private equity/high-net-worth property owners and investors are faced with a fragmented real estate services market that creates extra work, costs more and delivers less,” Matheson wrote.

“Colonnade BridgePort has built its management platform around its expertise in providing mid-market owners and investors with a best-in-class, multi-disciplined institutional-grade services platform capable of delivering more in return.”