CPP Investments and Dream Industrial REIT have sold two industrial buildings, at 750 Creditstone Rd. and 121 Pippin Rd. north of Toronto in Vaughan, to Zzen Group of Companies Limited for $115 million.

CPP, Dream Industrial and Dream Asset Management Corp. formed a joint venture in December 2025 that was seeded with an $805-million portfolio of 12 Dream Industrial properties comprising approximately 3.6 million square feet of space in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, Calgary and London, Ont. 

"It's going well," Dream Industrial REIT chief investment officer Bruce Traversy told RENX of the joint venture. "We're focused on delivering returns on the assets and CPP is a great partner."

CPP is a 90 per cent owner of the portfolio, held by what’s legally known as Dream DCI (Ontario) Inc., while Dream Industrial holds the remaining 10 per cent stake. 

Traversy said Dream DCI is seeking value-added returns from its properties, which can be achieved through different strategies involving the application of strong asset management. 

"We always try to be active asset managers, and we're looking for opportunities to buy and sell creatively," he noted.

The Vaughan portfolio

The two Vaughan warehouse and distribution buildings were owned by Dream DCI. They were built in 1999 and are a combined 346,035 square feet, sitting on 17.6 acres of land.  

"Vaughan's always a high-demand location for both tenants and investors," said Traversy. "And one building has rail access, which is something that has a lot of appeal to certain tenants."

Westlake Royal Building Products fully occupies the Creditstone Road building while Concord Compounding Limited fully occupies the Pippin Road facility.

"We received an offer that we felt was pretty full value," said Traversy. "The asset was fairly stable and the buyer was a great counter-party. 

"Zzen Group is very active, especially in Vaughan, and we were able to get a deal done at strong pricing. So, it just made sense. We never want to get too married to any asset because obviously it's a business and we're trying to generate the best returns we can."

Vaughan-based and privately owned Zzen Group, which didn’t respond to RENX’s interview requests, owns a portfolio of developed and undeveloped land around its home area. 

“Land in Vaughan is a valuable commodity,” said Traversy. "And one of the things that we've always liked about industrial is that it can be a long-term covered land play, whether that’s in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years."

Dream DCI acquisition in Calgary

Dream DCI acquired a 227,000-square-foot building in Calgary for $35.8 million earlier this quarter. 

"On the acquisition side, Calgary's been a target market for us," said Traversy. "The fundamentals there are improving and there's a lot of positive momentum in that market."

Other Dream Industrial activity

Dream Industrial is an owner, manager and operator of properties across Canada, Europe and the United States. It had an interest in and managed 348 industrial assets (including 565 buildings), totalling approximately 75.7 million square feet of gross leasable area, as of June 30.

Traversy spoke to RENX from London, England, where Dream Industrial and parent company Dream Unlimited Corp. recently acquired industrial developer and asset manager Chancerygate for $147 million. Dream Industrial is committing an additional $47 million to complete ongoing Chancerygate developments.

Dream Industrial looks at as many on- and off-market deals as possible in order to find the best deals for its investors. 

"We do property management, leasing, development and everything in-house, so I think that’s a competitive advantage for us," Traversy said.

Dream Industrial is seeking to expand or reposition certain buildings in its portfolio, and it’s in the early stages of infill development at a 32-acre parcel of land it owns on Torbram Road just north of Toronto.

“We're seeing strong absorption and good operating fundamentals,” Traversy said of the industrial real estate sector. 

“We have 1,600 tenants in our global portfolio and 1,400 of them – large and small – in Canada. We stay close to them and I think what you're seeing, from the statistics in the market, is that it's holding up."