Crestpoint has acquired 222 CitiGate Drive in Ottawa, a 2.8-million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment centre. (Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd.)

Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd., has acquired the largest fulfillment centre ever completed in Canada, the multi-level 2.8-million-square-foot Amazon facility in the south end of Ottawa.

Crestpoint paid $494 million for a 90.1 per cent share of the building, with developer Broccolini retaining a 9.9 per cent share. The facility, which has a footprint of more than 450,000 square feet, had a development value of approximately $200 million when Broccolini kicked off the project in the summer of 2020.

The facility is located at 222 CitiGate Dr. in Barrhaven, a suburb in the southwestern area of Ottawa. It incorporates the latest in smart, automated and robotic technologies with capacity to handle over 100,000 packages a day.

Delivered in late 2021, the project is fully leased to Amazon for 20 years.

It is the second huge distribution facility Montreal-based Broccolini has completed in Ottawa for Amazon. A million-square-foot facility in the east end of the city was completed in 2019 and Broccolini sold a 90 per cent share to Concert Properties.

Crestpoint and its investment partners

Crestpoint acquired a 90 per cent interest in the property on behalf of its clients including the Crestpoint Core Plus Real Estate Strategy, Vestcor Inc., and Kiwoom Securities and Hangang Asset Management, a South Korean investment consortium.

The completion of the CitiGate acquisition brings Crestpoint’s assets under management to over $7.5 billion and caps off a very active 13-month period for the firm, which saw the completion of over $1.9 billion of acquisitions involving office, industrial, retail and multiresidential opportunities, adding over 6.5 million square feet to its portfolio.

Highlights of the activity during this period include:

– Crestpoint’s an initial foray into multiresidential, following the investment of $500 million to acquire over 2,000 apartment units;

– the completion of over $950 million of transactions in the industrial sector, including the acquisition of 4.25 million square feet of existing properties, along with over 260 acres of development land, which can support development of over 4.5 million square feet of new product;

– investing $400 million into the office sector, most notably through the acquisition of two signature office complexes; a 95 per cent interest in SteelesTech Corporate Centre in Toronto and a 50 per cent interest in Place De Ville in downtown Ottawa. Together, the two properties represent over 1.2 million square feet of office product.

“I am extremely proud of what Crestpoint has accomplished over the past 13 months. It is a testament to the skill and dedication of our entire team and our proven ability to identify opportunities and execute despite the challenges the market throws at us,” Crestpoint president and CEO Kevin Leon said in the announcement..

“We appreciate the continued support of our investors and partners and look forward to continued success in the future.”

About Crestpoint

Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd. is a commercial real estate investment manager, with $7.5 billion of gross assets under management across a diverse range of asset classes.

Crestpoint is part of the Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group, a multi-boutique asset management company that provides investment management products and services to institutional and high-net-worth clients.

With offices across Canada and in Chicago, London, and Gurugram, India, Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group and its affiliates are collectively responsible for the management of approximately $100 billion in assets.