Ravelin Properties REIT (RPR-UN-T) has acquired the remaining 25 per cent interest in two Greater Toronto Area office properties, and has agreed to a forbearance period connected to a CIBC loan for an office property in Chicago.

The two Toronto-area office assets are the Commerce West centre in Etobicoke and the Gateway Centre in Mississauga. The properties have 659,713 square feet of gross leasable area, the Toronto-based company said in a Monday night announcement.

Ravelin, formerly known as Slate Office REIT, now owns the full 100 per cent interest in its Greater Toronto Area (GTA) portfolio, consisting of six properties totalling 1,636,265 square feet.

The transaction “enables us to fully control the decision making, budgeting, leasing, and capital investment plans for these properties,” Shant Poladian, CEO of Ravelin, said in the announcement.

Financial details were not provided.

As leasing activity builds up momentum in the GTA, the timing is “favourable” for Ravelin, he continued.

In 2019, Slate had sold a 25 per cent interest in six GTA office buildings, including Commerce West and Gateway Centre, to entities controlled New-York based Wafra Inc. for $131.8 million.

Negotiating US$84M loan with CIBC

Alongside its announcement of the transaction, Ravelin said it is working to resolve a default on a CIBC loan for 120 South LaSalle, a 23-storey, 658,784-square-foot building in downtown Chicago. Ravelin purchased the asset in 2019 for US$155.5 million from a joint venture between Lincoln Property Co. and the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System.

The total principal debt amount currently outstanding under the loan is US$84 million and matured on Aug. 31. Ravelin previously reported the loan was in default because of covenant breaches in its financial statements since Q1 2024.

The REIT said it is in “active discussions” to resolve the loan default and “achieve a mutually acceptable loan restructuring.”

CIBC is said to have issued a notice of default and a reservation of rights, and agreed to the forbearance agreement which will expire on Sept. 30. The agreement aligns with the current forbearance period that Ravelin has in place with one of its major investors, G2S2 Capital Inc.

Ravelin faced troubling debts, internal dispute

Earlier this year, G2S2 Capital acquired almost $600 million of Ravelin’s debt, which totalled over $1 billion. Ravelin received a six-month forbearance from G2S2 in late March so the REIT could have time to negotiate the terms of a recapitalization plan.

G2S2, a Halifax-based investor, made the move to restructure Ravelin’s secured debt to stabilize the assets, George Armoyan, executive chairman of G2S2 and a member of Ravelin’s board, said.

Ravelin and its precursor Slate have struggled with heavy debt, higher interest rates and a slowdown in the office sector since 2023.

Slate embarked on a Portfolio Alignment Plan to reduce its debt, which entailed the sale of assets representing approximately 40 per cent of its gross leasable area and amending its declaration of trust to raise the ceiling on its allowable debt.

Compounding its financial troubles, the company was caught in a dispute between founders Blair and Brady Welch and Armoyan. The Welches resigned from Slate’s board in October 2024 due to the friction over the management of Slate.

As of June 30, Ravelin reported an office portfolio of approximately 6.3 million square feet and a non-office portfolio measuring 191,401 square feet. Its properties are located in Canada, the U.S. and Ireland.