148 Colonnade Rd., in Ottawa is one of 18 industrial properties across the city sold by Skyline Commercial REIT. (Courtesy Skyline Commercial REIT)

Skyline Commercial REIT has sold two industrial portfolios comprising 20 properties in Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area for over $217 million.

The Guelph-based trust said in a release both transactions closed on Monday – the same day the unrelated sale of a massive 2.8-million-square-foot Amazon warehouse in Ottawa was also announced. In the Amazon transaction, developer Broccolini sold a 90.1 per cent stake to Crestpoint Real Estate Investments.

Both of the Skyline transactions were brokered by CBRE.

The Ottawa portfolio involves 18 small-bay properties which total 692,613 square feet of leasable space. The total sale price for the properties was $154.5 million.

The portfolio was sold to Woodbourne Capital Management and Epic Investment Services LP.

The Ottawa sale properties

“This acquisition capitalizes on very attractive market fundamentals coupled with our ability to drive value creation through operations,” said Aaron Moore, vice president, investments at Epic in a separate release. “These assets are located in a sound industrial market with demonstrated stability and growth, offering superior risk-adjusted returns.”

The multi-tenant light and small-bay industrial buildings are positioned in several industrial nodes in Ottawa, with proximity to major highways and arterial roads. There are 24 buildings at the 18 properties, of varied building sizes to accommodate a wide variety of tenant uses.

The properties are:

– 20 & 22 Gurdwara Ave.;

– 1257-1283 Algoma Rd.;

– 107, 111, 146 and 148 Colonnade Rd,;

– 2413 and 2415 Stevenage Drive and 3210 Swansea Cres.;

– 740, 770-790, 800, 830, 850, 855 and 855r Industrial Ave.;

– 1635-1647, 1655, 1665, 1675-1685 Russell Rd.;

– 5300, 5310, 5380, 5390 Canotek Rd.; and

– 2280-2300 Stevenage Dr.

“With Woodbourne, this is our second completed portfolio acquisition within five months and the first we have participated in as co-investor as we expand our industrial portfolio,” said Craig Coleman, co-CEO of Epic, in the announcement.

This transaction, combined with the Amazon fulfillment centre sale, means $650 million in Ottawa industrial property has transacted in the past few days.

Two GTA industrial properties

In the other transaction, Skyline disposed of two industrial properties in the Greater Toronto Area, totalling 207,689 square feet, to Pure Industrial for $62.8 million:

– 130-160 Bradwick Dr., Vaughan;

– 1655 Tricont Ave., Whitby.

 “The capital from these sales will be redeployed toward our development pipeline of modern industrial assets and acquisitions involving primarily newer facilities,” said Michael Mackenzie, president of Skyline Commercial REIT, in the announcement.

“As always, our ultimate goal remains to create further value for Skyline Commercial REIT investors through capitalizing on opportunities that are accretive to unit value.”

About the vendor and buyers

Skyline Commercial REIT is a privately owned and managed portfolio of commercial properties, focused on acquiring industrial and logistics-centred properties along major highway corridors and transportation routes in Canada.

Skyline Commercial REIT is operated and managed by Skyline Group Of Companies.

Woodbourne is an investor, operator and developer of apartments, seniors’ housing, student housing, self-storage and other niche real estate assets located predominantly in urban areas across Canada.

Woodbourne invests on behalf of a broad base of institutional investors across the globe, including public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations and funds.

Epic Investment Services, which includes its wholly owned subsidiary MDC Realty Advisors in the U.S., is a fully integrated North American real estate platform.

Headquartered in Toronto and operating from offices in Canada and the U.S., Epic has over $17.5 billion in assets under management.

Epic’s portfolio comprises over 30 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and multiresidential properties.

Pure Industrial is a subsidiary of Blackstone Property Partners and Ivanhoé Cambridge.

The firm owns a portfolio of industrial assets across Canada, with a focus on major urban centres and the heavily populated Southern Ontario markets.