Summit Industrial Income REIT (SMU-UN-T) will double its development pipeline in the Greater Toronto Area with a series of four industrial land acquisitions valued at about $37.6 million.

The acquisitions comprise about 50 acres of land and would add nearly a million square feet to Summit’s portfolio across the region. Toronto continues to have one of the lowest industrial availability rates in North America, at 1.7 per cent in Q1 2021, according to stats released this week by JLL Canada.

“With the completion of these transactions, we continue to expand our total development pipeline to 90 acres and the potential to add 1.8 million square feet of brand new well-located GTA properties to our portfolio in the near future,” said Dayna Gibbs, Summit’s chief operating officer, in the Tuesday announcement.

“Given the significant demand and strong fundamentals in these markets, the new development projects will add another source of accretive growth to our portfolio, while enhancing our ESG initiatives for sustainable development.”

The GTA-based REIT has waived conditions and will acquire a 12.7-acre development site on South Service Road in Burlington for $27.4 million. The site, which has the potential to build a 244,000-square-foot light industrial building, is located in a prime industrial node with direct exposure to The Queen Elizabeth Way highway.

Closing is expected in June.

Guelph, Kitchener acquisitions

The REIT has also entered into a conditional agreement to acquire from its joint venture partner a 50 per cent interest in two land parcels in the Hanlon Creek Business Park in Guelph, just a few minutes’ drive from Highway 401. These parcels contain 16.4 usable acres with the potential to construct two buildings having a total GLA of 300,000 square feet.

Summit will pay $4.6 million for its interest, with closing anticipated in June. The trust expects to acquire the remaining 50 per cent interest in both projects upon completion.

The parcels complement Summit’s existing investments in the Hanlon Creek Business Park, where it owns four new class-A buildings and is constructing two others with its partner, aggregating approximately 1.3 million square feet. All that space is fully leased.

Finally, the REIT has a conditional agreement with its partner to acquire a 50 per cent interest in a 19.5-acre site on 425 Bingemans Centre Dr. in Kitchener. The property is in close proximity to existing transportation infrastructure and the future Highway 7 realignment.

The property has the potential for development of 350,000 to 400,000 square feet of GLA.

Summit will pay approximately $5.6 million for the interest, with closing expected late in 2021. As with the Burlington site, Summit expects to acquire the remaining interest when the project is complete.

Summit’s other recent acquisitions

Summit has been steadily expanding its portfolio through acquisitions of both development land and revenue-producing assets. In March, it announced the acquisition of a modern, 765,145-square-foot logistics and office complex on a 35-acre property in Saint-Laurent, Que., a suburb of Greater Montreal.

The property is fully leased and also includes potential for future expansion. Summit paid $183.3 million for the property.

In December it acquired a 342,830-square-foot, single-tenant warehouse and logistics facility in Ajax, just east of Toronto, for $68 million.