Real estate veterans Fred Waks and Allan Silber have acquired a majority stake in the asset and property management business of Trinity Development Group.

The portfolio of Trinity Real Estate Asset Management Inc., the new management-owned company, includes 23 shopping centres representing approximately 2.5 million square feet across Ontario, Alberta and Quebec.

Trinity Development Group, founded in 1992 by John Ruddy, will continue to handle development.

“Trinity was a family-run business by the Ruddy family and there needed to be succession in order to keep the enterprise going,” says Waks, noting Ruddy’s family was mostly working in New York. 

Waks will be partner, president and CEO of Trinity Real Estate Asset Management. He joined Trinity as president and CEO in 2015, after his previous career as president and COO of RioCan. 

Decades of industry experience

At RioCan from 1995 to 2014, Waks was part of the team that made it the largest retail landlord in Canada, growing from $100 million to $15 billion in assets.

Silber will be partner and executive chairman of Trinity Real Estate Asset Management. He is the chairman of specialty pharmaceutical company Verity Pharmaceuticals, spent more than 30 years with Street Capital Group and served on the board of trustees for RioCan from 1993 to 2002.

“Allan’s the one who brought me to RioCan in 1995 and there’s been a close working relationship and social relationship with our two families for many, many years,” Waks says.

Trinity Real Estate Asset Management minority partners include chief financial officer Adam Cohen, senior vice-president of leasing David Scorniaenchi and senior vice-president of investments Rossi Sas.

Ruddy will also retain a minority stake as a partner in the new entity and will remain on Trinity’s board of directors. Waks says Ruddy “loves the business and the Trinity brand was something that we wanted to make sure to continue because it was well-recognized in the real estate industry.”

Financial details were not disclosed.

Asset and property management focus

Trinity Real Estate Asset Management is “basically going to be in the asset management and property management and possibly looking at third party management,” Waks says. 

Waks notes that Trinity launched its fund business three years ago, buying shopping centres across Canada, particularly in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario.

Trinity has raised $180 million within its funds over the last three years and has secured significant joint-venture capital, Waks says. “We’ve shown a huge return in the first two funds and we’re looking to invest and deploy fund three, which is basically closed.” 

Waks says Trinity’s shopping centres “are performing exceptionally well. They are almost 100 per cent leased and we are seeing in the mid-20s in terms of rental growth.”

About 55 per cent of tenants are essential retail, with Walmart and Sobeys among the largest tenants. Trinity’s shopping centres are primarily located in the Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal areas.

The geographic scope of Trinity Real Estate Asset Management “will probably change to be North American,” Waks says.

“That’s something that I’ve always believed in because most of our tenants are North American in ownership and, when I was at RioCan, I was very much part of expanding our envelope into the United States. So, I think there’s going to be opportunities south of the border as there will be north of the border.”

In Canada, he sees opportunities primarily in the GTA, Ottawa and Calgary, while in the U.S., “we’re going to dip our toe and start looking at places like Florida, Texas and the northeast to see what’s available.” 

Waks, who notes that he ran a retail portfolio at RioCan that went from El Paso, Texas to Victoria and St. John’s to Boston, sees greater opportunities in the U.S., given the size of the market.

Trinity Real Estate Asset Management will have about 30 employees, while Trinity Development Group will have about six employees, Waks says.

“This is going to be a tremendous opportunity to watch the next generation come into their own in leasing, operations and investment.”

Among Trinity Real Estate Asset Management’s holdings in Ontario are Sheridan Plaza and 2131 Yonge in Toronto, Trinity Wilson Common in Hamilton, Northumberland Mall in Cobourg, Ont. and Trinity Common at Citigate in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven.

Founded 34 years ago by Ruddy to focus on what was then the emerging category of large-format retail centres, Trinity has built more than 32 million square feet of space across Canada.