35 Brock St. and 600 John St. N. are sister towers on Lake Ontario in Hamilton. (Google Street View)

InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust (IIP-UN-T) is acquiring a five-property apartment portfolio in Hamilton and London, Ont., comprising 723 units for $170.7 million.

The REIT says the agreement is unconditional and scheduled to close in September.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the acquisition of this well-maintained portfolio, expanding our footprint and operational synergies in two strong markets,” said Mike McGahan, the CEO of Ottawa-based InterRent, in a release. “We look forward to providing hundreds of residents with great homes in our welcoming communities.”

Three of the five concrete-construction properties are located in Hamilton and the remaining two are in London. The acquisition will be financed with a combination of cash and new mortgage debt, according to the REIT.

In June, InterRent completed a public offering which raised $230 million.

The properties were all previously operated by Kingston, Ont.-based Homestead.

The properties InterRent is acquiring

The properties in the transaction are:

The properties add to InterRent’s existing assets in both markets, allowing the REIT to benefit from further economies of scale.

100 Main St. E. in Hamilton, also known as Landmark Place, features 295 residential units and approximately 62,000 square feet of commercial space in the tower’s podium.

The 42-storey downtown asset features access to numerous neighbourhood amenities as well as potential to improve and expand upon the existing amenity space.

It’s located 450 metres from the Hamilton Centre Go station and 850 metres from the city’s major arena/entertainment venue, FirstOntario Centre.

35 Brock St. and 600 John St. N. are sister towers on the shores of Lake Ontario in Hamilton. They’re connected via a parking garage and combine for a total of 223 apartments.

The towers offer rooftop terraces and supplemental amenity space, and will benefit from the future Pier 8 development. They are about a kilometre from the West Harbour GO Station.

500-522 and 527-531 Gordon Ave. are adjacent properties in a residential neighbourhood of London. These properties feature two towers totalling 180 suites, as well as 15 townhomes. These sites are beside Basil Grover Park and near the Victoria Hospital.

About InterRent

InterRent REIT is a growth-oriented real estate investment trust engaged in the acquisition and ownership of multiresidential properties.

At the end of Q2 2020, the REIT owned and operated 10,226 apartment suites, an increase of about nine per cent during the previous 12 months.

InterRent’s strategy is to expand its portfolio primarily within markets that have exhibited stable market vacancies, sufficient suites available to attain the critical mass necessary to implement an efficient portfolio management structure and to offer opportunities for accretive acquisitions.