Edmonton-based Josan Properties has closed on its acquisition of the Intact Building in Edmonton, the company’s second acquisition of a downtown office building in the city in two years.

Located at 10830 Jasper Ave. between 109 Street NW and 108 Street NW, the Intact Building was constructed in 1961. It rises 11 storeys and houses 233,164 sq. ft of leasable space, split between office space and ground-level retail space.

The building went through an extensive renovation in 2009, is now LEED certified and is anchored by Intact Insurance, NorQuest College, and Rexall, among other tenants, with a good weighted average lease term (WALT).

The Intact Building was listed for sale by Avison Young on behalf of Luxor Land Ltd. and Mesa West Capital Corp earlier this year. It was sold to Josan Properties for $24 million, at a 10.6 per cent cap rate, in a transaction that closed on Dec. 19.

At the time the property was listed, the Intact Building had an occupancy rate of 72 per cent — approximately three floors are vacant. Josan says it is working to lease-up the building and is strongly considering adding some amenity space, potentially a gym and a tenant lounge, as it currently lacks amenities.

The growth of Josan Properties

Nearing its 20th birthday, Josan Properties was founded in 2006 by Bill Josan, who had previously owned various pieces of real estate under other companies. Bill’s son Raka took over the company in 2009 after a stint at Brookfield Properties and is currently serving as president and CEO.

“We were exclusively in multifamily real estate at that time and then over the last 15 to 17 years we’ve grown into all real estate asset classes,” Raka Josan said in an interview with RENX. “We have a bit of industrial, we have office, we have retail and we still develop multifamily — that’s still a key piece of our business.”

The vast majority of the company's portfolio is in Edmonton, but it began expanding into British Columbia in recent years. Josan owned two sites in Vernon, in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley, but sold one of the sites last year. The remaining site is a multifamily project currently at the development permit stage which it hopes to advance in 2026.

Josan said because the oil sector, which has a direct impact on the office market in Alberta, was depressed in the late-2010s, the firm thought it best to diversify during the COVID-19 pandemic and felt B.C. made the most sense. At the time, the company didn't want to compete in the Metro Vancouver market due to the institutional and foreign capital in the market, thus it planted a flag in the up-and-coming Okanagan Valley.

Last year in Edmonton, Josan Properties acquired the Phipps McKinnon Building at 10020 101A Ave., along Rice Howard Way, and has been converting the lower half of the office tower into residential use. Josan had planned on converting the entire building when the City of Edmonton was developing an office conversion program similar to that of Calgary, but pivoted to a half-conversion after the city opted to not move forward with the incentive program.

Josan told RENX the conversion of the building, which has been rebranded as the Connect Tower, will be completing in the coming weeks, with some tenants scheduled to move in on February 1. Josan considers the Connect Tower the firm's flagship asset and has also since relocated its offices from another property it owned into the Connect Tower.

Edmonton office market

“I personally feel like the last couple of years have almost been a generational opportunity for private businesses to get into office buildings,” Josan explained. “They’ve traditionally been institutionally owned, REITs and pension funds. The last couple of years, institutions were kind of shying away and, in some cases, running for the hills from office space and that’s when we saw opportunity.”

After acquiring the Phipps McKinnon Building in March 2024, Josan wanted to acquire more office space and looked at 10 office properties around Edmonton before finding the Intact Building.

“There’s a long list of tailwinds in the office sector and in Edmonton specifically,” Josan continued. “The private sector has largely returned to office. The Government of Alberta has ordered everybody back to the office five days a week starting Feb. 1. The federal government is discussing getting everybody back in the office four or five days.

"We’ve got a growing economy. Despite immigration being tempered now (federally), we still have net in-migration from other provinces.”

Anecdotally, Josan said he has heard from some office tenants in buildings they own that they might be interested in expanding in 2026 and that there’s just generally more positivity surrounding the office market than in recent years.

“The market is rising,” he said. “It’s a long cycle in real estate, especially in office real estate, but I think we’re past the bottom.”