Minto Properties has filed a preliminary prospectus for an initial public offering of shares to create the Minto Apartment REIT, the company announced Wednesday.

The REIT will take over an initial portfolio of 22 income-producing, multi-residential rental properties from Minto Properties. The 4,279 suites are located in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton and represent all strategic alliance agreemenof Minto Properties’ wholly owned multi-residential properties.

No details were immediately available on the value of the portfolio, how many shares will be issued nor the price of the offering.

In a release, Minto says the REIT will employ “an experienced executive and operational team of real estate professionals, comprising former Minto employees and employees who will be employed by both the REIT and Minto.”

Minto Properties will also provide additional administrative support to the REIT on a fee-for-service basis.

Strategic alliance agreement

On closing of the offering, the Minto Apartment REIT will enter into a strategic alliance agreement with Minto giving the REIT potential access to additional multi-residential properties in which Minto has an interest. 

The properties in the initial portfolio are 98 per cent occupied, and have received $55 million in investment during the past three years, Minto says, including $29 million in 2017 alone.

They are located as follows:

– Edmonton, three properties, 251 suites;
– Calgary, one property, 144 suites;
– Ottawa, 14 properties, 3,060 suites;
– Toronto, four properties, 824 suites. 

The offering is being distributed by a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc. and BMO Capital Markets.

Goodmans LLP is acting as legal counsel to the REIT and Minto Properties, and Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP is acting as legal counsel to the underwriters.

Reinventing itself

The creation of a REIT is the latest move in Minto’s efforts to reinvent itself after being exclusively owned and operated by the Greenberg family for almost 60 years of its existence. They brought in CEO Michael Waters, the first non-family member to run Minto, several years ago to lead the company into a new era.

Minto has since worked to break out of its Ontario base, to diversify its holdings and to bring in partners with many of its assets, including existing centrepiece properties such as Minto Place in Ottawa.  

It also has considerable holdings in the U.S., where it is a major homebuilder in Florida.

Minto Properties, one of The Minto Group of companies, is a fully integrated real estate enterprise with expertise in asset management, property management, investment transactions, development, financing and all related support functions.

Until now a privately owned group of companies, it was established in 1955. During that time, it has built 85,000 homes (alone or in partnerships), managed 13,000 rental apartments, 2.5 million square feet of commercial space and has an investment portfolio valued at $4.1 billion.