Oxford Properties is testing the office transaction market with one of its most significant Toronto holdings, placing the CitiGroup Place tower in downtown Toronto up for sale.

The intention to market and attempt to sell the tower was confirmed to RENX by a source with knowledge of the matter on Monday.

Oxford is one of Canada's largest owners and operators of commercial real estate, on behalf of its parent company the OMERS pension fund. It is a major owner of Toronto commercial real estate properties across multiple asset classes, and says it remains bullish on the office sector.

"Oxford routinely reviews our portfolio for opportunities to recycle capital to reinvest back into Canadian development and investment opportunities," a spokesperson told RENX in an email response to questions about CitiGroup Place. "We continue to have conviction in the office sector, where we have committed over $2 billion of capital into the sector over the past eight months across both acquisitions and development activity.

"Of this amount, over $1 billion has been directed to Canadian opportunities."

Among these initiatives are the previously announced:

• $200-million redevelopment of Canadian Tire's headquarters at Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto, also the site of a transit hub;
• $750-million development of Alta at Scarborough Town Centre, delivering Scarborough's first major purpose-built housing project in a generation; and
• $730-million acquisition of full ownership of a Western Canada office portfolio, comprising seven assets across Vancouver and Calgary. 

About CitiGroup Place

CitiGroup Place is a class-A office tower standing 20 storeys and comprising 344,393 square feet of leasable space, the vast majority of it for office purposes. It also has approximately 12,000 square feet of ground-oriented retail space.

The tower was completed in 1983 and underwent an extensive renovation program in 2010.

It is situated at the heart of Toronto's downtown core and its financial district, next door to Union Station, the city's largest passenger rail hub. It is also a block away from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, amid many of the city's prime downtown hotels and a short walk from the Rogers Centre baseball and entertainment stadium.

CitiGroup Place is currently approximately 93 per cent leased, with just a few spaces available up to the 6,000-square-foot range. Major tenants include its anchor CitiGroup, as well as TeraNet, TicketMaster, Bruce Power and a financing division of automaker Hyundai.

The move to market CitiGroup Place comes as the Canadian office market, particularly in Toronto, has been rebounding from an extended period of slow leasing, several years of hybrid and work-from-home policies impacting occupancy, and depressed values for all but the most choice trophy assets.

Toronto's improving office outlook

The flip side, however, is that premium, class-AAA office space in downtown Toronto offices was at three per cent as of Q4 2025, according to CBRE data, and demand continues to outpace supply. Class-A space has also been seeing increased leasing activity as the premium space is absorbed and leasing rates rise – vacancy declined steadily throughout 2025 to end the year at approximately 14 per cent.

This is fuelling recent speculation a major new office development could begin, and Oxford is considered a front runner to begin developing a new class-AAA project. Oxford's 30 Bay St. property, for which the 60-storey The Hub tower was proposed back in 2018, remains at or near the top of the list.

This would also fit with Oxford's strategy to recycle capital into existing and new assets.

The improving office environment has also fuelled investment activity, with $1.55 billion in office transactions in the Toronto and Greater Golden Horseshoe region during 2025, according to Altus Group.

This included the acquisitions of:

• 70 York St. by the Desjardins’ DGAM Canadian Private Real Estate Fund and the Desjardins Group Pension Fund in November, for $134.6 million. The 210,000-square-foot downtown tower was acquired from the KingSett Senior Mortgage Fund in an off-market deal; and
• Spear Street Capital's acquisition of 141 Adelaide St. W. in downtown Toronto in December for $95.25 million. The 18-storey, 187,987-square-foot tower was 92.2 per cent occupied and anchored by Canadian Western Bank.