Pontegadea has acquired a 379,000-square-foot refrigerated distribution centre, which is leased to Lactalis Canada for another 24 years, in an off-market deal from Broccolini for $187 million.

“We weren't necessarily looking to sell, but we're always opportunistic and we'll listen to what others may want to tell us our buildings or projects are worth,” Broccolini vice-president of acquisitions and investments Toni Wodzicki told RENX.

“They came to us with a very clean deal and a clean offer, and we worked through with them and concluded it.” 

Lactalis Canada is a subsidiary of France-based Lactalis Group and is responsible for such dairy brands as Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, Balderson, Astro, Beatrice and Lactantia. The company employs more than 4,200 people across more than 30 operating sites in Canada.

What the facility offers

The facility at 1680 Thornton Rd. N. in Northwood Business Park in Oshawa, Ont. is Lactalis’ largest refrigerated warehouse globally. Approximately 35,000 square feet is dedicated to freezer space.

The building can store up to 60,000 pallets across cooler and freezer zones and includes a two-storey office supporting approximately 80 employees.

The building opened in the fourth quarter of 2024. It incorporates energy-efficient lighting, high insulation values and has infrastructure for rooftop solar panels to provide renewable power to partially or completely offset reliance on the power grid under certain conditions. 

Heat generated from the refrigeration system is reclaimed and used to heat the facility’s offices and to melt snow on the truck apron.

“It’s basically a brand new building that was designed specifically for Lactalis, but it's not overly customized,” said Wodzicki. “You have a best-in-class industrial facility that has flexibility for future re-use as well as for what it's been designed to accommodate.”

Broccolini will continue to be the property manager for the facility, which has a 40-foot clear height.

Other Broccolini industrial developments

There are 23.6 million square feet of industrial, commercial, institutional and residential real estate either already developed or under development by Broccolini, which has offices in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. It has a land bank of more than 2,500 acres in Canada.

Wodzicki said Broccolini is currently developing two design-built industrial facilities. 

The expansion of MDA Space’s approximately 160,000-square-foot assembly, integration and test facility — designed to support the growth of its satellite programs — is underway in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que. The multi-level addition also includes office spaces, mechanical mezzanines, staff amenities and a rooftop terrace.

Completion for Automann’s 333,363-square-foot logistics hub northwest of Toronto in Caledon is scheduled for late this year. The building is on a 14-acre site and features a 40-foot clear height, 27 dock doors, three drive-in doors, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and provisions for future rooftop solar panels to support long-term operational efficiency.

There are plans to break ground on “probably another half-a-dozen design builds between Ontario and Quebec” before the end of the year, according to Wodzicki. They’ll range in size from about 100,000 to upwards of a million square feet.

“In terms of being a constructor, a developer and an investor, we have the ability to execute custom solutions for our clients,” said Wodzicki. “It's allowing us to be fortunate to have that volume of design builds.”

Plans for speculative developments

Underlying market fundamentals are now stabilizing after two years of uncertainty, according to Wodzicki, which is enabling Broccolini to plan some speculatively built industrial properties in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). He couldn’t provide more details since the company is still going through the process of securing zoning permissions and permits.

“With availability certainly not creeping up, but normalizing, we've got some conviction in being able to deliver on some projects where our lands are finally shovel-ready,” said Wodzicki.

“The ability to get projects online remains difficult, but entitlement constraints are barely the issue anymore. It's more so servicing constraints, and not just from a waste water and water perspective, but power is a major constraint these days.

“I think we're going to remain in this somewhat balanced market. I don't see some major oversupply coming because of the constraint on servicing in a lot of the GTA. 

“So despite having entitlements in place, you may be waiting a considerable amount of time to have the servicing catch up.”

Pontegadea’s Canadian portfolio

Pontegadea is the family office of Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the main shareholder of multinational fashion group Inditex. The 90-year-old is the world’s 14th wealthiest person with a fortune worth US$136 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Pontegadea has been building its Canadian real estate portfolio over the past dozen years, but the acquisition in Oshawa is its first cold-storage facility in the country.

The company’s first Canadian property was a 270,000-square-foot office and retail complex at 150 Bloor St. W. in Toronto that was purchased from Kevric in 2014.

Pontegadea acquired the three-storey, 26,463-square-foot 777 Saint Catherine West retail property in Montreal in 2016.

The company purchased the two-tower, 1.5-million-square-foot Royal Bank Plaza at 200 Bay St. in Toronto for $1.16 billion from Oxford Properties and CPP Investments in 2022. 

Pontegadea acquired a 970,650-square-foot Amazon distribution centre that sits on 27.7 acres at 5213 North Fraser Way in Burnaby, B.C. for $358.9 million from Beedie in October 2023.

The company purchased the 1.1-million-square-foot The Post office complex, which serves as Amazon’s Vancouver hub, last November for more than $1.1 billion from QuadReal. The property sits on a full city block bordered by West Georgia, Homer, Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets and includes two towers and a retail podium.