New York City-based Veyron has acquired a newly built 1.26-million square foot distribution centre in Innisfil, north of Toronto, from DSV Solutions Inc., which has entered into a long-term leaseback for the facility.

Veyron senior managing member Patrick Duffy told RENX the company paid “just a little over $300 million” for the property.

The distribution centre is on a 55-acre site at 3575 Innisfil Beach Rd. — just off Highway 400 south of Barrie, and about an hour’s drive north of Toronto. It encompasses 1.23 million square feet of warehouse space with 120 shipping doors, 34,000 square feet of office space and ample trailer parking.

“With all of our buildings the tenants sign triple-net leases, so they'll pretty much self-manage the building and run it,” Duffy said.

The sale enables DSV to unlock capital while continuing to operate in an advanced LEED Gold-certified logistics facility with a 42-foot clear height, 180,000 pallet positions and high-density automated systems. It features rooftop solar panels, full LED lighting and charging stations for both electric trucks and cars.

Broccolini built the facility, which had its official groundbreaking in June 2024. The project was finished this past summer.

DSV also has a 1.1-million-square-foot complex on Fifth Line, just north of Derry Road in Milton, Ont. — less than an hour’s drive west of Toronto along Highway 401. That facility houses a multi-client warehouse with state-of-the-art logistics capabilities and an attached three-storey, 35,000-square-foot administrative office.

Veyron’s acquisition strategy

Veyron is a private real estate investment firm that was formed in 2019 and now has a 38-property North American portfolio encompassing approximately 10.2 million square feet of single-tenant assets, including about 2.75 million square feet in Ontario and Quebec.

“We didn't want to have the headache and need the manpower to have to deal with multi-tenant buildings and all the management that goes with that,” Duffy explained. “Our philosophy was if we focus on good credit tenants in big single-tenant assets in good markets, we won't have any problem. And we've never had a late rent payment.”

Duffy is the former vice-chairman of New York City-headquartered Newmark, a global advisor and service provider to large institutional investors, global corporations and other owners and occupiers of commercial real estate. 

Veyron’s Canadian portfolio

Veyron has offices in New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami, but none in Canada. However, the company has established relationships with the country’s major brokerages so it’s on their radar when clients with appropriate assets are looking to sell.

Veyron’s Canadian portfolio also includes: 725,000-, 120,000- and 110,000-square-foot industrial buildings in Montreal; and a 535,000-square-foot office building in Toronto. Major tenants include IBM and Keurig Dr. Pepper.

“We focus on high-quality tenants with large sale-leaseback opportunities and we feel like it's a good value in Canada,” Duffy said. “It seems like a lot of the traditional buyers in Canada over the last several years are sitting on the sidelines. 

“There just doesn't seem to be quite as much money chasing business. Not to say that there's not a lot of competition, because there is, but I think a lot of institutions maybe haven't been quite as aggressive.”

Duffy said Veyron is in discussions to acquire several more buildings in Ontario and one in Vancouver as it seeks to expand its Canadian footprint. He wouldn’t be surprised if the Canadian portfolio tripled in size over the next couple of years.

Ontario's industrial real estate market

Colliers National Investment Services worked on behalf of Veyron and collaborated with DSV's advisor, JLL Capital Markets, to complete the 3575 Innisfil Beach Rd. sale.

“There are still more buyers than sellers and, as we track the market, it will be a more active year than last year in terms of investment volume in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area),” Colliers National Investment Services executive vice-president Victor Cotic told RENX when asked about the Ontario industrial real estate market.

“Buyers are very selective in the acquisitions that they pursue. We're seeing stability and slight improvements on the financing side, but there are some concerns about rental rates in the GTA that had moved up very quickly over a short period of time and are now plateauing and even coming off a little bit.”

Investors having differing opinions on where rents will go has led to a wide variance of where bids are coming in on offerings, according to Cotic. 

“That makes it incredibly important to try to find the right buyer for the right asset in order to achieve the optimal price for our clients,” Cotic explained.