The Regency on Main apartment tower in Hamilton. At right is the adjacent hotel, attached by a podium. (Google Maps)
Quad Real Property Group has snapped up three apartment complexes across the Greater Toronto and Greater Golden Horseshoe regions for a total of $300 million.
These three buildings vary in age and size and together include about 750 units, according to Altus Group’s recent transactions report. The sellers were ICBC and Starlight.
The deals wrapped up back in April, which was well after COVID-19 had started slowing down many big commercial real estate and apartment sales. But the details weren’t publicly shared at that time.
Here are the properties involved:
* 140 Main St. W. in Hamilton;
* 245 Lena Cres. in Cambridge;
* 1505 Ottawa St. N. in Kitchener.
The Regency on Main, Hamilton
The building on Main Street called Regency on Main is relatively new and part of a two-tower setup that’s connected to a Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel via a podium structure covering much of the downtown block with frontage on Bay Street as well.
It’s just a few blocks from Highway 403 and close to the waterfront, Jackson Point, local trails, plus shopping at Jackson Square.
Units range from one to three bedrooms with sizes between 567 and 1,672 square feet.
The building offers plenty of amenities including a rooftop terrace with BBQs on the fifth floor, fitness centre, cozy lounge with fireplace, a cinema room with 4K screens, swimming pool, storage lockers, plus ceilings that reach ten feet inside the apartments.
Back in 2017 Starlight bought this property through a forward-sale deal directly from the developer.
Apartments in Kitchener and Cambridge
245 Lena Crescent consists of two towers next to a busy commercial area along Hespeler Street and sits right across from Cambridge Centre mall.
This one dates back to the 1980s.
Then there’s 1505 Ottawa St. N., an eight-story mid-rise located within a suburban neighbourhood towards east Kitchener near where it borders Cambridge.
It backs onto green space along the Grand River and is just across from grocery stores and some shops in a strip mall nearby.
Nearby community perks include schools, sports fields, plus a centre offering an arena and library all within easy walking distance.
Starlight wouldn’t comment about this sale because they’re bound by confidentiality agreements; Quad Real didn’t respond immediately when RENX reached out for comment.
Documents show Cambridge’s place sold for $99 million while Kitchener went for $59 million; Regency on Main fetched $142 million.
Despite COVID slowing lots down early on there’ve been several apartment deals closing during this period – SVN Rock Advisors CEO Derek Lobo said recently during an online event that more are likely coming soon.
Apartment Investments Looking Solid
One big reason why is apartments have held up pretty well even though lots shut down economically – rent payments haven’t dropped as much as expected either.
Lobo mentioned institutional investors will be rethinking their holdings which could spark more buying or selling activity ahead.
< p c lass =" p1 “Some might want to buy apartments, some might want to sell apartments but I suspect that most institutions were underweighted in the apartment class anyway and they are going to want to buy apartments,” he explained.
< p c lass =" p l ”Partly because apartments came through this period – we’re certainly not through it by a long shot- but apartments have done well , better than almost anybody expected.”
This company Quad Real handles investments worldwide but mainly manages real estate plus mortgage programs for British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI).
B C I happens to be among Canada’s largest asset managers holding around $153 billion worth of assets under management.
Lobo also thinks there’ll be kind of an upbeat rush once economies open again , jobs come back , people get back into their daily routines.
“People are going to be happy when this occurs and virtually every conversation I’ve had with almost anyone , they’ve said , ‘Now Derek I am sitting on dry powder , looking for bargains. Bring me some deals.'”
“I’m really not sure there are going to be many deals out there , (and) certainly very few involving apartments. But we’ve picked up quite some listings over these last ten weeks because we’ve stayed busy.”
“We’ll probably list five buildings for sale shortly.”
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