‘Not afraid of big challenges’: Sachin Anand promoted to VP of acquisitions at Regional Group

David Sali

November 14, 2024

Already an Insider? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become an Ottawa Business Journal Insider and get immediate access to all of our Insider-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become an Insider

As far as Sachin Anand is concerned, his title may have changed, but his goal – helping Ottawa-based Regional Group expand its real-estate portfolio – remains the same. “We always keep our eyes open for any opportunity because you never know where it is,” the firm’s newly minted vice-president of acquisitions says. “We love complexity, we love problem-solving. We’re not afraid of big challenges, and we will look anywhere within a one-hour radius of Ottawa. We’re comfortable in our backyard.” The Ottawa native was promoted to his new role last month after spending more than two and a half years as the firm’s senior director of acquisitions. Anand joined Regional from the banking side of the industry in early 2022 to “spearhead an acquisition strategy” for the company, which was a major player in the local real estate scene when he arrived but hadn’t pulled the trigger on a significant purchase in a few years. That quickly changed under Anand’s watch. Before his first year was out, Regional acquired the three-building, 224,000-square-foot Qualicum Centre class-A office complex on Baseline Road, giving its suburban portfolio a major boost. Earlier this year, Anand’s team made an even bigger splash when Regional bought Corel’s former headquarters on Carling Avenue. Anand called the building, which is known for its unusual gold-tinted windows, an “iconic” property, praising its “resiliency” for managing to attract new tenants as other office towers hollowed out during the pandemic. Even then, the building still had a vacancy rate of nearly 20 per cent – underscoring the fragility of a sector that had been ravaged by the widespread shift to remote work during the COVID-19 crisis. Meanwhile, soaring interest rates that drove up the costs of borrowing to finance acquisitions sent a chill through the industry, creating what Anand calls a “disconnect between the bid-ask” that “annihilated” potential deals. “We didn’t even buy anything in 2023,” he adds. “It’s not that I didn’t try to buy – we just couldn’t get (agreements). We will buy only when it makes sense. If we can’t get the price we need, we just walk away or say, let’s hold and wait.” The waiting could soon be over for Anand and other would-be buyers of commercial real estate. The Bank of Canada’s recent series of interest rate cuts is starting to loosen up investors’ pursestrings, he says, and he expects the market to be considerably more active in 2025 than it’s been for the past few years. “You’re seeing more people come to bid; you’re seeing more lenders say that they’re active in all asset classes,” he explains. “You’re seeing transactions happen. I think there’s going to be a lot more activity in the sector across all asset classes.”

Office sector 'challenging'

At the same time, Anand expects sectors where space is at more of a premium, such as retail and industrial, to heat up faster than the office sector, which is still struggling to regain its footing as tenants grapple with finding the right mix of working from home and being in the office. “Office is a little more challenging,” Anand concedes. “We’ve picked our side of the bed, so to speak. We believe in it. We know people will come back. The strategy around that is, let’s get high-quality office (space) close to transportation nodes. We love suburban (properties). “But that being said, we’re trying to work on a downtown strategy as well. What can we do to open a footprint that we haven’t historically been in? We will continue to be contrarian. I think that will serve us well. We do well buying what no one else wants, and we will look good hopefully seven to 10 years down the line when the thesis plays out.” Founded in 1958, Regional Group owns and manages more than three million square feet of commercial space in the National Capital Region and is also a major real estate developer and homebuilder. Anand’s history with the firm stretches back to 2009, when he returned to his hometown after a stint as an investment banker in New York City. As CIBC’s senior manager of real estate development for the Ottawa region, he worked closely with Regional as a trusted advisor and commercial lender for the company’s various activities, including its commercial properties and its eQ Homes division. “They were one of my best clients,” says Anand, who grew up in Nepean not far from Regional’s head office. “I always saw them as (a company that) did what they said. There was really no other client I probably would have given up my mortgage brokering and lending career for. I joined because I saw such an opportunity and trust they were going to give me.” Nearly three years later, he hasn’t looked back. “They are visionaries, but they can also execute on that vision,” he says of the company’s leadership team helmed by president and CEO Sender Gordon and executive chairman Steve Gordon. “To see that vision, that’s what I admire most about the company. It’s been a very rewarding move.”