Nico Zentil, executive vice-president of capital markets at CBRE’s Ottawa office, says the National Capital Region saw a surge of investment activity in the first eight months of 2026 as marquee properties such as the EDC building at 150 Slater St. and the Carling Executive Centre changed hands.
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A prominent commercial real estate executive says he expects more institutional capital to start flowing into Ottawa from investors that see the city as a “safe haven.”
Nico Zentil, executive vice-president of capital markets at CBRE’s Ottawa office, says the National Capital Region saw a surge of investment activity in the first eight months of 2026 as marquee properties such as the EDC building at 150 Slater St. and the Carling Executive Centre changed hands.
“We’ve been able to get some really big deals done this year, which is great,” Zentil said in an interview on Wednesday. “We haven’t seen that happen in the last couple of years. I think it’s indicative of some confidence in the market.”
Both 150 Slater St. and the Carling Executive Centre were sold to private buyers. Ottawa-based Regional Group acquired the 18-storey tower on Slater Street from Manulife Investment Management in February for $143.5 million — the largest downtown office transaction in three years — while Montreal-based Brasswater bought the Carling Executive Centre from Crown Realty Partners for $53 million in May.
Zentil, who helped broker the Slater Street transaction, said a lack of competition from large institutional investors such as pension funds has opened the door for companies like Regional Group to be more active in the office market.
The veteran broker suggested that the window of opportunity for smaller investors may be closing, however.
“I’m not surprised that in 2026 we saw a number of these types of deals done because there was an opportunity to get some attractive pricing metrics that will no longer be there in the future,” he explained. “I don’t know if that’s three months, six months or nine months, but signs are emerging in a palpable way that Canada is a good place to invest capital … Ottawa is starting to return back to favour, which is nice.”
While foreign and private Canadian investors accounted for most of the activity in the first half of the year, Zentil said he believes it’s only a matter of time until institutional buyers jump back into the fray.
“We’ve got some geopolitical tension and uncertainty out there, but I think (institutional) investors have been sidelined for a while,” he said. “It seems like we’ve operated in an environment where we’re just constantly having to navigate through issues. I think a lot of investors have said, ‘Look, this isn’t going to be a one-solve kind of result here. We’re just going to have to figure out how to operate within the context of the current environment, and we’re sick of sitting on the sidelines.’
“We’ve seen a proliferation of private capital fill a void that was created by some of the institutions not being as active as they historically were, and now we’re seeing the institutions coming back and starting to be very active again in all asset classes, irrespective of some uncertainty out there with bonds, trade (issues) and war, et cetera … We’re starting to see the institutions get curious again here.”
A report from CBRE last week said investment in Ottawa commercial real estate properties nearly doubled in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, with steep gains in all sectors except retail and hotels.
