Montreal-based developer Rosefellow said Wednesday locally based auto parts retailer AutoShack has signed a deal to lease a soon-to-be-completed 248,000-square-foot building at 405 Huntmar Dr. in Kanata, just north of the Tanger Outlets mall.
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One of the largest Ottawa industrial properties ever built on spec has been fully leased to a single tenant amid an ongoing shortage of warehouse and light manufacturing space across the city.
Montreal-based developer Rosefellow said Wednesday locally based auto parts retailer AutoShack has signed a deal to lease a soon-to-be-completed 248,000-square-foot building at 405 Huntmar Dr. in Kanata, just north of the Tanger Outlets mall.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but David Salomon-Lima, Rosefellow’s Montreal-based vice-president of sales and business development, told OBJ the deal is significant for the Ottawa market.
“Obviously, a move like this is not something you do for the short term,” Salomon-Lima said, adding AutoShack president Gary Calagoure “has ambitions for growth and he needs that platform to be able to support the growth.”
AutoShack’s main retail and distribution centre is currently situated on Iber Road in Stittsville, a couple of kilometres south of the new facility. The company is expected to consolidate most of its operations at its new home, which is slated to be completed by mid-October.
The state-of-the-art building, which has 32-foot ceilings and features 28 loading docks, is located just a few hundred metres from Highway 417. In a statement to OBJ earlier this month, AutoShack said the facility will boost the company’s logistics and distribution capabilities, “resulting in increased efficiency and service to its customers.”
It’s one of two industrial properties Rosefellow is currently constructing at the 21.4-acre Kanata site, which the developer purchased in 2022 from the Taggart Group for $25.7 million.
The other building, which has similar specifications but is slightly smaller at about 230,000 square feet, is also expected to be ready for occupancy this year.
Colliers senior vice-president Lindsay Hockey, whose firm is brokering leasing activity at the site on behalf of Rosefellow, said there is “ongoing interest” in the second building from prospective users in a range of industries, including a “large defence-sector” company that recently toured the property.
“That traditional flex space does not exist in Kanata,” Hockey explained. “If it does, it’s older stock with much lower ceilings, problems with power, parking. A tenant really has to work to make the space work. Here, it’s pretty … easy to (move) into from day one.”
