A leading Toronto-based real estate investment trust is beefing up its presence in Ottawa’s tight industrial market with a significant acquisition that will nearly triple the size of its portfolio in the city.
Dream Industrial REIT said Monday it’s purchasing two buildings totalling 233,000 square feet at Humber Place, a few hundred metres south of the intersection of Highways 174 and 417.
The firm said the total price tag is expected to be about $32.8 million, representing a cap rate of 5.6 per cent. The deal is expected to close in July.
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In a news release, Dream said the properties have a “strong and diverse tenant roster” focused on warehouse and distribution uses. The buildings are fully occupied, with an average lease term of almost five years.
Though Dream is a major player in the North American industrial market with a total portfolio of more than 200 assets totalling nearly 22 million square feet, the company currently owns just one property in Ottawa, a 115,000-square-foot space at 2340 St. Laurent Blvd.
Dream isn’t the only large property owner looking to stake a bigger claim in the capital’s industrial market, where vacant space is scarcer than ever and rents are steadily rising.
Earlier this month, the Regional Group announced it had purchased a 258,000-square-foot warehouse at 2001 Bantree St. in the city’s east end from Edmonton-based Canadian Urban Ltd. for $29.25 million – the latest in a series of deals that have boosted the firm’s inventory of warehouse and industrial space by about half a million square feet in the past six months.
Dream Industrial REIT’s move to boost its industrial portfolio in Ottawa comes at the same time its corporate counterpart, Dream Office REIT, is preparing to divest itself of its last remaining property in the capital.
Earlier this month, Dream Office REIT said it is in “advanced negotiations” to sell the 23-storey, 109,000-square-foot highrise it owns at 150 Metcalfe St.
