A Toronto-based property management firm has jumped into the National Capital Region’s red-hot retail market with a multimillion-dollar plan to spruce up a prominent west-end shopping plaza. Epic Investment Services is taking over management of the Greenbank Hunt Club Centre at 250 Greenbank Rd. on behalf of the mall’s new owner, an institutional investor that […]
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A Toronto-based property management firm has jumped into the National Capital Region’s red-hot retail market with a multimillion-dollar plan to spruce up a prominent west-end shopping plaza.
Epic Investment Services is taking over management of the Greenbank Hunt Club Centre at 250 Greenbank Rd. on behalf of the mall’s new owner, an institutional investor that just purchased the property from a private family.
Epic managing partner and chief operating officer Laetitia Pacaud said the new owners paid in the mid-30-million-dollar range for the 97,000-square-foot plaza, which opened in 1987 and is anchored by a Metro supermarket as well as a branch of the Bank of Montreal, a drugstore and a Tim Hortons outlet.
The mall’s list of about 60 tenants also includes fast-food retailers such as Subway, services such as Browns Cleaners, a dentist office and an animal hospital.
One of its best-known fixtures might be the Brass Monkey, a pool hall and live music venue that is “temporarily closed to undertake a significant internal company restructure,” according to the mall’s website.
Pacaud said Epic, which manages 22 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and multi-family assets in Canada and the United States, is a natural fit to take over management of the plaza.
The company already oversees the operations of a number of significant retail properties, including the Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga and the Scarborough Town Centre. The Greenbank Hunt Club Centre will be Epic’s first retail property in the National Capital Region, where its portfolio already includes 23 office and industrial buildings.
“We love the fundamentals in Ottawa,” said Pacaud, explaining the mall is located in a “very mature market” in Nepean with “a really good demographic to support” continued retail growth.
“There’s really nowhere around within a decent drive where there’s a piece of land you can create new retail (development),” she added. “This is a great time for groups like Epic to come in.”
Pacaud said the new landlord will be “working with the anchors to get their buy-in” on a plan to invest “a few million dollars” in renovations over the next three to five years to give the 38-year-old property “more curb appeal.”
At the same time, she said, the new management team has no plans to change the current tenant mix.
“We’re not looking to be disruptors,” Pacaud said. “What we’re committed to doing is kind of repositioning it from a look-and-feel (perspective).”
The sale, which closed last week, is the latest major transaction in Ottawa’s booming retail investment market. Investors have been scrambling to snap up grocery-anchored neighbourhood malls as retail spending continues to rise while new construction remains at a virtual standstill.
The purchase of the Greenbank Hunt Club Centre follows other major retail deals in recent months, such as Choice Properties REIT’s $31.65-million acquisition of the Farm Boy-anchored Avalon Centre in Orléans.
Cushman & Wakefield Ottawa vice-president Scott Brooker told OBJ earlier this month he expects retail assets to be hot commodities for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a very sought-after asset class,” he said. “Depending on your investment thesis for the property when you bought it, where you are in your investment cycle, if it’s something that you would be looking to dispose of in the next number of years, you’re probably looking at the market going, ‘Now is probably a pretty good time if I am going to sell this.’”
Pacaud agreed retail properties are the shining star of the Canadian commercial real estate investment scene at the moment.
“Retail, and particularly grocery-anchored retail, is the most liquid asset right now,” she said. “The supply-demand delta is not wide. Buyers and sellers are pretty close.”
Pacaud said Epic is “always looking” for potential deals on behalf of its institutional clients, but she said she doesn’t expect to see a lot of eye-popping transactions over the next few months as investors wait for the dust to settle from Canada’s ongoing trade war with the United States.
“I think a lot of capital is going to be sitting on the side watching,” she explained. “I think there’s going to be capital for really good deals, but I don’t think people are going to stretch.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty quiet year. Everybody’s kind of waiting to see what happens. Unless somebody really needs to sell or really needs to deploy money, I think everyone else is going to be quiet.”
