OVERVIEW & EXPERTISE

Canada is valued for its economic stability, government regulatory transparency, strong private-property rights and low-volatility marketplace. This makes our country an attractive and highly competitive market for domestic and international investors in Canadian commercial real estate.

Blakes has one of the largest commercial real estate practices in Canada. Our lawyers’ breadth of knowledge of the Canadian commercial real estate market lets us offer seamless service on a complete spectrum of commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, financing, development and leasing across Canada.

Clients rely on us to assist them with all their real estate requirements, from negotiating and drafting through dispute resolution and exit strategies including:

• Ownership, investment and transaction structuring
• Acquisition and disposition of all classes of real property assets, including office, retail, hotel, industrial, recreational and development properties
• Financing, including long-term, construction and other loans and mortgage securitizations
• Real property ownership structures, including joint ventures, partnership and shareholder arrangements
• Cross-border investments
• Leasing and asset management
• Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
• Construction and development agreements
• Infrastructure projects
• Workouts and restructurings

Our clients are Canadian, U.S. and other international institutional and private entities, developers, real estate advisers, banks, pension funds, fund managers, insurance companies, REITs, retail and other commercial property owners and occupiers, governments and government agencies, and hotel owners and operators. These clients have relied upon us in some of the most challenging and complex real estate transactions in recent years, some of which are listed below.

If you are an investor seeking to expand your real estate interests, our Real Estate lawyers can provide the cutting-edge, strategic advice you need to take your investments to the next level.

Representative Matters

• Bell Canada and Rogers Communications C$1.3-billion purchase of a 75 per cent interest in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
• Deka Immobilien Global approximately C$400-million sale of Bentall V, a 33-storey class AAA office building located in downtown Vancouver, B.C.
• Ontario Pension Board C$300-million purchase of a 50 per cent interest in the RBC Centre, a 41-storey class AAA Toronto office building, and negotiation of a joint venture arrangement with Ontrea Inc.
• KanAm Grund Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH C$250-million two-step acquisition of the Nun’s Island office complex, a five-building office property in Montréal that comprises the new corporate headquarters of Bell Canada.
• Ontario Pension Board C$264.5-million purchase of a 50 per cent interest in Southgate Centre, a prominent enclosed regional shopping centre located in Edmonton, Alberta, and negotiation of a joint venture arrangement with Ivanhoe Cambridge.
• PCC Properties (Calgary) Ltd. and its joint-venture co-owner C$370-million first mortgage bond financing of the Suncor Energy Centre, a two-tower office complex in downtown Calgary, Alberta, consisting of 32- and 53-storey class AA office buildings.
• Great-West Life Assurance Company and Minto Apartments Limited C$182.6-million financing of a nine-building, multi-unit residential complex known as High Park Village in west Toronto.
• Detroit River Tunnel Partnership acquisition of an existing operating railway tunnel and approach and other lands extending between Canada and the U.S. for the construction and development of a proposed new railway tunnel between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan.
• GWL Realty Advisors Inc. acquisition and development of the Southcore Financial Centre, a mixed-use retail, office and hotel project being constructed in downtown Toronto, including 26- and 30-storey office towers and a 566-room four-star Delta hotel.
• Royal Bank of Canada lease of 550,000 square feet of office space to occupy as anchor tenant in a new 30-storey office and retail building to be known as RBC WaterPark Place in Toronto’s downtown waterfront district.
• TransGlobe Apartment REIT privatization by Starlight Investments Ltd. and sale of 14 multi-unit residential properties in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia to Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, 26 multi-unit residential properties in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta to Timbercreek Asset Management Inc. 63 properties in four Canadian provinces to Starlight and its affiliates, and the 72 remaining REIT properties to a joint venture comprised of Starlight and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.