RioCan, Kimco Spending $44M on Ontario Retail

RioCan REIT of Toronto and New York-based Kimco Realty Corp have agreed to pay $44 million for Clarkston Crossing, an unenclosed grocery-anchored center located in Mississauga, a mature area of Greater Toronto. Upon completion, the center will include over 230,000 sf of lettable area.

RioCan CEO Ed Sonshine tells GlobeSt.com the property is 95% complete and 95% leased. Anchor tenants are Canadian Tire and Dominion supermarket. Other national tenants include Shoppers Drug Mart, LCBO, Mark's Work Wearhouse, Buck or Two and Rogers Video.

The seller of the Clarkston property is Penreal Capital Management of Vancouver, BC, a private real estate investment and asset management company that manages about $1.8 billion of assets on behalf of more than 70 Canadian pension funds and institutional investors. Sonshine says it is the joint venture's first acquisition from Penreal.

"Real estate has gotten expensive here in Canada and this just happened to be a particular opportunity that never really got onto the market," Sonshine tells GlobeSt.com. "Most people with quality real estate aren't selling, so it's hard to find deals that make a lot of sense; the joint venture has over 1 million sf under construction, and over the next year or two it will be our main source of product."

RioCan is Canada's largest REIT with total assets in excess of $3.6 billion. It has ownership interests in 171 retail properties across Canada containing an aggregate of about 33 million sf. Kimco is the United States' largest publicly traded owner and operator of community shopping centers. It has interests in 698 properties across North America totaling approximately 100 million sf.

Upon completion of the Clarkston Crossing acquisition, expected in the spring of 2004, the companies' joint owned portfolio will exceed 7 million sf. RioCan will provide all management and leasing services for Clarkston Crossing, as is the case with the rest of the portfolio.