The Erin Mills Town Centre sits on almost 85 acres of land in Mississauga, just north of Highway 403 at the corner of Erin Mills Parkway and Eglinton Avenue.
It was previously owned by Cadillac Fairview – the real estate arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – and Erin Mills Development Corp.
Both had an equal interest in the mall, which was 98.9 per cent leased at the time of sale, according to information from commercial real estate data firm RealTrack.
The 911,150-square-foot mall is anchored by Zellers, The Bay, Sears, Sport Chek, Old Navy and H & M and also has 12.3 acres of development land.
BMO Capital Markets brokered the deal. Representatives from BMO and the three parties involved in the sale were either unavailable, did not return calls or declined comment.
In September, credit rating firm DBRS upgraded its rating of the property’s first mortgage bonds from BBB (high) to A (low) on the strength of strong sales and operating income.
The performance of the mall’s commercial retail unit stood at $483 per square foot in fiscal 2009. Net operating income was $21.72 million last year.
The owners of the property issued $110-million in series-A mortgage bonds in 1998. Of that, $79.3 million was outstanding as of August 2010 at an interest rate of 7.03 per cent, with $66.7 million maturing in August 2013.
RealTrack reported the $370-million purchase was an all-cash transaction with no assumed debt.
The Ontario Pension Board administers the province’s public service pension plan and owns 11.4 million square feet of office, industrial and retail real estate across the country.
The sale is likely one of the largest retail transactions of 2010 in Canada. At mid-year, the largest retail sale tracked by commercial real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis was Ivanhoe Cambridge’s 50-per-cent purchase of the Oakridge Centre in Vancouver for $211.28 million.
Canadian commercial real estate investment levels returned to normal in 2010 following a dramatic drop-off in activity last year.
CB Richard Ellis reported sales totalled $7.8 billion in the first half of the year, up 60.4 per cent, as private investors took advantage of low interest rates and real estate investment trusts, flush with cash, acquired assets.
