BentallGreenOak, a real estate investment manager, through its Prime Canadian Property Fund, announced that it has acquired two data centers in Canada’s markets of Montreal (275 Viger) and Toronto (100 Gough), which together comprise 311k sqft. Specifically, BentallGreenOak purchased the Montreal (275 Viger) data center for a price of $74m Canadian dollars ($59m USD).
Montreal and Toronto Data Centers – BentallGreenOak
Both of the Montreal and Toronto, Canada data centers that BentallGreenOak has acquired are occupied by IBM on “medium-term” leases.
Montreal – 275 Viger Avenue East
BentallGreenOak acquired IBM’s data center located at 275 Viger Avenue East in downtown Montreal, Québec. Specifically, the data center is situated on 61.0k sqft of land, rising 5 stories, which comprises 199k sqft of built area. Additionally, the facility provides access to a combined 16 megawatts of power capacity.
BentallGreenOak acquired the 275 Viger Avenue East data center from IBM in a sale-and-leaseback transaction.
Markham (Toronto), Ontario – 100 Gough Road
BentallGreenOak acquired IBM’s data center located at 100 Gough Road in Markham, Ontario, part of the Greater Toronto Area. Specifically, the data center rises 2 stories, comprising 112k sqft of built area.
Presently, the Markham, Ontario data center is undergoing a $20m upgrade to modernize the facility’s power systems. Also, the data center has expansion capacity to add an incremental 90k sqft of space and 12 megawatts of power capacity.
History
In December 2010, Dundee REIT, which was renamed to Dream Office REIT, purchased the building for ~$30m USD. Additionally, in early 2016, IBM signed a 10-year lease renewal for its continued use of the 100 Gough Road building. Subsequently, in July 2016, Dream Office REIT sold the building to private investors for $33m Canadian dollars ($25m USD).
Strategy
BentallGreenOak is pursuing a data center investment strategy in Canada through its Prime Canadian Property Fund. Particularly, through this open-ended fund structure BentallGreenOak is investing in core, income-producing, and technology-driven real estate.
BentallGreenOak – Overview
BentallGreenOak is a real estate investment manager with ~$69bn USD of assets under management (AUM). The firm has offices in 24 cities across 12 countries worldwide through which it targets real estate investment opportunities. BentallGreenOak invests in the real estate sectors of office, industrial, multi-residential, retail, and hospitality.
Digital Infrastructure
Within digital infrastructure, BentallGreenOak has recent experience investing in the data center sub-sector. Specifically, in December 2020, BentallGreenOak committed ~€140m of equity to Bulk Infrastructure, a data center operator in Norway and Denmark. Additionally, Bulk Infrastructure owns terrestrial fiber and subsea cables.
Ownership
BentallGreenOak is a part of SLC Management, which is the alternatives asset management business of Sun Life Financial (majority owner of BentallGreenOak). Additionally, Tetragon’s TFG Asset Management owns 13% of the BentallGreenOak business.
