Amazon-tied Vancouver office towers sold in US$223M deal

Ari Altstedter, Bloomberg News

A pair of Canadian pension funds struck a deal to sell two downtown Vancouver office buildings with tenants including Amazon.com Inc. for about $300 million (US$223 million). 

Germany’s Deka Group agreed to purchase the towers at 402 Dunsmuir St. and 401 West Georgia St., according to two people familiar with the deal who asked not to be named because the details are private. 

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Oxford Properties Group Inc., the real estate arm of the pension fund for Ontario’s municipal workers, had put the buildings up for sale about six months ago. Spokespeople for Oxford Properties, CPPIB and Deka Group declined to comment on the sale, which has not yet closed. 

The funds had initially aimed to get around C$350 million for the properties, sources familiar with the sales process told Bloomberg News in June. But recently, it’s been hard to accurately price office buildings because few sizable properties have traded globally, one reason the sale of the Vancouver towers was so closely watched both in Canada and abroad.

High interest rates and the shift to remote work have led to prolonged uncertainty over what such assets are worth. Office landlords have been facing a rise in borrowing costs that’s pressured valuations, coupled with a slump in demand as more employers have work-from-home policies. 

While these concerns have been weighing on the outlook for office properties for some time, the severity of the office downturn was thrown into sharper relief last week as banks in the US and Japan were forced to bulk up reserves against potential losses in office properties.

In Canada, Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, a major owner of office buildings in cities including Toronto and Vancouver, announced a $500 million writedown last week as well. 

With central banks in both Canada and the U.S. now signaling they are likely done raising interest rates, the Vancouver transaction may be the latest sign that clearer financial conditions are helping buyers and sellers agree on price. Another Canadian landlord, Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust, announced the sale of a Toronto building for $135 million last month, and began marketing another one shortly after.