Top 5 Office Deals of 2013

2013 has been relatively quiet for the sale of office buildings in Metro Vancouver. There were no major downtown office buildings sold in the past year; though there were a number of sizable deals elsewhere in the region.

Here are the top 5 office deals in Metro Vancouver in 2013 (ranked by purchase price):

1. Discovery Parks Building, 887 Great Northern Way – Dundee REIT acquired the building through a share sale in May for a total purchase price of $66,135,000. The 165,000 SF building was developed in 2002 by Discovery Parks. It is fully leased and includes tenants such as QLT Inc., and 1-800-GOT-JUNK. The cap rate was reported to be 6.2%.

 
2. Surrey Central Business Park – Concert Properties‘ sale of Surrey Central Business Park was one of the larger deals of the year at $59,700,000. This five building, 350,000 SF portfolio was bought by a local investor. This sale was linked with another of Concert’s assets in Burnaby.

 
3. 1770 West 7th Avenue – just a few weeks ago this sale was announced. Chip Wilson, former CEO of Lululemon acquired this 5-storey, 75,000 SF office building located at Burrard and West 7th. The building, built in 1985, was sold for $32,625,000, or $430 per SF.

4. 3500 – 3650 Gilmore Way – this sale was part of Concert’s portfolio sale of suburban office assets. The $30,700,000 purchase price equates to $295 per SF.

5. 33991 Gladys Avenue – this newly constructed 3-storey, 71,500 SF office building was sold by the developer to a local private investor for $20,250,000. The building was 85% leased to the Federal Government.