- What 80 Whitehall Drive is on the bock for $312/sq ft
- Why The office building is 100% occupied by Smucker Foods of Canada Corp.
- What next The property will be vacant as of December
True North Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust has listed a suburban office building north of Toronto for $19m.
CBRE has the marketing assignment for 80 Whitehall Drive in Markham. The valuation for the 61,000 sq ft property comes to $312/sq ft. The sales campaign is targeting owner-occupiers, investors and industrial developers.
Smucker Foods of Canada Corp. occupies the entire building but plans to vacate when its lease ends in November.
True North Commercial REIT purchased 80 Whitehall Drive for $20.4m in 2018, assuming a $12.3m mortgage with a 3.75% interest rate for a five-year term.
The two-storey property was built in 1991 and recently underwent a full retrofit. It has 216 surface and 36 underground parking stalls, two passenger elevators and a fitness centre. It’s BOMA Best-certified gold and is zoned MC, allowing for several industrial and commercial uses including manufacturing and warehousing.
The office building is near the intersection of Highway 7 and Warden Avenue in downtown Markham. It offers access to Highways 404 and 407 and is served by several York Region Transit and Viva Rapid Transit routes. Unionville and Centennial GO stations are within 6 km of 80 Whitehall Drive.
According to CBRE, the Markham South office market reported about 14,000 sq ft of positive net absorption in Q2. There’s more than 4.0m sq ft of office space in the area, and no new projects are under construction.
More than 400 multinational companies, including Honda and Huawei, have their Canadian headquarters in Markham. As of Q2, the office vacancy rate in Markham South was 13.9%, well below the GTA average of 19.4%.
With suburban properties outperforming their downtown counterparts, several other Markham office buildings have been put in play this summer, including 165 Commerce Valley Drive West, Scotiabank Commercial Tower, Gateway Centre and Woodbine & Steeles Corporate Centre. Last month, IBM Canada sold its Markham headquarters for $115m, or $134/ sq ft.
Daniel Drimmer is CEO of True North Commercial REIT. As of Q2, the Toronto-based REIT owned and operated 40 commercial properties in five provinces and had $1.25b in total assets.
