Southview Mall sells for $28.5M
The Southview Mall has a new owner.
Bayfield Realty Advisors, a Toronto-based commercial real estate investment firm, announced Wednesday it has acquired 100 per cent of the 13th Avenue plaza from Artis, another commercial real estate management company.
The price for the 165,000 square foot mall, which features two stand-alone pad retail spaces, was reportedly $28.5 million. That price, said Bayfield president Harold Spring, was as attractive as the prospect of holding property in the city.
He described the move as opportunistic in a down market across the province but added that the facility is a quality property that will add value to his company.
“We felt it was good time to seek out properties in Alberta,” and we found this property ... we jumped on it,” he told the News on Wednesday. “We like the tenant mix. It’s a very solid property and we wouldn’t have been able to buy this property at the price three or four years ago.”
There are no immediate plans to improve or make changes, he said.
“It has a very good history with stable tenants,” said Spring. “It was a good opportunity. We’re excited because we feel Medicine Hat is a community that should do well in the future.”
Long-term tenants include the Brick, Winners, Reitmans, Michael’s, London Drugs, Jysk and Giant Tiger, many of which were original tenants after a major redevelopment in 2001.
TD Bank and Tim Hortons operate in satellite buildings.
Previous owner Artis REIT purchased the Southview Mall in 2005, when the company was known as Westfield REIT, for a reported $22.1 million.
Artis notes in its 2016 annual financial results that during the year it sold five Alberta retail properties, including Uplands Common in Lethbridge, as well as more than 1 million square feet of industrial space in the province.
According to Bayfield’s company website, its portfolio totals 4 million square feet of commercial space in 15 shopping centres in Canada, mostly in Quebec and Ontario.
Medicine Hat becomes Bayfield’s only wholly-owned Alberta property.
It holds stakes in a shopping plaza and medical building in Edmonton in partnership with Rio-Can. It also owns developments in Port Alberni, B.C., and in Saskatoon.
Artis, based in Winnipeg, is one of Canada’s largest property holding companies, which still manages properties across Canada and the United States.
News archives show Telsec Developments of Calgary had purchased the building during a bankruptcy sale in 2000 and redeveloped the facility into a “power-centre model,” with large bays accessible from the outside as opposed to an interior mall.