Fiera ponders Peel Basin project as property arm seeks to expand
Add Montreal’s Fiera Capital Corp. to the list of players who want a piece of the action if a baseball stadium ever gets built at the Peel Basin.
Fiera is keen to finance and own a piece of the residential buildings that would complement the proposed ballpark near Lachine Canal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jean- Guy Desjardins told the Montreal Gazette on Thursday. Fiera — which employs about 350 people in the city — oversees about $145 billion in assets globally, including about $2.6 billion in real estate.
Claridge Inc., the investment firm of the Bronfman family, and Montreal developer Devimco agreed this month on a partnership to build a stadium for a potential Major League Baseball team. About 2,000 residential units could be built on the site, Desjardins said Thursday.
“There will be business to be done at the Peel Basin, and we are very familiar with the residential developer who will work there, Devimco, so it’s clear that we have an interest in this project,” Desjardins said in an interview in Montreal.
“We’re not there yet, but the odds are good that we will be involved. We could be the third player,” he added.
We’re not there yet, but the odds are good that we will be involved. We could be the third player.
Fiera, Canada’s third-largest non-bank-owned asset manager, has already teamed up with Devimco on Maestria, the $700-million twin-tower project earmarked for the site of the old Spectrum music club, and the redevelopment of the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
Claridge executive chairman Stephen Bronfman said this month that Devimco would probably buy land at the Peel Basin from the Canada Lands Corporation for the 950,000-square-foot development.
Claridge will act as a financial partner in the project, he said.
Properties are a small but fast-growing component of Fiera’s asset base, which has typically been dominated by stock and bond mutual funds.
Along with hedge funds and infrastructure, real estate is part of what Fiera calls its “alternative” holdings — investments that are not correlated to the stock market and offer investors a measure of diversification.
Fiera’s property investments have returned about 16 per cent a year on average over the last few years, Desjardins said.
The firm is in the process of raising about $150 million for a third real estate fund that would invest across Canada, he added.
Now 74, Desjardins is slowly preparing for a reduced role at the firm he founded in 2003. Earlier this month, he and National Bank of Canada agreed to sell a combined 11 per cent stake in Fiera to Paris-based Natixis Investment Managers for about $128 million. Natixis also has the option to buy more shares from Desjardins at a later date.
“I’m not eternal, and it would be reasonable to think I’ll become executive chairman in a couple of years,” said the Fiera founder, who still owns about 11 per cent of the company.
“If I can stay on the board until I die, I will be very happy. But I won’t remain CEO all that time.”