Top-to-bottom renos for complex

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This article was published 30/05/2016 (3453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Colony Square complex in downtown Winnipeg will be undergoing millions of dollar in renovations and upgrades over the next 10 years.

Toronto-based Timbercreek Asset Management Inc. acquired the St. Mary Avenue complex late last year from Winnipeg’s Lanesborough Real Estate Investment Trust for $70.25 million. A senior Timbercreek official said the firm is ready to begin investing millions more dollars — he wouldn’t say how many millions — on upgrades to the three-tower complex, which includes 428 rental apartments, 83,300 square feet of commercial space and a 270-stall underground parkade.

“We’re long-term investors, and we’ve always spent a fair bit of capital on improving our investments… ” Ugo Bizzarri, Timbercreek’s co-founder and managing director of portfolio management and investments, said.

“The plans are in the initial stages, so I don’t want to be too specific,” he added. “But there is going to be a fair bit of work done on the property.”

Bizzarri revealed all three buildings will be renovated inside and out. The exterior work will include the installation of new exterior cladding, new paint, new landscaping and upgrades to all the apartment balconies and the rooftop patio and pool.

The interior work will include renovations to the lobby areas and indoor amenity spaces and extensive upgrades to all of the suites. That includes new kitchens, new bathrooms and new appliances, he added.

“It will be a full-scope renovation.”

Bizzarri said the exterior work should get underway shortly and hopefully will be completed this year. The upgrades to the indoor common areas and amenity spaces will be done over the next two years, but the upgrades to the suites won’t take place until each of the existing tenants moves out. That’s why it’s expected to take about 10 years to complete the entire project, he added.

Colony Square is the sixth multi-family-residential complex Timbercreek has acquired since it entered the Winnipeg market in 2010 with the purchase of three highrise apartment blocks — 160 Smith St., 33 Hargrave St., and 15 Arden Ave. — from Winnipeg’s B&M Lands Co., and it sounds like it won’t be the last.

“We’re looking to acquire some more assets (in Winnipeg),” Bizzarri said. “We like the downtown market, and we like the multi-family sector, obviously. So we’re looking to acquire more multi-family (properties). We’re looking all across the city.”

He said Timbercreek is also pleased with the way Winnipeg has performed as an investment market.

“It’s been very stable. It’s been steady as she goes, and that’s a very good thing. You don’t have the ups like in some other markets like Alberta, but you also don’t get the downs as much. So it’s a good market (to be in).”

Don White is executive vice-president of national investment services for the Winnipeg office of Colliers International, which was the selling agent in the Colony Square deal. He said the fact a major institutional investor such as Timbercreek is keen on acquiring more properties in Winnipeg and on upgrading the ones it already has is good news for the city.

“Any time an institutional investor like that makes a commitment of that scale to our city, I think it’s very, very positive. It is a very telling sign as to their confidence in our rental-rate growth and a very telling sign as to their confidence in the general advancement and growth of our city and the economy therein.”

Also, “think about all the (building) materials, labour and employment hours that will go into a project like that,” White said. “And think about the renter. The renter is being given the opportunity to live in a nicer suite. Notwithstanding that they will have to pay more, you’re having to pay more in every major city to live in nicer buildings. And there are lots of people out there who want to live in nicer buildings.”

White said he’s not surprised Timbercreek is looking to acquire more buildings in Winnipeg.

“I expect them, and others like them from other parts of Canada, to continue to be active in our market.”

Know of any newsworthy or interesting trends or developments in the local office, retail or industrial retail sectors? Let real estate reporter Murray McNeill know at the email address below or at 204-697-7254

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca