Ottawa
Office
Among the highlights for our teams in the Ottawa market in recent months have been the arrival of Ford and a winning bid for the federal government. The Ford deal is for 63,000 square feet at 700 Palladium Drive in Kanata along with 83,000 square feet at a property to be built at 800 Palladium Drive. The space will house R&D facilities for autonomous (driverless) vehicles and the requisite fit-out work is already underway. This brings the total number of Cominar properties in the Palladium Campus to four, and we have also developed common spaces featuring the following:
- Fitness centre
- Videoconferencing-enabled meeting room
- Training room that can also be used for yoga and other activities
- Gym
- Outdoor area with a parc, gazebo and barbecue
- Café and lounge.
We will also be renovating the grounds to update the outdoor furniture and landscaping. An online booking system will be set up for user reservations.
Finally, we are pleased to have been awarded a federal contract to house the Canada Border Services Agency in a 60,000-square-foot office space at 400 Cooper Street in downtown Ottawa.
Montréal
Office
Our teams were very active in the office and industrial real estate market in greater Montréal in 2018. As a result, 76 deals were signed with first-time Cominar tenants for over 600,000 square feet of office space. Moreover, we finalized a leasing agreement with the Commission scolaire de Montréal at the beginning of 2019 for 180,000 square feet of office space at 5100 Sherbrooke Street East.
Industrial
In the industrial sector, we are happy to report the arrival of Servicorp in a 50,000-square-foot space at 6445 Côte-de-Liesse Road, the expansion of ROOT Data Center, which currently occupies 145,000 square feet at 19701 Clark-Graham Avenue, and the moving in of IVEX, which will be taking over all of 3300 Transcanadienne Highway (220,000 square feet).
Also in the industrial sector, we recently welcomed Sail and its online distribution centre to 857 Jean-Paul-Vincent Boulevard in Longueuil. The 64,000-square-foot project is an excellent example of the collaborative efforts of our leasing and construction teams, who delivered a first turnkey project for this type of asset in February.
Québec City
Office
Taking a cue from the bustling Québec City market and the vibrant economy, our teams have signed a number of major leases in the past few months. A deal was reached with Retraite Québec for a 35,000-square-foot expansion at Place de la Cité, bringing the occupancy rate of the property to just under 99%. As for Complexe Jules-Dallaire, it is now at 100% occupancy, following a recent agreement to lease out at the remaining available space.
Retail
And a notable first for the Québec City area: Tesla has opened a 20,100-square-foot service centre at 2180 Cyrille-Duquet Street, which has been redeveloped to accommodate the car company’s specific requirements.
Industrial
In Lévis, a 23,000-square-foot space was rented out to Mitten at 795 J.-Ambroise-Craig Street, and Desjardins leased 20,000 square feet at 1984 5e Rue to meet its needs for extra space. Canada Bread moved into a 24,000-square-foot facility at 1041 Pierre-Bertrand Boulevard in Québec City, while Ciena and EnGlobe now respectively occupy 23,000 square feet and 66,000 square feet at 505 Parc-Technologique Boulevard, which had been free since 2017.
