On Monday, Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust (Dream Office REIT) announced the sale of Toronto's 720 Bay Street, known as the McMurtry-Scott Building, named in honour of two former attorney generals. The fully-leased, single-tenant commercial office building is presently the headquarters of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.
Built in 1989, 720 Bay Street is a Class B building containing 11-storeys and 247,700 sq. ft, including 240,000 sq. ft of total office space. It's a short distance from Queen's Park -- the site of the Ontario Legislative Building -- the provincial courts, the Toronto Eatons Centre, and numerous hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and retailers.
Although Dream Office REIT has yet to release details on the buyer, they have revealed that the transaction will generate gross proceeds of $135M, “which is higher than the Trust’s carrying value as at September 30, 2022,” according to a news release from the Canadian real estate investment trust.
“The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions,” the release goes on to say. “The unmortgaged property is currently pledged as security for the Trust’s $375 million revolving credit facility. The Trust intends to use the net proceeds from the sale to repay debt and to opportunistically repurchase REIT A Units under the Trust’s normal course issuer bid program.”
Dream Office REIT is a premier office landlord with over 3.5M sq. ft of landmark property owned and managed. According to a Q3 2022 update, the Trust’s portfolio contains 27 active investment properties valued at $2,596,815, with 5.4M sq. ft in gross leasable area and an 85.7% portfolio occupancy. The investments are primarily concentrated in Toronto’s Financial District. Dream Office REIT also has two projects in the development pipeline.
Cover photo: Dream (leasing.dream.ca)
