Pine Centre Mall has been sold.
In a three-mall deal worth about $500 million, one of the nation's largest pension holding firms sold the properties to another large pension plan company. Northern B.C.'s largest single-roof shopping centre now belongs to Morguard Investments Ltd., acting on behalf of Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. Pine Centre Mall was owned previously by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
There will be little, if any, noticeable change in daily mall operations, said Pine Centre Mall's general manager Sonya Hunt.
"I'm excited about the change. Morguard really knows shopping centres," she said. "This will make 21 shopping centres in their retail portfolio. They are going from $13.6 billion in assets to well more than $14 billion. They are well resourced, they have a lot of knowledge about our kind of business, and they bring with them an extensive network."
She also liked how the transaction signaled confidence by Morguard in the future of Prince George. For the previous owners, there was a program of extrication from shopping centre ownership underway in the $180-plus billion CPP holdings. The firm actively moves in and out of assets all over the world. Shedding Pine Centre was only a matter of course, not a repudiation of the northern B.C. economy, she explained, but the CPP assets were spread among purchasers. Morguard specifically selected Prince George, Thunder Bay and Sudbury malls to invest in.
"CPP held onto Pine Centre for 10 years, they considered this a solid investment, and Prince George is performing well, this will be a positive investment for Morguard, I have no doubt," Hunt said.
The acquisition is expected to close on or about Dec. 12.
"Well occupied and dominant regional shopping centres in performing markets complement our established retail portfolio," said Rai Sahi, chairman and CEO of Morguard. "Retail is our largest asset class and upon closing, Morguard will manage more than 18 million square feet of retail across its owned and managed retail assets."
This transaction alone adds 1.5 million square feet of retail property to the Morguard holdings. Of that, Pine Centre Mall contributes 475,177 square feet. It was built in 1974 with a major renovation and expansion in 2008. Morguard officials said they considered the stores within the mall to be "a strong and diversified tenant mix anchored by Target and Sears department stores."
