London’s Cherryhill Village, 12 residential towers and Cherryhill Village Mall, has been sold in a deal worth more than half a billion dollars.
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London’s Cherryhill Village, 12 residential towers and Cherryhill Village Mall, has been sold in a deal worth more than half a billion dollars.
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The mall and 2,113 apartment units on have been snapped up by Park Property Management in Toronto for $571 million from Minto Group, more than double the $215 million Minto paid for it in 2011.
“We tried to buy these buildings 10 years ago and did not win it. We are very happy to get it this time around,” said Margaret Herd, senior vice-president of Park Property Management.
“It has great tenants in a great location and in a great city. We are extremely fortunate.”
The deal is the largest both in terms of dollars and units for a largest reported single multi-residential transaction in Canada, reported RENX.ca, a real estate news site. It also was the largest residential transaction in Canada 10 years ago.
Park Property plans capital investments but it’s too early to say what will be done, although repairs to garage structures and balconies may take priority, Herd said.
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“Our strategy is to continue with good management, to make sure tenants are pleased with their homes,” she said.
Park Property also wants to add more commercial tenants to the mall on Oxford Street that has lost some retailers in the pandemic.
“Minto managed the buildings well,” Herd said, adding the residential towers were audited for quality by an external agency every three years.
“We are looking forward to being part of London and the Cherryhill community. That is the most important part of this, seeing the dynamic between people who live there,” she said.
The Cherryhill complex is about 16 hectares. The mall has 22 tenants and the retail and office space on site take up about 17,650 square metres.
Although more than doubling in price in 10 years sounds like a big jump, the sale is in line with the real estate market today, said Brent Rudell, vice-president at commercial realty company Cushman Wakefield.
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“It is where the housing market is,” he said. “It is a very large transaction. It is good investment. It is good for London.”
The history of the Cherryhill complex dates to 1965 when Esam Group, founded by Ewald Bierbaum and Sam Katz, began developing the property, a process that took 10 years. Esam owned the property for decades.
Katz died in 2001 and the property was owned and managed by his sons before it was sold to Minto.
Park Property Management is a Canadian-based entity owned by the Otto family of Germany. Founded in the 1960s, the firm still is operated by family members.
Park Property Management has about 300 employees and owns 10,141 apartment units in Canada after the Cherryhill transaction.
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