Risky bet in financial crisis has small Canadian pension fund leading the biggest private real estate project in U.S. history
A risky roll of the dice made in the depths of the financial crisis a decade ago will begin to bear fruit next week for a small Canadian pension fund leading the biggest private real estate project in U.S. history.
“Those did not feel like cheap decisions. They all felt like we were paying too much and maybe the world was ending,” said Oxford president Michael Turner, who was still in his early days at the company when the deal was struck. “We happened to be able to be there as a sponsor of quality, with fortitude and a balance sheet to make a decision.”
On the Hudson Yards deal, a couple of Canadians teamed up quickly to make it happen. Tishman Speyer Properties LP, the initial winner of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s tender process to develop the area, withdrew its bid and Related came on shortly after. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was Related’s former partner in the deal but the investment bank changed its focus from long-term plays and Oxford joined instead, Joanna Rose, a spokeswoman for Related said.
Oxford’s arrival at Hudson Yards went along with other bets it’s made in the past decade to expand to new territories despite looming uncertainty. The financial crisis hit just after the firm struck its first European deal to acquire 50 per cent and develop 530,000 square feet at Watermark place in London. That turned out to be a very “fortuitous, successful investment,” Turner said. Oxford bought the entire property in 2010.
They’re not the only ones looking to reap greater returns by looking outside Canada. For the past five years, publicly recorded commercial real estate investments abroad by Canadian pension funds was $84.6 billion, compared with $19.8 billion invested domestically, according to CBRE research. Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc., a unit of Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, bought IDI Logistics in the U.S. in a US$3.5 billion deal last year and has recruited Oxford as a partner.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Billboards posted by anti-vaccine group in GTA being removed, advertising company saysThe billboards were posted by Vaccine Choice Canada around the Greater Toronto Area, and suggested that vaccines are risky and that children don’t need to be immunized to attend school
Read more »
'The other guys suck' is not a campaign platform - Macleans.caThe SNC-Lavalin affair has reduced the Liberals to a risky strategem: betting their opponents are a bigger turn-off than they are
Read more »
Commercial Real Estate: Failure of Payless and Home Outfitters further shakes retail real estate marketTogether, the closures could vacate nearly 270,000 square feet in B.C.
Read more »
Small business to get rebates for some of the cost of energy efficiency projectsEnvironment Minister Catherine McKenna said the final details of the plan are being worked out with business associations
Read more »
Premier Doug Ford holds a private fundraiser, billed as the largest in the party’s historyMr. Ford boasted that his party sold more than 3,200 tickets for the dinner, which had a price tag of $1,250 a person
Read more »
Commercial Real Estate: A 'transparent' office space in more ways than oneIt has been nearly three years since law firm McCarthy Tetrault moved into an open-concept, transparent glass, “democratized” office space in downtown Vancouver.Gone are the dry walled-…
Read more »
I jazzed up Canadian history by rewriting it as fan fictionI wasn’t the first kid to be bored by Canadian history, but I may have been the first to rewrite it as fan fiction, Richard Joseph writes
Read more »
Canadian Civil Liberties Association threatens lawsuit over Sidewalk Labs’ Toronto projectThe association says the Quayside project should be ‘reset’ and privacy protections should be legislated before Waterfront Toronto moves forward with any partner
Read more »