Bayfield Realty Advisors Announces Acquisition of a 70% Interest of Confederation Mall
October 27, 2014
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Oct 27, 2014) – Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc., is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 70% interest in the Confederation Mall Shopping Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for a gross purchase price of $33.6 million.
The acquisition will permit Bayfield to complete the balance of its redevelopment program with respect to the shopping centre which is expected to cost approximately $6 million. Confederation Mall is a 330,000 SF Tier 2 regional mall anchored by 3 brand new stores – a 130,000 SF Canadian Tire and Mark’s, a 50,000 SF Safeway supermarket and a 25,000 SF Winners. Additional renovations will include a new and expanded food court, new washrooms, storefronts, entrances and improvements to the exterior, common areas and facilities.
Bayfield Realty Advisors Announces Acquisition of Carrefour Pelletier
June 13, 2014
Mr. Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. (Bayfield), today announced that Bayfield has completed the acquisition of a 79,530 sf single storey food and drug anchored strip centre in Brossard (South Shore, Montreal), Quebec for $14,500,000. The property, located on Taschereau Boulevard, which is the major commercial artery in the area, is anchored by Marché C & T, Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix) and Banque Nationale. COGIR will manage and lease the shopping centre and Bayfield will act as asset manager.
Bayfield growing with retail in better secondary markets
October 23, 2013
Bayfield REIT has a nice ring to it – except that it never happened. Last year, Toronto’s Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. looked at turning itself into a REIT and ultimately decided against the move.“I didn’t feel good about the market, so we didn’t,” Harold Spring, Bayfield’s president and CEO, said in a phone interview. “We thought the market just might not be as good when we came to market and we didn’t want to take the risk.”
As it turns out, it was a good move. The REITs have lost about 30 per cent in their value over the course of the year.
It’s the sort of prescient management that has helped turned the acquisition, asset management and development firm into a player in the retail market in the last eight years.
Bayfield Realty Advisors Announces Acquisition of Alberni Mall
October 17, 2013
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Oct 1, 2013)- Mr. Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. (Bayfield), today announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 155,442 sf single storey open format community shopping centre in Port Alberni, British Columbia for $22,800,000. The property, located within the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, is anchored by Canadian Tire/Mark’s Work Wearhouse, Dollar Tree and Boston Pizza, and was newly redeveloped in 2012 to include Home Hardware, the Brick, Aaron’s Furniture and Paws & Claws. The property is strategically located within the dominant retail node of Port Alberni, at the convergence of Highway 4 and Cherry Creek Road. Canreal Management Corporation will manage the shopping centre and Bayfield will act as asset and leasing manager.
Bayfield Realty Advisors Announce Sale of 110 Yonge Street
October 1, 2013
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Oct 1, 2013)- Mr. Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. (Bayfield), today announced that Bayfield has sold its 50% interest in 110 Yonge Street, The Canada Trust Building, a 150,323 square foot office building within Toronto’s downtown financial core, at the southwest corner of Yonge and Adelaide Streets. The 50% interest in the building was purchased in July of 2009 for $21,250,000 and was sold for more than $30,000,000. The property was sold to take advantage of historically low capitalization rates and strong demand for core financial office properties.
Bayfield Realty Advisors Announce Acquisition of Galeries des Sources
December 1, 2012
TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Jan 7, 2013)- Mr. Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. (Bayfield) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 361,440 sf single storey enclosed regional shopping centre in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec for $53,500,000. The property, located approximately 15 km from downtown Montreal, is anchored by Canadian Tire, Winners, Staples, and Super C (Metro), and contains a 5,770 sf freestanding pad (SAQ-Government Liquor Store). The property is located at the convergence of two of Montreal’s busiest thoroughfares, Des Sources Boulevard and Autoroute 40 (Trans-Canada). Cogir will manage and lease the shopping centre and Bayfield will act as asset manager.
Bayfield’s commercial and retail portfolio now totals in excess of 4 million square feet in major Canadian markets with an approximate market value of $600 million dollars.
Bayfield Realty Advisors Announce Sale of Place des Quatre-Bourgeois
June 1, 2012
TORONTO, ONTARIO – Mr. Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. (Bayfield) today announced that it has sold Place des Quatre-Bourgeois,a 245,000 square foot grocery anchored enclosed shopping centre located in Quebec City, Quebec for $32,025,000. The centre was 100% leased and national tenants of the centre included IGA (Sobeys), Winners, Hart Stores, Dollarama and Jean Coutu. The centre was purchased in 2008 for $24,415,000 and provided an excellent safe and consistent return on investment during Bayfield’s 4 year period of ownership. The property was sold on the basis of Bayfield’s belief that the property’s ability to generate increased returns had been substantially realized, and to take advantage of the current high demand and pricing of retail assets in the real estate market place.
Bayfield Realty Advisors Announce Acquisition of Carrefour Trois-Rivières
October 5, 2011
TORONTO, ONTARIO – Mr. Harold Spring, President and CEO of Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. (Bayfield) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of a 469,811 sf Wal-Mart anchored regional shopping centre in Trois-Rivières, Quebec for $49 million. The centre is comprised of a single storey enclosed shopping mall of 405,681 sf and an unenclosed strip centre of 64,140 sf anchored by Staples and Bouclair. Other major tenants of the enclosed mall include Future Shop, Galaxy Cinemas, L’Aubainerie, Reitmans and Urban Planet. The property is located on Boulevard des Recollets in the heart of one of Trois-Rivières’ primary retail nodes. Cogir Management Corporation has been retained as property and leasing manager and Bayfield will act as asset manager.
Bayfield Adds To Its Portfolio Of Commercial Holdings
March 18, 2011
BAYFIELD REALTY ADVISORS ADDS TO ITS PORTFOLIO OF COMMERCIAL HOLDINGS.
With retail development in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada beginning to rebound after the global recession, Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. has a goal to double the size of its already impressive asset portfolio.
The Toronto-based company specializes in acquiring and managing shopping centers and commercial property on behalf of institutional and private clients, President Harold Spring says.
The company redevelops properties as well as builds new sites. “We look for locations where we think commercial and retail developments will prosper and avoid secondary markets as much as possible,” Spring adds. “On the redevelopment side, we look for existing properties where we can add value by redeveloping and changing the tenant mix.”
Bayfield manages a total leasable area of 3.2 million square feet throughout Canada, including a number of properties in its home province, where development is beginning to rebound after reaching a standstill during the 2008 recession.
“Up until the latter half of last year, there was virtually no retail construction in Ontario other than what had already been planned and leased,” Spring says. “Now, with a lot of U.S. retailers expanding into Canada and our local chains doing well again, construction is getting back to a reasonable rate.”
Partnerships in Action
Bayfield’s project management division works with general contractors and construction managers on new construction and site redevelopment projects. The company has a close relationship with Ron Clark and Associates Inc., a retail, commercial and office construction firm with offices in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. “We have a relationship with them because they’re able to build projects everywhere where we’re involved, which makes things a lot easier,” Spring says.
Current projects Ron Clark and Associates is building on Bayfield’s behalf include the $15 million redevelopment of Confederation Mall in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The project inc – ludes renovating the 340,000-square-foot mall’s food court, building a pad for a new McDonald’s restaurant, and introducing new mall anchors. One new tenant, Canadian Tire, is opening a 130,000-square-foot store there March 1; the re – development project itself will conclude in 2012.
Future projects include construction of a 100,000-square-foot retail site in Pickering, Ontario and redeveloping the 38,000-square-foot Wharncliffe Plaza in London, Ontario. The Wharncliffe redevelopment will include an expanded new format Shoppers Drug Mart of 19,000 square feet , the center’s anchor.
On the investment front, Bayfield, in conjunction with joint-venture partner Rio Can Real Estate Investment Trust, acquired a 59- acre property in the Mill Woods community in Edmonton for $94.6 million in December, the company says. The site is comprised of the 537,000-square-foot Millwoods Town Centre, an enclosed regional shopping center, a 48,000- square-foot medical office building and six acres of vacant land for future development. Bayfield owns a 100 percent interest in the office building and will act as asset manager, while Rio Can will manage and lease the shopping center.
Wealth of Experience
The company was formed in 2005 by Spring, who has accumulated more than 25 years of experience in real estate development, construction and management.
Staff members also bring a wealth of experience to their jobs. “All of our people have a minimum of 10 to 15 years of experience, so they know the business and can be responsive to changes in the economic climate,” he says. “Our staff has the ability to analyze things as they happen; we’re not bureaucratic, we work as a team and can respond to issues and opportunities quickly.”
Spring says Bayfield’s experienced staff and the company’s close-knit nature have helped it navigate through difficult recent years for commercial development.
“We have the ability to be a landlord in addition to just being a developer, and we can proceed with developments where the economy isn’t as good as you’d like,” he adds. “We think we have an advantage over regular retail developers because we can build to own, and we’re not a large public company, so we can make decisions and take advantage of opportunities sooner than larger companies.”
Spring says he believes in working closely with tenants. “We basically try to ensure that there is a continuous dialogue between our property managers and our tenants,” he adds. “We have discussions with tenants constantly to see how they’re doing and what we can do to help them; we see our tenants and ourselves as partners.”
Shopping malls see future in Canadian winter — Excerpts from the Globe and Mail, January 18, 2011
January 18, 2011
Excerpts from the Globe and Mail, January 18, 2011
Shopping malls see future in Canadian winter
In late December 2010, Bayfield and a joint partner, RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, announced it closed on the $94-million purchase of a 50-acre regional shopping centre in Mill Woods, Alta., near Edmonton. Mill Woods Town Centre has an enclosed mall with a Zellers, Canadian Tire, Safeway and a medical office Building. It also includes about six acres of developable land.
“We’re trying to take advantage of the economic times by buying things that we thought were below market value,” Mr. Spring says.
In addition to Mill Woods, Bayfield owns multiple enclosed second-tier and community malls, such as Garden City Shopping Centre in Winnipeg and Confederation Mall in Saskatoon.
In the late 1990s Mr. Spring began acquiring and redeveloping shopping centre and street retail properties, and for the past 20 years has built Bayfield’s corporate net worth to more than $350-million. That doesn’t include the $150-million in deals he and his team pulled together in 2010 .
(Read full article at The Globe and Mail | Read PDF version)
