Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust announced Wednesday financial and operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2025, indicating there is strong tenant demand across its portfolio and interest in the REIT’s empty Bay locations.
“Our shopping centre portfolio continues to perform well with strong rental revenue growth and robust leasing momentum,” said Patrick Sullivan, President and Chief Operating Officer. “Tenant demand across our portfolio is very strong, including demand for our HBC boxes. We are in advanced discussions with strong covenant, high-quality national retailers, including large format tenants and anticipate tenants to take possession early in 2026.”
“With the October acquisition of Promenade St-Bruno, Primaris’ high quality acquisitions now exceed $3.3 billion since 2021. All of these acquisitions offer strong NOI growth potential and significant excess land,” said Alex Avery, Chief Executive Officer.
“We have materially expanded and enhanced the overall quality of our enclosed shopping centre portfolio, driving the portfolio’s proforma annual same store sales productivity to $800 per square foot. Disciplined capital allocation remains a core focus for us, while driving strong financial and operating results, delivering transformative changes to our portfolio.”
Primaris is Canada’s only enclosed shopping centre focused REIT, with ownership interests in leading enclosed shopping centres located in growing Canadian markets. The current portfolio totals 15.6 million square feet, valued at approximately $5.4 billion at Primaris’ share.
Quarterly Financial and Operating Results Highlights
- $159.2 million total rental revenue (net of $2.0 million negative impact from HBC);
- $794 per square foot total same store sales productivity;
- +0.7% Same Properties Cash Net Operating Income growth, or +1.7% adjusting for a $0.6 million operating cost accrual adjustment, or +2.1% excluding the impact from disclaimed HBC locations;
- 92.8% committed occupancy, 91.8% in-place occupancy (including vacancy from HBC locations of 532,000 square feet, or approximately 3.7%,) and 85.1% long-term in-place occupancy;
- +5.3% weighted average spread on renewing rents across 335,000 square feet;
- +5.7% Funds from Operations per average diluted unit growth to $0.443; (net of $0.016 per unit negative impact from disclaimed HBC locations);
- 52.6% FFO Payout Ratio (assuming exchange of all Exchangeable Preferred LP Units 48.5%;
- $40.9 million in net income;
- $4.9 billion total assets;
- 5.9x Average Net Debt to Adjusted EBITDA;
- $617.6 million in liquidity;
- $4.4 billion in unencumbered assets; and
- $21.58 Net Asset Value per unit outstanding.
Business Update Highlights
- Announces 2026 guidance with an anticipated Same Properties Cash NOI growth of 1.0% to 3.0%, occupancy of 86% to 88%, Cash NOI of $385 to $395 million, and FFO per unit fully diluted of $1.83 to $1.88;
- Reiterates 2025 guidance for Same Properties Cash NOI growth of 4.0% to 5.0%, Cash NOI of $352 to $357 million, FFO per unit fully diluted to $1.78 to $1.82, and updates occupancy to 85% to 87%;
- Entered into leases at three locations with disclaimed HBC spaces, including Promenades St-Bruno which was acquired on October 10, 2025, with anticipated tenant possession to occur in the first quarter of 2026;
- Disposed of three strip plazas in Medicine Hat, Alberta and an open air plaza in Calgary, Alberta;
- Purchased for cancellation 353,500 Trust Units under the Trust’s NCIB program for proceeds of $5.3 million at an average price per unit of approximately $15.18, representing a discount to NAV per unit of approximately 29.7%;
- Developed 2026-2028 Sustainability strategic plan, following completion of the 2023-2025 plan;
- Completed third annual GRESB submission achieving a score of 3 green stars, a 4 point improvement to 84;
- Received Sector Leader status in the 2025 GRESB Real Estate Assessment Standing Investments Benchmark;
- On October 10, 2025, Primaris acquired Promenades St-Bruno in Montreal, Quebec for aggregate cash consideration of $482.1 million and issued 11,448,599 Trust Units at a price of $14.75 per unit;
- On October 9, 2025, Primaris issued $250 million aggregate principal amount of Series I senior unsecured green debentures maturing October 9, 2030, bearing interest at a fixed annual rate of 3.845% per annum;
- On October 28, 2025, disclaimer notices for all remaining HBC leases were received, with a disclaimer date of November 27, 2025; and
- On October 29, 2025, the Board of Trustees approved management’s recommendation to increase the distribution rate from $0.86 to $0.88 per unit per annum, or 2.3%.
“Primaris’ differentiated financial model combined with strong growth in same-property NOI, occupancy, leasing spreads and recovery ratios, and expected continued strong growth across these metrics, supports our fifth annual distribution increase,” said Rags Davloor, Chief Financial Officer.
“REITs with track records of consistent annual distribution increases have historically delivered above average total returns and been included in exclusive indices that focus on dividend growers.”
Primaris’ leasing activities are focused on driving value by actively managing the tenant and merchandising mix at its investment properties, said the company.
In-place occupancy decreased 1.6% from September 30, 2024 to 91.8% at September 30, 2025. In-place occupancy for Same Properties decreased 1.1% from September 30, 2024 to 92.0% at September 30, 2025. The disclaimed HBC leases negatively impacted occupancy by approximately 3.7% compared to December 31, 2024 and September 30, 2024, it said.
“Average in-place occupancy is calculated by averaging the occupied square feet and total GLA for each month in the measurement period. Same Properties average in-place occupancy rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 was 92.3%, an increase of 0.2% from September 30, 2024. However, the Same Properties average in-place occupancy rate for the three months ended September 30, 2025 decreased 1.9% compared with September 30, 2024 due to the impact of the disclaimed HBC leases.”
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