Montreal-based Leyad has acquired The Bay Centre, what it describes as “one of Victoria’s most iconic and strategically located commercial properties.”
Located in the heart of downtown Victoria, The Bay Centre is a trophy retail and mixed-use asset spanning an entire city block and serving as a cornerstone of the city’s retail and pedestrian core, said Leyad.
Financial details were not disclosed. The 420,000-square-foot property was owned by Manulife which purchased the property in 2015 for about $100 million from LaSalle Investment Management which had purchased the property in 2010 from Cadillac Fairview for $90 million.
It opened in 1989 as the Victoria Eaton Centre.
In recent months, Leyad has been on a buying spree of retail properties in Canada.
“The Bay Centre is one of the most recognizable and important urban retail assets in British Columbia,” said Henry Zavriyev, Principal at Leyad. “This is a generational acquisition for our firm – a landmark property in the centre of one of Canada’s most vibrant and supply-constrained cities. We see enormous long-term potential in the asset and are excited to steward its next chapter.”
The property occupies a premier location in downtown Victoria with direct exposure to the city’s strongest pedestrian corridors, tourism activity, office concentration, and growing residential population. Leyad believes the property is exceptionally well-positioned to benefit from Victoria’s long-term economic and demographic growth trends, said Leyad.
The acquisition aligns with Leyad’s investment strategy focused on acquiring irreplaceable community-oriented retail properties with strong underlying real estate fundamentals, daily-needs tenancy, and opportunities for long-term value creation through active ownership and strategic reinvestment, it added.
“Our focus continues to be on owning high-quality retail properties that serve as essential parts of their communities,” said Zavriyev. “The Bay Centre combines irreplaceable location, institutional quality, and meaningful future potential in a way that is exceptionally rare in the Canadian market.”
Leyad said it intends to work collaboratively with tenants, local stakeholders, and the broader Victoria community to further enhance the property’s role as a premier downtown destination.
Recently Leyad has added the following properties to its growing portfolio: a 387,000-square-foot portfolio of seven single-tenant grocery stores leased to Loblaw Companies Ltd. in British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory; the 900,000-square-foot, 160-store St. Vital Centre in Winnipeg; the 200,000-square-foot, 37-store Lloyd Mall in Lloydminster, Alberta; and the 456,430-square-foot, 88-store Intercity Shopping Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
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