Real Estate's Oscars!
It may be Toronto real estate's closest night to the Academy Awards, except instead of JLaw, you've got leases with law firms. NAIOP held its annual REX Awards this week, and we've got the winners.
Here's CBRE AVP Jonathan Peretz fresh off of his win as Developing Leader of the Year (that's the never-walked-on-stage-before glow). He's been noted as a role model to younger folks in the biz. Specializing in office leasing in downtown Toronto, he tells us he's most proud of tenant and landlord rep accomplishments he’s had with clients like Slate Properties, Menkes Developments, and RioCan.
Off the field, he’s known in the biz for his work as co-chair of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada Real Estate Challenge. (Above, we snapped him with Regent Street Commercial’s Vanessa Oliver, the event's co-chair.) Last year, the event raised $410k and is scheduled for September at David Pecaut Square, looking to eclipse that mark. He says he'll stay involved with the event until there's at least a cure.
Other winners included Carttera Management's 7100 West Credit as Office Development of the Year (above); Oxford’s Ernst & Young Tower as Office Lease of the Year; Unilever Distribution Centre as the Industrial Lease of the Year; Yorkdale Shopping Centre as Retail/Mixed-Use Development of the Year; and Slate’s acquisition of the GE Real Estate portfolio as the Investment Deal of the Year.
Morguard SVP of development Margaret Knowles says she’s stoked about the award her company received for Industrial Development of the Year—the $47M, 282k SF Maple Leaf Foods Distribution Plant, located in Puslinch Business Park, south of Guelph. (That forklift is totally letting the win go to its head.) Margaret says that Morguard isn’t often recognized for the development part of their business. “This award helps us raise the banner a little more,” she tells us.
Morguard prez Stephen Taylor (who also received a community service award) points to the company’s new direction of investing in new building technology to reduce operating costs and its carbon footprint as one of the game-changers in the Maple Leaf project, a 50/50 co-investment between Morguard Corp and the Morguard Industrial Fund II. Above is Stephen taking part in this year's "CEO Sleep-Out for Street Kids" that raised money for Covenant House.
It was the inaugural Retail/Mixed-Use Development of the Year award, which made the honour even more special for Oxford Properties Group director of retail Anthony Casalanguida. Yorkdale was also in the news recently with the announcement of its latest luxury lease—Miu Miu, which is opening its second Canadian boutique in Holt Renfrew.
