Lessons From Big Madison Pacific Deal
A post-script to the big acquisition deal by Madison Pacific Properties that we reported on last week (Madison purchased 12 industrial/office buildings across Canada from Argo Ventures for $62M).
Avison Young repped the vendor and took the lead in the transaction. The lesson, according to AY principal Rob Gritten (centre), came down to the importance of maintaining and building relationships, even those going back years. (This is why we never throw away a food delivery menu.) All 12 properties in the Madison deal are leased to a single tenant--Taiga Building Products.
"This deal has been on our radar since 2004," Rob tells Bisnow, when they originally reached out to Taiga. With AY's involvement, the company sold 17 of their properties across Canada to Argo in 2006, which were leased back by Taiga for 20 years. AY was then approached by Madison in late 2012 to see if AY could help them build their portfolio. "As we had maintained contact with Argo, we approached them with the idea of selling the remainder of the Taiga portfolio," Rob says. Argo had sold five of the properties beforehand. AY principal John Lecky (left), AY associate Kevin Kassautzki (right), Patricia Lidbetter all worked in tandem with Rob. In the photo are the three Taiga Langley facilities that were part of the deal. (Or just a game of Pac-Man; it's hard to tell at this distance.)
