Counsel Corporation has announced that it has agreed to sell a real estate portfolio owned and/or managed by Counsel to Retrocom Mid-Market Real Estate Investment Trust. The portfolio consists of seven commercial retail properties totaling in excess of 800,000 square feet of gross leasable area and a development property, located in Ontario and New Brunswick.
The aggregate purchase price for the portfolio is $140.6 million, subject to the usual closing adjustments, and is expected to close by the end of 2010. Retrocom will be assuming all of the long-term mortgage debt that is currently on the properties.
Counsel has, approximately, a 20 per cent equity interest in seven of the properties, which it manages for its own account and on behalf of third party investors. In addition, Counsel has a carried interest in the earnings generated for the third party investors. The eighth property, 870 Red River Road in Thunder Bay, is owned by Terra Firma Capital Corporation, a TSX Venture Exchange-listed company that is managed and 23 per cent-owned by Counsel. The portion of the purchase price allocated to the Red River Road property is approximately $2.7 million.