JDS Uniphase Selling Ottawa Facility

SAN JOSE, CA-Locally headquartered JDS Uniphase Corp. has secured a buyer for its remote 912,000-sf campus in Ottawa, Canada. The publicly traded designer and manufacturer of optics technology says the sale is expected to close next month. The buyer is Minto Developments Inc., an Ottawa-based construction and management company that owns some 10,000 apartment units and one million sf of commercial space. The JDS facility was constructed at a cost of $180 million and was last valued at closer to $100 million. The sale price has not been released by the parties involved. The transaction requires JDS to lease back the space for a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 18 months. At one point, JDS employed 10,000 people in Ottawa, but that total fell to 500 in 2004, when JDS announced a major restructuring. JDS president/chief executive Kevin Kennedy says the sale is part of the company’s strategy for “right-sizing” the company’s assets. The leaseback option provides time to find an alternate location for its local Subsystems Product Group, which develops the company’s most highly integrated communications products.The JDS complex is located at 3000 Merivale Rd., a remote location accessed only by two-lane roads. It has been on the market since March 2004. At that time, Public Works and Government Services Canada was interested in acquiring the complex as a more secure headquarters for Department of National Defence, but a change in DND ministers reportedly killed the plan. Minto representatives could not be reached Friday for comment, but local sources say the company will not be revealing its plans for the property until after the sale closes. A lease to the federal government is one possibility.About 200,000 sf of the JDS complex is below grade. The listing broker is Jon Valiant of Ottawa. Also on the market in Ottawa is Nortel Networks’ empty 500,000-sf campus on Corkstown Road. That facility consists of three interconnected buildings on 70 acres leased from the National Capital Commission. The listing broker is J.J. Barnicke of Ottawa.