Time Equities Tickets Toronto for Niche Play

[IMGCAP(1)]TORONTO-Time Equities Inc. will undertake its first office condo project in the city, aligning with a local partner for the heavy lifting. The New York City-based Time Equities and Nova Ridge Development Corp. will starts sales in the spring on a 40,000-sf class B building, underwriting the $7-million purchase with a 97% occupancy.

Toronto’s decreasing vacancy and rising rental rates were the drawing cards for the newly formed joint venture to acquire 1670 Bayview Ave., a five-story structure built in 1958 and renovated in the late 1990s and early 2000, according to Richard Recny, Time Equities’ asset management director. The tenant roster includes Bank of Montreal, B Street Communications Inc. and Genmark Insurance Services Inc.

“We think the first sales will be the bank branch and a clinic and they’ll go to investors,” Recny tells GlobeSt.com. “After that, I think a fair number of sales on the upper floors will go to users.” He says office condos on floors three, four and five will be marketed for $350 per sf, with the ground-level getting tagged at $600 per sf and the second floor, $400 per sf to $475 per sf.