 |
| press |
DEVELOPER TO BUILD $60M OFFICE TOWER
Ottawa Citizen - June 15, 2000 - An Ottawa developer has unveiled plans for a $60-million, 16-storey office tower and complex bordering the Queensway on the fringe of downtown. The 400,000 square foot project will combine office, residential and retail space. It is to be built beside an existing 11-storey office tower on Preston Street where Xerox Canada has its offices. Soaring rental rates for office space have encouraged Ottawa-based Sakto Corp. to begin planning for the development.
Sean Murray, Sakto Corp.'s secretary-treasurer said yesterday he expects the project to go ahead "in the next year or two" - provided rent for quality office space keeps rising. "Rental rates are not quite there yet," he said. "We would like to see them go up another dollar or two (a year, per square foot) before we build." Sakto Corp is a growing player in the Ottawa property market. Early this month, it paid $31 million to O & Y Properties Corp. for six office and retail buildings in west-end Ottawa and Kanata. Primarily Nortel Networks and EDS SYSTEMHOUSE INC occupy these buildings. They also include a building on Queensview Drive and three on, or near, Richardson Side Road in Kanata.
Philip Reichmann, chief executive of O & Y Properties Corp., said: "The disposition of these properties is consistent with our strategy to enhance the value of our real estate assets, then realize on that value with a view to reinvesting in new, growth-oriented opportunities." Mr. Murray said the purchases represented an opportunity to buy at less than replacement cost, with solid tenants in place.
Sakto Corp.'s planned development of five acres at Preston Street and the Queensway will be phase two of Commerce Plaza, the first phase built in 1989, is known as the Xerox Tower, with its Xerox sign highly visible from the Queensway. Sakto Corp. says in a brochure for potential tenants: "Commerce Plaza is the last viable development site which offers in excess of 400,000 square feet of commercial office space located along the Queensway corridor adjacent to the central business district (of Ottawa). "Commercial office space will complement with retail shops and an assortment of bistros, food emporiums and boutiques to enhance an already rich neighborhood of shops and restaurants."
Rental rates for quality office space have jumped by about 50 percent the past year or two, said Mr. Murray. Rates were stagnant for most of the 1990's, at about $10 or $11 a year per square foot in the area where Commerce Plaza is located, he said. Rates in the area have now climbed to $16 or $17 per square foot. Sakto Corp. is looking for rental rates "in the high teens" to proceed with the development, Mr. Murray said.
The planned 16-storey office tower would have 230,000 square feet of space. Next to it would be low-rise buildings. These would include 150 residential units occupying 100,000 square feet. There would also be 45,000 square feet of commercial space and 30,000 square feet of retail space in the low-rise buildings. With the existing Xerox Tower's 144,000 square feet. It is just a few minutes' walk away from the heart of Ottawa's "Little Italy" along Preston Street.
For more information on Sakto, or this press release, please email info@sakto.com.
|
|
|
