Commercial Property Report (H&R REIT)
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Commercial Property Report (H&R REIT)
Introduction
This report presents a commercial property that is currently for sale in the GTA. The report is organized into various sections, with the first part describing the firm that owns the property on sale. Specifically, the type of firm, the firm’s investment strategies, and the portfolio of the firm are discussed in this section. Further, the firm’s number of employees, the president’s message investor profile, and HR location are discussed. The second part of the report describes the property of the identified firm. Specifically, the property listing, the location, zoning, and cap rate of the property are discussed. The last part of the report provides recommendations on whether the firm should invest in the property. Recommendations are based mainly on the firm’s investment strategy.
The Firm
Description of the Firm
The chosen firm is the H&R Real Estate Investment Trust. This firm specializes in commercial real estate. H&R Real Estate Investment Trust is an open-ended real estate company based in Toronto, Canada (H&R REIT, 2020). Its operations are managed centrally from the headquarters. Also, some offices in the United States are managed separately, and the management reports are sent to the headquarters. Thomas J. Hofstadter is the president and CEO of H&R REIT and founded the company in 1996. Originally, the company had trust assets owned by the firm owned by family and was majorly office building. The company became the developer in 2007 when it owned The Bow Encana’s new Calgary and made it the headquarters of its operation. The acquisition process was characterized by a 25-year land lease signed by Encana amounting to $70 million. However, the construction was partially halted in 2008 due to a shortage of $400 million needed to finish the entire construction (Cision, 2021). Consequently, another building south of the main tower was put on hold. The main tower construction continued due to the company’s ability to secure $475 for completion. Due to financial constraints, H&R Real Estate Investment Trust had to cut the monthly contributions. Through amicable financial management, the company bought a third of Scotia Plaza in 2012 through coordination with Dundee REIT, which acquired the remaining two-thirds. The company later sold the take in Scotia Plaza in 2016.
The president of the H&R REIT message describes the bid to encourage investments internationally. The message also encourages infrastructural development for sustainable economic growth (H&R REIT, 2020). The president encourages environmental conservation initiatives to combat global warming through a sustainable approach. As of June 30, 2022, H&R REIT had total assets of $11.7 billion. The firm also has high-quality industrial, residential, office, and retail properties that comprise more than 29 million square feet (H&R REIT, 2020). Furthermore, H&R REIT has a market cap of $3.9 billion. Currently, the firm has about 733 employees and generates approximately $1.2 million in revenue per employee. H&R REIT’s annual revenue is approximated to be $888.8 million (Owler, 2022). The employees comprise managers, general workers, IT personnel, and supervisors (H&R REIT, 2020). Also, there exist surveyors who undertake the quantity and the land survey of lands.
Based on its market capitalization, H&R REIT is in position three in real estate investment trusts in Canada. It is also characterized by 161 retail properties, 105 industrial properties, and 40 offices, creating a total valuation of $13 billion and hence has a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. H&R Real Estate Investment Trust provides real estate services using portfolios like property management and development, land development and management, property mortgages, and property purchasing and selling. Other portfolios include contractual rent escalation, landmark development, leasing, and leasing property acquisition. Moreover, the company’s focus includes residential, officers, industrial, and retail properties. Internal management platforms include legal, finance, lease administration, human resources, and information technology (H&R REIT, 2021). It also includes the operations, management of the assets and development, and the span leasing that has been in operation for the last twenty years. The company has appointed the Board of Trustees to accelerate strong and independent governance.
The main investor is the CEO, Thomas J. Hofstadter. The chief investor is the president and the chief executive officer of the company. The chief executive officer’s website is
http://www.hr-reit.com. H & R REIT has an investment portfolio strategic reposting plan aimed at transforming the simplified, growth-based REIT from the diversified REIT to increase the number of industrial exposure and the multi-residential value using the development pipeline.
Firm’s Investment Strategy
The firm’s main investment strategy is the differentiated and diversified capital structure strategy. A differentiated and diversified capital structure strategy creates a framework through which the company can accumulate the diversified portfolio that characterizes high-quality investments in Canada and the United States. Leverage at formation is approximated at 5.3x Debt to EBITDA and 29% Debt to Gross Book Value. The company targets the payout ratio at 45%-50% to provide the retained annual cash flow with an approximation of $65 million (H&R REIT, 2022). The amount gets aimed at funding the investment in development and acquisition opportunities for the reliance minimization on the external source capital. The financial model is unique and expected by the management to differentiate Primaris with leverage below other REIT peers in Canada.
The differentiated capital structure is also aimed at transforming the simplified, growth-based REIT from the diversified REIT to increase the number of industrial exposure and the multi-residential value using the development pipeline. As such, the H & R REIT has resorted tax-free spin-off strategy to promote the differentiated capital structure initiative. The tax-free spin-off of the primaries includes all the enclosed means to the stand-alone malls. Also, it includes spinning off the publicly traded REIT that had focused on management and ownership of the enclosed Canadian shopping center (Cision, 2021). The H & R REIT had implemented the disposition of the strategic dispositions for matching funding requirements. The strategic disposition aims to generate gross proceeds amounting to $3.4 billion approximation. It comprises many strategies.
The differentiated capital structure continues to comprise the exit retail, which plans to sell essential service retail, grocery-anchored, and monetization. The properties amount to the approximation of $600 million. Also, the retail and monetization of the H & R’s amounted to 470 million Canadian dollars. The amount represents the equity interest in Echo Realty LP. Moreover, the Exit Office strategic sale plan amounted to $2.3 million (Cision, 2021) (Cision, 2021). The amount represents all the office properties with $1.4 billion for hold for development into class A. Class A got a plan for industrial and multi-dimension residential developments.
The company had planned to proceed with the reinvestments from the strategic dispositions to enable it to fund the industrial and multi-residential pipeline. The objective of the move is based on selecting acquisitions in prime locations in Toronto. Other prime locations for sections include Vancouver, Montreal, and the United States, which exhibit a high growth rate in the gateway and the Sunbelt cities (Cision, 2021). The differentiated capital in the transformative strategy will provide a clear path that simplifies the business model for the creation of significant value growth. It also involves the intensification and redevelopment of a more compelling investment profile. The initiative gets premised on streamlining the company’s operation platforms for the
The main benefit of the differentiated capital strategy is that it enhances the exposure to the accelerated growth of multi-residential and industrial assets. Also, it has enhanced the market presence in the Greater area of Toronto as well as the increasing growth in the United States Sunbelt and the gateway cities. The initiative promotes the immediate reduction of Alberta to 7% exposure of the investment properties, which are the post-spin-off. Notably, it has improved the Performa balance sheet, which creates financial flexibility for the execution of the growth as it maintains the current investments grade credit rating (Cision, 2021). As the completion of the spin-off ends, there is an anticipation of the combined annual distribution of the company and its primaries to an amount totaling $0.72, which get characterized by 4.2% from $0.69 per unit. H &R continued to get anticipated the $0.5 per annum distribution with its primary anticipation of $0.2 per year.
The intention of the H & R is based on spinning off the enclosed mall portfolio together with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan for the creation of the Primaris. As such, the move will own the interest amounting to 35 properties creating a value approximation of $3.2 billion that comprises 11.4 million square feet of the gross leasable area (Cision, 2021). It plans to contribute 27 properties with an appraisal value of $2.4 billion approximation, whereas the Heath of Ontario Pension Plan will contribute eight properties. The properties contributed by HOOPP will amount to $0.8 billion. Therefore, the secure debt of the HOOPP will reduce to $579 million approximate value through the outstanding mortgage balancing based on the Primaris properties (Cision, 2021). For continued investments, the H & R REIT applied a listing of Primaris units on the TSX containing tickets last year. The listing approvals must subject the listings to TSX customary listing.
The Property
The property I found interesting and have conveniently visited is the H & R REIT Company Single Story 57,397 SF building. It is a commercial property that is leased or sold to clients. During the visit, I managed to take several photos of the Single Story 57,397 SF building (Please see Appendices).
Location
The property is located along Duncan Mill Road in Toronto, Canada. Duncan mill Road creates opportunities for an investor who wants to own a single-story office building on York Mill Road and Leslie Street. The superb situation of the company gets characterized by the South East corner of Duncan Mills Road and the Lesmill, where the TTC bus stop is situated (Leitch, 2022). Also, the location is a minute from highway 401 and the Parkway of Don Valley.
Consequently, it covers a site of 150% hence providing an opportunity for building additional densities. Road Also, the heart of the Don Mills is 85% leased. The company rents it on a lease term. Leasing must be conducted through terms and conditions per the agreement, which respects the constitution. The nearby shopping centers include the Keg Steakhouse, Dollarama, and the Goose Pub. Also, the ESSO/ Circle K, Tim Horton’s, CIBS, Shopper’s Drug Matt, and BMO are near its location, providing an accessible business automatic promotional environment. Longo’s York Mills, Petro Canada, TD Canada Trust, Supercuts, McDonald’s, Second Cup, and LCBO keep the environment busy for the sales and service delivery business (Leitch, 2022). RBC, Harvey’s Swiss Chalet, Burger’s priest, and Tim Horton’s provide the area with the outlook and the visual environment for continuous business operation. Other infrastructural development that accelerates business operations in the area includes Galleria Supermarket, Five Guys, Fox and Fiddle, Capital Boil, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Fresh (Leitch, 2022). At Don Mills, the shops include Meto, Bier Market, Jack Astor’s Bar and Grill, Roots, LCBO, Starbucks, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and McEwan Fine Foods. The Fair View Mall also comprises the New York Fries, Winner’s Marshalls, the Bay, Cineplex Cinemas, and Jimmy the Creek.
Size, Storeys, and Access
The building size is 57397 square feet. It is also located on 3.58 Acres of land, 313 Feet on Duncan mill Road. The current zoning is Mo (6). The parking space occupies 189 Surface Spaces (Leitch, 2022). The place is easily accessible from Duncan Mill road and Lesmil road. From the Oriole GO Station, it is five minutes drive and 20 minutes drive from Pearson Airport.
Price
The asking price of the property is 26000000 Canadian dollars. The property is taxed $269561 annually. The general net income of the property per year amounts to $890278. As such, the interested parties must acquire the properties through the execution and submission of vendor confidentiality agreements before receiving detailed information describing the property (Leitch, 2022). Notably, the property has firm and clear financing creating the vendor’s objective of maximizing the sales at the cap rate because the building is 10% complete. The preferences will be given to the offers with limited conditions and timely closing.
Description of the Location
Single Story 57,397 SF building is located in the urban center. The location is vibrant in business, providing the investors with the chance to exploit the business opportunities. It also has mixed land uses for business and industries.
Zoning
The area for the industrial office Business Park Zone is the adult education center, artist studio, and Rental Agency zoned purposefully for industrial developments. Also, there exists the commercial Gallery, communication and broadcasting chamber, Gasoline Stations, Fitness Centers, Manufacturing, Office uses, hotels, museum, outdoor café, personal service shop, public library, and a showroom for the delivery of goods and services in town (Leitch, 2022). Other zones include theatres, university uses, restaurants, service shops, home science research laboratories, financial institutions, and car rental agencies. Majorly, the private and national authorities have zoned the area to regulate the property market and land use, creating complementary zones as depicted by the existence of pieces of land that are purposefully for development only (Leitch, 2022). Notably, the municipality has created a map that depicts the developmental zones to allow infrastructural constructions. The zoning maps are available online and can be acquired on physical paper from the municipality offices.
Cap Rate Calculation of the Property
Cap rate = Annual Rent IncomePrice
Therefore $890273$26,000,000 is 0.03424127
As a result, the caps rate is 0.03424127, which is around 3.42%
The cap rate for non-real estate investment is normally 4%. Compared to the real estate investment of purchasing Single story Office Building, which is slightly lower, the business can attract customers. The lower the cap rate, the lower the risks for real estate investments.
Recommendations
Becoming a successful Real Estate Investor requires a comprehensive financial, strategic, and market analysis of the place for investments. As such, H & R REIT should buy low and provide quality investments that attract customers. Also, the company should have an in-depth understanding of the market to create a standardization mechanism and market bargaining power. An individual buyer should also understand the cost upfront, like repair payments and the appropriate repair estimations. The company also requires proper risk management through insurance. Therefore, I recommend the property for sale because it is offered at a friendly price for real estate products.
References
Bloomberg. (2022). H&R Real Estate Investment Trust. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/HR3:GR?utm_medium=cpc_search&utm_campaign=NB_ENG_DSAXX_DSAXXXXXXXXXX_EVG_XXXX_XXX_Y0469_EN_EN_X_BLOM_GO_SE_XXX_XXXXXXXXXX&gclid=CjwKCAiA9qKbBhAzEiwAS4yeDVJKB014KJQosnAQkzo2fFtUIcLEg779sJ069hUmjUJoXv1i-65xlRoCQGkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.dsH&R REIT. (2021). H & R Real Estate Investment Trust. https://www.hr-reit.com/Cision. (2022). H&R REIT Reports Second Quarter 2022 Results. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/h-amp-r-reit-reports-second-quarter-2022-results-826085394.htmlH&R REIT. (2021). H&R Real Estate Investment Trust. 2021 Annual Report. https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/TSX_HR.UN_2021.pdfH&R REIT. (2020). H&R Real Estate Investment Trust 2020 Annual Report. file:///C:/Users/Momokoro-ICT/Downloads/TSX_HR.UN_2020.pdfLeitch, J. (2022). 84% Leased Single Storey Office Building For Sale. Collliers. https://listingsprod.blob.core.windows.net/ourlistings-can/61651bf6-96a4-4ed2-a6e2-d497a8be3d27/04dc644a-07ba-465d-be8c-b57429432da1Owler. (2022). https://www.owler.com/company/hr-reitAppendices
Figures: Photos Showing the View of Single Story 57,397 SF building
