Morguard Acquires Place Innovation for $165M

On July 30, 2010, Morguard Corporation and Morguard Real Estate Investment Trust (collectively, “Morguard”) acquired Place Innovation, a four-building interconnected office complex located within Technoparc Montréal in Saint-Laurent, Québec, from Brookfield Asset Management and Belmont Equity Partners (“BREOF/Belmont”) for $165 million.

Morguard was represented by its in-house counsel, Beverley Flynn, and by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team including Eric Carmona and Melissa Schyven in Toronto and Valérie Mac-Seing and Sébastien Thomas in Montréal (real estate), Michael Kilby and Ashley Weber (competition) and Pierre-Louis Le Saunier (tax).

BREOF/Belmont was represented by Goodmans LLP with a team including Thomas Macdonald (real estate) and Richard Annan (competition). Goodmans was assisted by Richard Clare of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

Morguard financed its purchase of Place Innovation through an $88-million acquisition facility established in its favour by Otéra Capital. Otéra was represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP with a team including James Papadimitriou, Katherine Girard and Aude Godfroy in Montréal and Larry Winton in Toronto.