Manufacturers Life Insurance Completes Two Mortgage Loans Totalling $155M

On July 8, 2009, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company completed a mortgage loan of $85 million in favour of Édifice 500 René-Lévesque Ouest Inc./500 René-Lévesque West Building Inc. secured by first ranking hypothecs against the property located at 500 René-Lévesque West in Montréal and other related assets.

This mortgage financing followed another mortgage loan of $70 million completed on April 8, 2009 in favour of Édifice 500 Grande-Allée Est Inc./500 Grande-Allée East Building Inc., that was secured by the property located at 500 Grande-Allée East in Québec City.

Both owners and borrowers are controlled by Montréal real estate developer Georges Gantcheff. Gantcheff also controls a large and highly diversified real estate portfolio composed of office, retail and industrial properties, as well as apartment buildings located in Montréal, Toronto and Québec City. Most of the properties are managed by Cromwell Management Inc. represented by Stanley Zipkin.

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company was represented by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP with a team comprised of Marc Généreux, Mario Paul-Hus and Hsiao-Chen Lin (real estate), and Gilles Carli and Paul Cabana (tax).

Édifice 500 René-Lévesque Ouest Inc./500 René-Lévesque West Building Inc. and Édifice 500 Grande-Allée Est Inc./500 Grande-Allée East Building Inc. were represented, both for the purposes of the financing and the related $220 million sale and leaseback transaction from Société Immobilière du Québec (SIQ), by McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a team comprised of Pierre-Denis Leroux, Stéphane Lalande, Annie Gagnon-Larocque and Mary Pagonis (real estate); Pierre Laflamme and Khashayar Haghgouyan (tax) and Miguel Bourbonnais (litigation, to clear construction costs issues with third parties).

SIQ was represented by in-house counsel Pierre-Marc Lecompte and by Québec City-based notary, Jean-François La Rue.

Lawyer(s)

Mario Paul-Hus Gilles Carli Annie Gagnon-Larocque Marc Généreux Paul Cabana Khashayar Haghgouyan Stéphane Lalande Pierre-Denis Leroux Miguel Bourbonnais Mary Pagonis Hsiao-Chen Lin