TrizecHahn Continues Sale of Properties

TrizecHahn Corporation is nearing completion of the $1.7 billion sale of the majority of its Canadian office portfolio. Several major transactions have been completed, including: the sale of the landmark Place Ville Marie and four other Montreal office properties to SITQ (as reported in the June issue of Lexpert); the sale of the landmark Bankers Hall (Calgary) and Royal Centre (Vancouver) to Gentra Inc. (which is reported to be the largest real estate transaction in the history of Calgary); and the sale of five office buildings in Toronto, Calgary and Winnipeg (including Bell Trinity Square and Winnipeg Square) to a joint venture owned by Oxford and GE Capital Canada.

Davies, Ward & Beck has been assisting TrizecHahn’s in-house counsel Beth Vogel, Jean-Pierre Riel and Cameron Black in the negotiation and completion of the major transactions with a team that included Gregory Howard, Donald Stanbury, Paul Kennedy, David Dell, Kent Beattie, Greg Southam, Rod Davidge and Steve Martin as well as Carol Pennycook (corporate finance), Dany Assaf and Mark Katz (competition), Ian Crosbie (tax) and Richard Corley and Robert Percival (information technology). Local counsel have also been involved in the sales on behalf of TrizecHahn: in Calgary, the Bennett Jones team of Wayne Whitlock, Ronald Barron, Christopher Davis and Denise Jakal; in Montreal, Mario Caron of Ogilvy Renault; in British Columbia, Anthony Knight of Lang Michener Lawrence & Shaw; and in Winnipeg, John R. Toone of Pitblado Buchwald Asper. For Gentra, a team from Stikeman Elliott assisted Kieran Mulroy, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel of Gentra in the negotiation and completion of the transactions. The Stikeman Elliott team was led by Barry Emes and Greg Plater of the Calgary Office, and included Marnie Munro, Michael Witt, Stephanie Uhlich and Jessica Green of the Calgary office, Brenda Hebert of the Toronto office (financing), Paul Collins of the Toronto office (competition) and Ross Macdonald of the Vancouver office (Royal Centre). Royal Bank of Canada, which provided partial financing for the Gentra acquisition, was represented by Brian Kelsall of McCarthy Tétrault. Peter Quinn of McCarthy Tétrault acted for Oxford and GE.

Lawyer(s)

Mario M. Caron R. Ian Crosbie Peter D. Quinn L. Greg Plater Gregory J. Howard Denise C. Jakal John R. Toone Stephanie L. Uhlich Donald C. Stanbury Brenda Hebert Jessica L. Green Ross A. MacDonald Steven R. Martin Michael B. Witt Ronald M. Barron Brian C. Kelsall Robert L. Percival Paul Collins Mark F. Katz Rod Davidge Wayne R. Whitlock Anthony H.S. Knight Dany H. Assaf Kent F. Beattie Christopher S. Davis Marnie E. Munro Barry E. Emes Richard F.D. Corley Gregory G. Southam Carol D. Pennycook