Calgary’s Bow Tower trades hands as part of $1.67B deal

Calgary’s iconic Bow Tower is being sold.

Toronto-based H&R Real Estate Investment Trust announced the two-million-square-foot tower is being sold as part of a $1.67-billion deal that also includes the Bell office campus in Mississauga, Ont.

Oak Street Real Estate Capital, a Chicago-based private equity real estate firm, will become the owners with a lease financing agreement from Deutsche Bank.

Through the deal announced Tuesday, H&R retains 15 per cent of net rent from the existing lease of Ovintiv Inc. (formerly Encana Corp.), ownership of lands adjacent to Bow Tower, and management contracts for both facilities.

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Originally opened in 2012 at a cost of $1.4 billion, the Bow Tower represents $1.22 billion of the value of the deal announced Tuesday. H&R said the sale “significantly reduces” its Calgary office exposure to three per cent from nine per cent on a fair value basis.

“Today’s announcement is evidence of our commitment to our strategic repositioning and is a critical step forward on our path to achieving a more simplified structure,” said Thomas Hofstedter, H&R’s president and CEO, in a release.

Cenovus Energy was a previous tenant of the Bow Tower, but moved to nearby Brookfield Place in 2019.