of Capital Interest
Produced by Juteau Johnson Comba Inc.
Real Estate Advisors and Appraisers
2255 St. Laurent Boulevard, Suite 340
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 4K3

Phone 613-738-2426 ex 104
Fax 613-738-0429

Editor John Comba

Fall has arrived and the Ottawa real estate forum has been and gone. Most speakers had a positive outlook for the Ottawa real estate market going forward, even though there is some 2,000,000 square feet of sub-let space available. The star of the event was Mr. Tim McGrath of Public Works Canada who indicated that the federal government has a chronic need for office space in the Ottawa market as soon as possible. He indicated that PWGSC was negoitiating for 750,000 square feet of space outside of the core but inside the greenbelt. The federal government is also expected to have a new RFP for 320,000 square feet in October and possibly a second RFP of the same size shortly after that. He also indicated that PWGSC is looking at constructing buildings at some of the office sites they currently own including the Experimental Farm, Tunney's Pasture, Confederaton Heights, Lebreton Flats and Sparks Street.

It looks like the federal government will be the savior of the Ottawa real estate market. It was not too long ago when we were all discounting Ottawa as a "government town" and shouting the praises of the NORTEL, Newbridge, JDS and other telecommunication companies. Now we are very happy that Ottawa is a "government town". The growth of the federal government over the next three to four years will provided more than sufficient time for the telecommunication companies to start on their growth path again.

Now onto a summary of the sales that occurred in the last two weeks of July and August.

SALES

The World Exchange OFFICE complex lcoated in the downtown core on a block bounded by Queen, Metcalfe, O'Connor and Albert Streets was sold by Truscan Property Corporation to 3170497 Canada Inc. (Bentall) for a registered consideration off $158,857,080 or $237/sq.ft. The property is comprised of 362,000 sq.ft. in the orginal tower, 248,400 sq.ft. in the new tower, 60,000 sq.ft. of retail space and 1,100 underground parking spaces. There was 1,400 sq.ft. vacant in the orginal tower, 25,400 sq.ft. vacant in the new tower and 5,000 sq.ft. of vacant retail space. As the second tower was still under construction, it is our understanding that the registered consideration does not include the remaining costs to complete the new tower.

The Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada sold their three-storey heritage office building at 5 Balckburn Avenue to Heritage Canada Foundation for $950,000 or $95/sq.ft.

Having sold one building the VON had to purchase another one. They purchased 110 Argyle Avenue from the Canadian Teacher's Federation for $1,500,000 or $85/sq.ft. Nathan Smith and Bernard St. Onge of Royal LePage were the agents for the vendor.

The RETAIL market was also more active this month. Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre located at the intesection of St. Laurent Boulevard and Smyth Road was sold by 1910 St. Laurent Blvd. Limited to Penretail I Ltd. for $17,200,000 or $126/sq.ft.

A 25% interest in a plaza located at 888 Meadowlands was sold by Gestions GGR Inc. to 105284 Canada Inc. for $785,688 or $90/sq.ft. when adjusted for a 100% interest.

A 5,760 sq.ft. funeral home located at 1088-1092 Ogilvie Road was sold by Tsui Wah Wong, Wing Chan, and Sau Lan Wong-Lwol to Shalaby Enterprises Inc. for $570,000 or $99/sq.ft.

National Trust sold an 11,228 square foot two-storey retail/office building located at 3033-3049 Carling Avenue to 1470548 Ontario Inc. for $895,000 or $73/sq.ft.

Solev Properties Ottawa Ltd. sold a 29-unit APARTMENT building at 210 Chapel Street to Luigi Falsetto for $1,250,000 or $43,103/unit.

Two apartment buildings located at 420 Gilmour Street and 21 James Street were sold by James & Ian Taggart, David Parkes, and John Hamilton, in trust to M. James Gilmour Corp. for $8,245,600 or $56,093/unit.

An INDUSTRIAL building at 145 Loretta Avenue North was sold by Quebecor World inc. to 1470505 Ontario Inc. for $549,000 or $29/sq.ft.

Viacor Developments Inc. sold a bingo hall located at 1150 Lola Street to 1470343 Ontario Inc. for $825,000 or $80/sq.ft.

A 15,000 sq.ft. building in the west end of the city at 3123 Carp Road was sold by Wills Transfer Ltd. to West Ottawa Christain Community for $800,000 or $53/sq.ft. The building is located on a 5.41 acre site.

As part of its purchase of Respicare from Messer Grieshein Industries Canada Inc., Praxair Canada Inc. purchased a 21,520 square foot industrial building at 1000 Thomas Spratt Place in the Ottawa Business Park for $2,099,505 or $98/sq.ft.

A 28,570 sq.ft. SCHOOL located at 2199 Regency Terrace in the west end of the city was sold by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to the Ottawa Anglican School Society for $1,000,000 or $35/sq.ft.

In the former City of Kanata an old farm house that has been converted to a school was sold by Ethel M. Sparks to Educate! Initiate! Inc. for $625,000. The property is located at 26 Castlefrank Road.

With the slowdown in the economy one would expect a decline in the number of LAND sales. This is not the case this month with 9 sales.

Famlit Company Limited sold an 87 acre site of future development land on Albion Road to 1470559 Ontario Inc. for $1,074,000 or $12,330/acre.

South Nepean Development Corporation sold two parcels of land on Greenbank Road south of Strandherd Drive. One of the sites is 10.4 acres in size and was sold to Loblaw Properties Ltd. for $5,0984,250 or $490,000/acre.

The other site is 27 acres in size and was sold to Riotrin Properties (Barrhaven) Inc. for $7,249,725 or $268,500/acre.

The Ottawa-Carleton Catholic District School Board purchased a 15.5 acre site from KNL Developments Inc. on Gloubourn Forced Road in the former City of Kanata for $2,865,650 or $185,000/acre.

Claridge Homes assembled three parcels of land at the northeast corner of Somerset Street West and Kent Street for the construction of a 190 unit apartment building. The three purchases totalled $1,625,000 or $8,553/unit.

An 8 acre site on Swansea Crescent was sold by Highcraft Builders Limited to Wills Transfer Limited and Terry Wills, in Trust for $934,000 or $116,750/acre.

Equivest Kanata (II) Inc. sold a 4.9 acre site to Fox Hotel Limited Partnership for $1,375,000 or approximately $278,340/acre. The site is located along the Terry Fox Road extension north of Campeau Drive in the former City of Kanata. How many more hotels can Kanata support?

NEWS

As expected, the local unemployment rate has started to increase as all of the announed layoffs are now taking affect. The unemployment rate for Ottawa-Hull is now at 6.9%, its highest level in two years. Since February there has been a total of 19,000 job losses. In addition, there are now 900 fewer people employed than for the same time last year. These numbers would have been much worst if the federal government wasn't hiring. There were 4,300 more people in public administration last month which offset the 4,200 job losses in manufacturing.

According to the Ottawa-Carleton Real Estate Board, there were 1,124 properties sold in August bringing the total for the first eight months of the year to 8,706 as compared to 9,274 for the same period last year. The average price so far this year is $175,502 which is 10.9% higher than last year.